Chapter 7 –

Liz gave Wesley directions and the three drove quickly and quietly toward the edge of town. Wesley pulled over about a block away as to not give Bangola or any of the Palkees members reason to suspect they were being watched.

"So, why were you picked to take on these Palkees people anyway?" asked Gunn, "I mean I understand the whole Slayer thing, and Angel…..well, he’s a work in progress, but you…." Gunn trailed off, a champion in avoiding saying things that would be received poorly.

"Being chosen to fight evil is a very honorable thing." Liz said in a very heavy Irish accent. She was beginning to feel strange. There was something coming. An entity of some sort was beginning to surround them, she could feel it.

"We must get out of here now!" she screamed, but it was already too late. The Palkees had been waiting and watching for her, and they already had the car surrounded.

Angel just stood there looking at the door, trying to decide what he was going to say, but nothing was coming to him…

"Angel?" They had been standing on the front porch for what seemed like an eternity to Fred.

"Yeah." replied Angel. He knew what she was going to say, he just wanted to pretend for a few more moments that he didn’t actually have to do this.

"Are you gonna knock on the door?" she asked quietly, trying not to upset him. She kept glancing from Angel to the door and then back to Angel. Just as he finally raised his hand to knock on the door, it swung open.

"Angel?" it was Willow again, "I thought I heard voices out there….uhhh…..come in…..again….." she paused, unsure of how to explain this next bit to him. "Cordy…..uh, she’s still here. She’s in the kitchen with Buffy." Willow looked at Angel, and then glanced at Fred not having any idea what to say next. It seemed that no one did. They all stood there, silently, not wanting to be the first to speak when they all heard what sounded like the theme to some old show tune ringing in the air. It lightened the mood considerably.

"Oh, uh, I think your jacket is singing." said Willow with a small grin on her face as she was then playing the music back in her mind trying to remember what TV show it was from.

"Uh….oh, yeah, ummm just a minute." said Angel as he dug around in his jacket pocket trying to find his cell phone. Finally he pulled the phone out of his pocket, "Yeah." He answered. Fred raised her eyebrows at Angel’s not so vivacious phone greeting.

"Angel? Where are you?" the caller said.

"Cordelia?" asks Angel.

"Yes it’s me, where are you?"

"I’m in the living room." Angel answered.

"You’re where?" asked Cordelia as she looked through the kitchen doorway to see Angel on his cell phone glaring back at her. She hurridly hung up the phone and walked into the living room. "What?" asked Angel. Obviously the next drama was going to start sooner than later, he realized with a sigh.

"Listen, I don’t know what your problem is, but I don’t appreciate you dragging me into the middle of it!" said Cordelia in what was very loud for what she intended to be a whisper.

"What are you talking…" Angel began, but was interrupted by Cordelia.

"You know exactly what I’m talking about! You told Buffy that we….that we….well, you know, did things!" said Cordelia in a huff. Angel turned and looked toward the kitchen and saw Buffy standing in the doorway watching him with tears slowly flowing down her face. He took a step in her direction, but stopped as he saw her back away. He turned back to Cordelia.

"What did you say to her?" he asked, instantly regretting it.

"I think the better question is what did YOU say to her!" snapped Cordelia, looking at him incredulously. "I can’t believe that after all of this time you would just lie to her like that and to top it all off, you drag me down with you!" Angel just stood there looking at Cordelia, feeling a sickness growing over him. He knew that Cordelia was right. The feelings that he had for Buffy were still there. He knew they were never going to go away, they were soul mates, they both knew that…… but a relationship with her was impossible right now. A relationship that she deserved, anyway. But Cordelia, it was a different situation. He had grown so close to her, and he was beginning to have feelings for her. These were more than just the appreciation and admiration that the others felt for her, he finally admitted to himself. He was beginning to have true thoughts of love for her, more than he had wanted to admit to himself before, let alone anyone else, especially her.

"I think you need to talk to Buffy, and get this mess straightened out, now!" said Cordelia. Angel just looked at her. "Now!" she harped at him again.

"Did you mention…." Angel lowered his head to Cordelia’s ear and whispered, "Connor?"

Cordelia pulled away and turned and said, "Are you nuts? I’m not telling her about that! That’s your issue, Mister!" and off she went to join Willow and Fred back in the living room. Angel lowered his head and walked into the kitchen, only to find that it was empty. Buffy wasn’t there. He walked to the back door and opened it to find Buffy leaning against the railing with her face in her hands still sobbing at what she had been told and because of what she knew she must confess.

"Uhhh, what are we supposed to do now?" asked Gunn as he surveyed the very large men who were slowly walking toward their car from all sides.

