Ain't destiny's grand?: Chapter 1
by i_hate_mornings
Disclaimer: As everyone no doubt already knows, I only wish I owned them. If I did, their lives, and mine, would be a whole lot happier.



Chapter 1


Angel threw the papers onto his desk in frustration. Nothing. He ran his hands through his hair, making it stick more up on end than it usually did. All this research and nothing; there was no trace of them.

Thirteen girls had been kidnapped the night before last from the streets of L.A. and no one, not even the demons who prowled the streets, knew where they had gone. He had nine of the girls profiles lying on his desk though he couldn’t seem to find out anything about the remaining four. Who were they? Where did they come from? Did anyone miss them? Why didn‘t anyone know anything?

A knock at the door interrupted his internal rant and he glanced up to see Wesley Wyndam-Pryce standing in the doorway with a strange look on his face. ’We’ve had a breakthrough,’ he said before he turned and left, leaving Angel to follow.

Angel exited his office and sat in one of the comfy cream armchairs Cordelia insisted he fill the lobby with. Angel lived, in what was unusual for a vampire, in a big hotel; The Hyperion to be exact. He’d first been here over fifty years ago and after a flying, unexpected visit a few months back, he’d decided to fix it up and call it home.

Wesley stood in front of a whiteboard, waiting while everyone took their seats. Cordelia, a girl Angel had hired because she’d been down on her luck, reclined on the couch, watching Wesley with a bored look on her face; Charles Gunn, a fairly new addition to Angel Investigations, sat on the reception desk watching the Englishman seriously; Lorne, an anagogic demon and Fred another young girl Angel had rescued, this time from another dimension, sat front and centre, waiting patiently for Wesley to begin. Connor, Angel’s son, was absent as usual.

‘As we all know,’ Wesley began and Angel leaned forward. ‘The girls were taken from roughly the same area in L.A,’ he pointed out the area with his whiteboard marker. ‘Though they were all between the ages sixteen and twenty-one, from what we can tell, there is no other connection between them. The abductions seem completely random.’

‘So why were they taken, English?’ Gunn spoke up, eyeing the board.

‘I believe I have the answer to that at last, Mr Gunn,’ Wesley reached behind the board and pulled out another, smaller one with a badly done drawing on it. Angel raised his eyebrows at the crude drawing and Wesley looked at him. ‘Yes, well, we don’t all have your amazing talent.’ he snapped and Angel held his hands up in a sign of piece.

‘There are a clan of demons called the Gash’ka. They are traders, that is, they collect objects from around the world and even go as far to inter-dimensional travel to get what they need.’

Gunn held his hand up. ‘Yo, wait, what does that mean?’

‘They travel to different dimensions to get what they seek if needed. The demons trade to demons and humans,’ Fred was the one to answer Gunn.

‘Think of them as the demon equivalent of head hunters. You tell them what you need; they find it for you,’ he paused and looked around the room at its occupants. ‘I believe someone put in an order and the demons… well… they collected.’

‘Wait a minute,’ Cordelia sat up and stared disbelievingly at Wesley. ‘Are you telling us that these girls were ordered by a demon? Like ordering from a catalogue?’

‘Not like that, no. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say a fairly important and powerful demon ordered thirteen girls- any thirteen, for thirteen is a magical number- for some kind of ritual. What kind, I don’t know but I do believe the demons who traded the girls know.’

Angel stood swiftly. ‘I want everyone on this. I want these demons found, I want to know everything they know. I want to know where the girls were taken, what’s going to happen to them and how to get them out alive.’

Gunn was the first to spring into action. ‘I’ll hunt down the demons. I’ll take the kid with me,’ he said as Connor walked through the door.

They left, Connor grumbling about not being a kid and Angel sighed. ‘Okay. Cordelia, on the computer. Find anything you can about rituals and ones that require thirteen sacrifices. Also, run the demons profile through the database, see if it turns up anything. I want to know what we’re dealing with.’