"Listen, I can transport us out of her, but you must hold my hands, and not do or say anything while this is taking place, do you understand?" asked Liz. "I have transported one other being before, never two, so this will take some concentration." Gunn and Wesley quickly grabbed Liz’s hands and both closed their eyes and quietly thought to themselves how they hopped she could get them out of there. "Okay." said Liz. Gunn and Wesley opened their eyes to find themselves standing in front of Buffy’s house once more.

"Couldn’t you have just gotten us the rest of the way in?" asked Gunn in a slightly miffed tone.

"I have not been invited in, so this is the best that I could do." replied Liz, in a somewhat more dry tone than they were used to.

"Oh right, vampire thing, sorry I forgot." said Gunn.

"Vampire thing? What vampire thing? Who are you?" they heard from behind them. As they turned around only one of them recognized the speaker.

"Xander." said Wesley. They eyed each other uneasily for a moment.

"Oh god, Wesley has been turned into a vampire, get in the house!" shrieked Xander.

"Xander, I’ve not been turned into a vampire." Wesley sighed. "She’s the vampire." he replied as he pointed to Liz.

"Great, another lady vamp that will kick your…." Anya began, walking up to them with Dawn. Xander shut his eyes for a moment, gritting his teeth in frustration before interrupting her with a stern "Shhhh!"

"You know this guy?" asked Dawn. She didn’t seem very impressed.

"Yes, he was….a watcher, like Giles." replied Xander as he looked at Wesley with a smirky grin on his face, obviously mentally rehashing the lack of glory accompanying Wesley’s brief tenure as Buffy’s new watcher.

"Who is that?" Wesley asked as he pointed to Dawn.

"I’m Buffy’s sister, Dawn. And don’t point at me. It’s rude" retorted Dawn in perfect teen tone.

"So who are you?" asked Anya directing her question to Gunn.

"Gunn." he replied, "I am an associate."

"So you both work for Angel?" asked Xander.

"Yeah." said Gunn.

"But I’m still not understanding who she is." said Xander, gesturing towards Liz.

"I’m Elizabeth Connors, but you may call me Liz." Seeing the blank stares that were the only response, she continued. "I was a friend of Liam’s many years ago." She paused, anticipating the next batch of questions by these seemingly self-appointed protectors of Buffy and all things Sunnydale.

"Who’s Liam?" was the question asked in unison by Xander, Anya and Dawn.

"She is referring to Angel." said Wesley.

"Oh, but then you’re the vampire?" asked Dawn.

"Yes, I am sorry to be so rude to you nice people, but it is of great urgency that we speak with Angel immediately. He is in this home protecting The Chosen One at this very moment. May we go in to speak with him?" Liz asked.

"Now listen here Miss Irish Accented Over Dressed Undead Lady, why would we invite you into Buffy’s house if you are a vampire? Why would you even be around Angel unless he is…. He’s evil again isn’t he?" asked Xander as he threw his hands up in the air in disgust.

"Angel is not evil again. We are here on a mission. We are here to help Liz. She has a soul, like Angel." replied Wesley.

"Ohhhhhhh……A soul. Like Angel. Okay…" Xander seemed at a loss for words. Anya put her arm around his shoulder and comforted him.

"You were very masculine and intimidating. I found it arousing." she said in her inimitable "too loud to be a whisper’ voice. Xander grit his teeth and sighed again.

"Buffy?"

There was that beautiful voice that she had missed so much, the voice she had almost resigned herself to never hear again. Yet she could only continued to stand and sob into her hands.

‘How could she have been so mean to him? How would he ever forgive me for the things that I said to him,…..or the things I’ve done since?’ were the thoughts that kept running wildly through her head.

"Buffy, are you okay?" asked Angel. The concern in his voice was so real, so tangible, that it shook her to her very being. Buffy turned slowly towards Angel, and looked up at him with tears welling in her eyes. His eyes met hers, and then he put his arms around her and pulled her close to him.

"Angel," she started to say but couldn’t finish.

"Shhhh, its okay Buffy. Everything will be okay." he said. In a flash, she pushed him away and looked down at the floor. She back away, shaking her head and trembling.

"No, it isn’t okay, and everything isn’t….." Buffy began in a hysterical voice. Before she could continue, Angel slowly pulled her close once more, and brought one finger up and pressed it softly against her lips to quiet her.

"I should have never said….I just wanted to help you move on." Angel began, "I knew that it wasn’t a good time for us, not yet anyway, that’s why I said…implied that Cordy and I were, had….I’m so sorry." This was hard for him, yet he wanted to ease the pain he’d caused her.

"Angel, I….I’m sorry….." Buffy’s words trailed off as she spied a slender figure peering out from behind a tree in the distance.

"I….I….I need to go back in." she said quickly, Slayer Buffy taking over.

"Okay, but I have to talk to you, there are some things you need to know about." said Angel. Buffy nodded her head and Angel followed her inside. She quickly closed the door and quietly, so as not to alarm Angel, clasped the lock to keep out, or at least make it more difficult for any uninvited party to get in.

Angel and Buffy headed through the kitchen, toward the living room. Then the front door opened, and Dawn walked in, leading the way.

"Dawn." said Buffy, in a surprised sounding voice. "Uh, your back? I thought you all went to the movies."

"Yeah, some kind of funky odor running rampet through the theater, so they closed up for the night. We found some of Angel’s friends standing out front though." said Dawn turning to look behind her. "Come in." she said.

"Friends?" asked Buffy, as she watched Wesley, Gunn and Liz walk in with Anya and Xander coming in behind them.

"Wesley." said Buffy. Fred rushed from the couch to greet Gunn, she was beaming with excitement that he had made it back, in one piece. Angel turned to Wesley.

"You weren’t gone very long, what did you find out?" he asked.

"Well, the Palkees Tribe has definitely made that abandon house their working point." said Wesley.

"Yeah." said Gunn, "We pulled up about a block from the house and like ten seconds later, we were surrounded by ‘em. Liz got us out of there though."

Buffy looked over at the girl he was referring to. An immediate feeling of distrust and dislike came over her. Liz came closer to Buffy, staring in a way not common in polite society.

"Is this The Chosen One?" she asked, walking slowly around Buffy, observing her closely as she did.

"Yeah…" said Buffy as she cautiously watched Liz. "I’m the Chosen One. Who are you? Why do you want to know?"

Angel broke in quickly, seeing the potential for more extreme awkwardness as the best possible outcome and extreme bloodshed as the worst.

"Buffy, this is Liz. She is an old friend…"

"A really old friend." added Anya.

Angel glared at Anya for the interruption before continuing.

"of mine."

"And?" asked Buffy as she looked at Angel. She was feeling less hostessy by the second here.

"And I’m here to prevent Bangola and his followers from using the….." Liz was cut short by Buffy.

"Bang who? Angel, what is she talking about? Friend of yours? What is going on?" Buffy looked expectantly at Angel. He signed, pausing before blurting out the rest.

"That was what I needed to talk to you about. I came here as a favor for Liz, to help her." He tried to gauge Buffy’s reaction. She seemed nonplussed, but the furrow lines in her forehead were starting to appear.

"Liz is a friend of Angel’s, she’s a vampire too, but neither of them are evil, at least that is what Wesley said." Dawn said, trying to help, now that the tension in the room had reached suffocating levels. It seemed that she wasn’t the only one not directly involved in the conversation who found the alternative option of absolutely anything else more appealing.

Xander cleared his throat.

"You know Buff, this place is beginning to get a little crowded. I know how you hate parties…..so…..I think Anya and I are just going to head home. Yeah. You can call us if you need anything. Okay?" he called as he ushered Anya toward the front door.

"Uh, yeah, that’s fine." said Buffy, still standing and staring quite intently at Liz. Xander shot the others in the room a look of "good luck" before bolting out the door.

"Listen, I’m tired, and you guys apparently have a lot to talk about, so I’m just going to go to bed." said Dawn.

"Sure." replied Buffy, still not taking her eyes off of Liz. As Dawn walked toward the staircase, she quickly hugged Angel, and whispered in his ear, "I’m glad your back." He gave her a strange little smile, but that was all she needed. She knew things would be better now.

Buffy looked strangely at Angel as she watched Dawn go up the stairs and out of sight. Angel just shrugged his shoulders, not exactly sure what Dawn meant, nor even sure if he wanted to know. There were much more important things to worry about, and he was just about to be reminded.

"What is that?" Buffy said in a very demanding voice. Everyone in the room looked at her.

"What the hell are you doing with that on?" Buffy looked straight at Liz, eyes flashing. Liz could tell that she was ready to pounce on her, but Angel grabbed her arm before she could lunge at her.

"Buffy…." Angel began but Buffy interrupted, "You gave the cross to her? I thought you needed it for business? I can’t believe this!"

* * * * * * * * * *

Chapter 8 –

Just when things were beginning to go his way, it was back to the same ‘ol thing.

‘I can’t believe that bint! I can’t believe that after everything I’ve done for that girl she goes runnin’ back to him!’ Spike thought to himself as he walked back to his crypt. Pausing at the door, he took out his cigarettes and lit one. He shook out the match as a smile spread across his handsome face.

"Well, we’re done playin’ kick the Spike. Now Spike is gonna play kill the Slayer!’ She’s playin’ out of her league on this one. Thinks she can play both sides of the fence an get away with it, well not bloody well likely." He inhaled deeply on the cigarette. "I think it’s time for me and bot boy to have our final words." Spike flicked his cigarette into the night air and sauntered off.