‘Lorne, go to your contact’s on the street. See if you can turn up anything,’ Wesley took over. ‘Fred, if portals are involved in this you need to-’

‘Do more research. Got it,’ she stood and made her way into the office. A lot of her time since being brought back from Pylea had been spent on researching portals. She’d been researching different types, how they work and general usage.

‘What are you going to do?’ Wesley asked Angel and didn’t like the look on the Souled Vampires face.

‘I’m hitting the streets,’ he said briskly before grabbing his favourite battle axe then sweeping out the door.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Angel stalked restlessly through the streets, intent on threatening out any information from demons who crossed his path. Thirteen girls were missing and not a trace was left. Only God knew how long they had left. How could that be? How could there be no trace left? Someone had to know something, he was sure.

He was cast in shadow for a moment and he glanced up to see huge figure entering the alley. He lifted his axe, ready for a good fight, then smirked evilly when he realised the demon in front of him was the very one Gunn and Connor were searching for.

The Gash’ka fell quickly under Angel’s attack and he dragged it back to the Hyperion, panting unnecessarily as he hauled it through the doors.

Wesley looked up from where he was examining the board and Fred came running from the office as Angel dragged in the demon. Angel watched as recognition hit Wesley and he smirked. ‘Too easy,’ he said grinning. ‘Call off Gunn and Connor. I want them back here.’

He went into his office and picked up the phone. The line ran for a few moments before a sleepy English voice answered.

‘Giles, it’s Angel. We caught one of the demons. It’s unconscious and lying on the floor of the lobby as we speak.’

‘Excellent,’ the ex-watcher replied. A Watcher was in charge of a Slayer. It was their job to train them to fight against the forces of evil and be there to guide them. Giles had lost his Slayer, Kendra, a few years earlier and no longer worked for the council, though they tried hard to re-hire him. Though he’d never been particularly close to the Jamaican Slayer, Angel knew Giles still mourned her loss deeply. The Watcher cut himself off completely from the Watchers Council, choosing to have no information on the subsequent Slayer’s.

‘We are going to get any information we can from it. It’s bound to know something.’

‘Do what you have to to get the information and I mean whatever you have to.. I’ll leave you to ensure Fred is not present while you do it. She is such a sweet girl and it would be a shame for her to see that.’

‘Of course. I’ll call you back with what we find out.’

‘Right. Get the information Angel. These girls are counting on us, even though they don’t know it.’

The phone went dead and Angel slowly put down the receiver. He hated moment like this. Things were moving very fast. How had he managed to find one of the very demons he was looking for after only an hour out hunting? He shook his head, that didn’t matter right now. The girls did.

He’d have Gunn take Fred for refreshments. That would keep her out of the way.

‘What did Ripper say?’ Wesley asked from his place in the doorway.

‘The same as usual,’ Angel replied, pinching the bridge of his nose with his forefinger and thumb. ‘Do what we have to. Make sure Fred stays clear.’

‘Right. I’ll have Gunn take her, then?’ Wesley hurried off to inform Gunn, once again leaving Angel alone. He stood silently for a few moments before walking over to the chest beside his desk. The office held only Angel’s and Cordelia’s desk- the others found it too hard to work in the same room as Cordy- the chest, a small desk with the fax on it and a couple of pot-plants. Angel liked his life uncluttered. Cordelia was exactly the opposite, hence the plants.

Opening the chest, he rooted through it to find what he needed and pulled out a couple of items, hoping the demon would just tell them what they needed to know so he wouldn’t have to use these. He hated having to do this but thirteen girls’ lives were on the line.

Gunn and Connor had arrived by the time Angel rejoined them and Wesley and Gunn were tying the unconscious demon into a chair while Connor watched on with interest.