"Listen, I told you we needed to talk, and this is why!" said Angel, now becoming quite agitated. This was getting worse by the minute. Communicating with women was impossible.

"You wanted to talk to me about her?" asked Buffy.

"Would you just shut up for a minute! Liz is….was a close friend of mine, and she has asked me to help her." said Angel.

"How about we just cut to the chase here, people." said Cordelia. "I mean, I really love all this chit chat, but come on, I’d really like to get this over with." Shooting one of her classic dry looks at Angel and Buffy she rolled her eyes and continued. "So, here it is……Angel and Liz loved each other once upon a day, her parents took her away having been foretold of Angel’s demise, he lets Darla turn him into a vamp, yada, yada, yada, he finds Liz and turns her, she doesn’t lose her soul, he gets pissed, he throws her out in the street, she goes back to Ireland to learn her ancestry, and ends up finding her destiny! What did I leave out? Oh, her parents gave her the sacred cross amulet that will protect her, Angel takes it away when he turns her but saves it and gives it to you, not knowing exactly what it is. Liz hunts him down to get it back so she can fight Bangola, and that in turn will save your ass from permanently leaving this plane as a sacrifice to the gods from the Palkees Tribe because in order for them to release their ancestors unto this world, the Palkees have to fill the Cup of Reverence with the blood of the Chosen One and let’s see, that would be you!" said Cordelia, now gasping for breath.

"Oh." said Buffy. "You know, if you just would have said so…"

"Where’s robo man?" asks Spike as he walked down the stair’s of Warren’s house. He saw only Jonathan, the wonder boy, sitting there dusting off one of the myriad geek artifacts displayed on a coffee table.

"Uh….." was the only reply he could get out of Jonathan, but before he had to resort to alternate methods of interrogation he head Warren coming down the stairs. Totally oblivious to their guest, he started to speak.

"Hey guys, you’ll have to check this one out…," He paused, seeing the look on Jonathan’s face. Turing around, behind him he saw Spike standing there, looking amused. As usual.

"What do you want?" Warren didn’t want to let Spike think he was intimidated.

"Guess what, Mr. Fett……It is time to play doctor!" drawled Spike. Warren’s face blanched.

"Listen, I thought we…." Warren didn’t have time to finish as Spike cut him off.

"We did have an agreement friend, but my end of the bargain has now come and gone, and I’m ready for you to fix this little bug those pesky government types put in my head."

"But…" Warren began.

"But nothing! I got you plenty of face time with the Slayer. She wouldn’t have been out to patrol all those times if it hadn’t been for me, so you see, you owe me now! Just get whatever you need because it’s about time to play Operation."

"You know Spike, things have changed a bit for me." replied Warren.

"Oh they have, have they?" asked Spike with a bit of amusement in his tone.

"Yeah, things have changed, and I don’t think I’ll be removing or deactivating anything of yours, anytime soon." said Warren with a sense of authority.

"Well, you know what friend? We can go ‘bout this the easy way, or you can come with me and my friends, and we can do this the hard way!" said Spike. He put his fingers in his mouth and let out an ear-splitting whistle. Warren looked up to the top of the stairs to see two angry looking Kalthon demons standing there.

"We really should be deciding on a plan of attack. Those Palkees dudes sniffed us out quick." said Gunn.

"Gunn’s right, we need to have a plan." said Wesley. "Liz….do you know anything else about these people that might be of some help?" he asked. She paused.

"Well, I could sense a lot of Merhandra energy." said Liz.

"What is Merhandra energy? I’m not familiar with that term." asked Wesley.

"Oh, I know….Merhandra energy is mental energy, it is what reader’s or seer’s use. Oh the Merhand demon, I guess that is where it gets its name huh?" said Willow. Liz smiled and nodded at Willow in agreement.

"Wow Will, knower of much info you are!" replied Cordelia. Willow blushed.

"Yeah well, just ran across that one the other day in 6th Century Demonology, and it kind of stuck with me." said Willow.

"So, we know it has a lot of the mental mojo going on, so what can we do about that?" asked Gunn.

"Well, mental energy has the same waves as energy of other sorts…radio waves, sound waves, you know, so if we could scramble the molecular signal that they used to locate their prey, maybe we would have a chance." said Fred.

"A chance at what?" asked Cordelia.

"An ambush." said Angel. Gunn smiled at Fred and at that moment couldn’t have been prouder of his girlfriend, ‘she is so damn smart’ he thought to himself.

"Well, since you put it like that." replied Warren.

"Yeah, I’m puttin’ it like that! Get your gear and lead the way ‘cause Spike is tired of bein’ tame!" said Spike.

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