Connor had been born only seven months ago, the prophesised child to two vampires, though he looked to be eighteen. A vampire hunter by the name of Daniel Holtz kidnapped Connor when he was four months and took him to a hell dimension where he’d grown eighteen years in three months. The boy hated Angel, his real father and loved and respected Holtz, though the man was now dead. Nothing Angel could do would make Connor love or respect him. The child needed a mother. Angel held a fleeting thought for Cordy but dismissed it quickly. Cordelia was many things but motherly was not one of them.

Gunn stepped back and glanced at Angel. ‘Where’d you find him, man? We found nothin’.’

‘He found me,’ Angel replied as he placed the items he brought from the office onto the reception desk. He came forward and stood in front of the demon, examining it. Without warning he backhanded it and it woke with a howl. Angel watched as it tried to grab it’s face, saw the shock come over it when it realised it was bound and he smirked. It growled at him and he ignored it. His growls were a hell of a lot scarier than that.

‘Word on the street is you and your clan came into sold over a dozen girls to a powerful demon. Where are they?’

The demon blinked at him; it seemed confused. ‘An order. Thirteen girls, all from L.A. You sold them. Where are they?’ Angel rapped out, leaning threateningly towards the demon.

The demon slouched in his chair, giving up struggling to escape and looked to Angel. ‘The order was for thirteen, yes, that is correct.’

‘Where are they?’ Angel repeated forcefully.

‘You’re too late,’ the demon said dispassionately. ‘They’ve already been taken through. They belong to the Mydert’s now.’

‘What’s a Mydert?’ Gunn asked the room.

‘Mydert’s are very old, very powerful demons,’ the demon surprised them. ‘They are the demons the master demons fear. They’ve been around since anyone can remember and they rule a complete dimension.’

‘Do you know what dimension?’ Wesley held a book open and was flicking through the pages.

‘No, we were never told. I do know it looks exactly like this dimension. Only demons rule, not man.’

‘And the girls,’ Connor stepped forward surprising Angel. He was getting involved? Usually he was content to stand and watch.

‘I don’t know exactly what will happen to them. We are scavengers. We just collect what we are told to collect. It matters not what happens to items after they are out of our possession.’

Angel studied the demon and instinctively knew it was telling them the truth. He couldn’t kill it because, strictly speaking, it was not evil. ‘Let it go.’

His command was met instantly by a chorus of protests. ‘He’s told us all he knows, I’m sure of it. Let it go,’ he bit out. He turned and entered the office, closing the door behind him. They had to find the portal the demons accessed. Hopefully there was still some magical residue left over from the spell they used to create said portal. If not… well, he didn‘t want to think about that..

He pulled out a map of L.A. then poured a small amount of sand from the jar on the windowsill onto the middle of the page. He called on magic’s he hadn’t used in a long while and spoke a few words. The sand stayed where it was. He swore. There had to be another spell. One to find recent portals or the residue left behind. He racked his brain and found one speaking the words quickly. To Angel’s immense relief the sand slowly started to move. It centred over the Ice skating rink on the East side of L.A.

He returned to the lobby where everyone was arguing about trying to come up with a plan.

‘I say we just search for one of these demons and we make it tell us how to open the portal,’ Connor put his two cents in.

‘Nothing that straight forward will work, I’m afraid,’ Wesley was playing mediator.

‘Why don’t we just use some magic and find where the portal was opened then open it again?’ Magic was the answer to everything in Cordelia’s books.

‘Yo, I say we listen to what Angel has to say ‘cause it look s like the man has a plan.’ All heads turned to him as Gunn finished speaking.

‘Pack a bag and gather the weapons. I know where the portal was opened.’ Angel let that sink in.

‘We’re going through after them, aren’t we,’ Wesley more stated than asked.

‘Yep.’

‘Do you know when we’ll be back?’

‘Nope.’

‘Will we even make it back?’ Cordelia spoke up.

‘No idea.’

‘Oh…

‘Okay.’





Hope you like it. Buffy appears soon. Please review. It helps me improve..


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