Iris: Part 1
by Sita Alighieri
Disclaimer: Ok, I dinnea own em, the sqeuuling way'ns in Fox do, and Joss and his mystic knights of Mutant Enemy.
Author's Notes: Ha ha ha hahahahaah! I wrote this, and I never thought I would. Feedback would be loved and flames will be put to good use.



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Part One

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Giles was pinned to the wall by the demon Anyanka and he was terrified. He squirmed under her grasp and gasped for breath. He needed to destroy her power centre and undo Cordelia’s wish. He reached out for her glowing necklace and was about to grab it when a tiny tremor went through the house, sending him and the demon off balance. She flipped the necklace behind her back and sat on top of Giles, closing her fingers around his throat.


* * *
In the factory, Angel felt the tremor too. He slipped to one side and a stake was rammed into his shoulder. He fell and watched as the Slayer stepped over him, heading towards the master.

Giles gasped for breath and black stars formed at the edge of his vision.

Oz shoved Willow the vampire onto a stake and stepped back as she flew into a million pieces.

The Master grabbed Buffy and Angel lifted himself up on his elbows. She was under his thrall and, as if in slow motion, he grabbed her ankle, pulling her down. The Master snarled and ripped out with his claws as she fell. She gasped as the flesh across the top of her chest was ripped, three deep gouges in her smooth skin. She snapped out of her daze and faced the Master. He grabbed her throat.

“Child, you cannot win, I will see your corpse on this floor. I will raise all of Hell!”

Buffy tried to break his grip but failed, clawing at his fingers in earnest. Her lifted one hand to the top of her head and she knew what came next, her neck would snap.

“My dear, you fought bravely but you can never win. You never will.”

“Yes she will!” Angel roared in anger and drove a stake deep into the back of his old master. The bloodied tip emerged the other side and Buffy fell heavily as his hands released her and flew to the wound. Her head bit the concrete with a thud and she blacked out. The Master turned and as his flesh stripped away from his bones, he looked on at the feral eyes of Angel and the last thing he saw was his most vicious disciple gently lifting the Slayer’s head and cradling her in his arms.

Everyone in the room, vampire and human alike, froze. Angel rose with Buffy in his arms, his shoulder still seeping blood and his face ridged and wild. “Anyone who touches her will die. I’ll kill them myself.”

The vampires saw their master fall and ran, dropping half eaten meals to the floor. Oz looked around in surprise. He stood up straight.

“Let’s get everyone out, only bring the bodies if all the injured are out, we’re torching this place.” He walked over to Angel and shook his head. “Man, you just saved us all. Like, you’re not going to kill anyone, are you?”

Angel shook his head, no. “I won’t. I’ll bring her to the hospital, make sure she gets treated.”

“Ok, I’ll make sure this place is toast. Good luck finding a doctor though, most of ‘em are dead or undead. Plus the ER’s always hopping at night.”

Angel nodded and walked quietly out of the ruined factory with the frail, limp Slayer in his arms. He was walking to the hospital when he passed a place he hadn’t been in since the Harvest, his apartment. Knowing that the hospital was a bit too far to walk, especially when he was bleeding from a shoulder wound, he walked down the steps and opened the door with a strong kick. The place was dusty but basically untouched, the benefit of actually owning your home, no landlords. He lifted a dusty sheet off his bed and gently lay her down.

“Buffy, Buffy? Can you hear me?”

No answer. Angel waked into his bathroom and filled a small jug with cool water and grabbed a flannel facecloth from the closet. He sat beside her and dabbed the damp towel across her forehead and face, hoping she’d wake. She didn’t and he frowned. She must have taken a pretty bad fall. The cuts on her chest still bled openly and he pressed the material into them gingerly, trying not to hurt her.

Soon, he had finished cleaning the cuts and though they still seeped a bit, they had pretty much stopped bleeding. Angel brushed a strand of blond hair out her eyes and sighed. God, he had waited for her, waited and waited. His supposed destiny, this young girl. She looked peaceful as she slept, deep, regular breaths going through her lips. The scar hadn’t been there before and he wondered how she’d gotten it. He closed his eyes and thanked God that she was finally near him, even if it only for a few days until she went home, wherever that was.

He got up and fetched his first aid box, pulling out some gauze, wads of cotton wool, bleached bandages and surgical tape. Just as he was about to lay a strip of antiseptic gauze onto the top cut, her hand flew out and grabbed his wrist. Her eyes darted open and she glared.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

“I, you’re hurt. I was putting on a dressing.”

“Want me in top condition before you kill me huh? Healthy blood is tasty blood?”

“I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Yeah, I’m your destiny right? Get off me.”

“Wait, I, I want to help you.”

“Yeah, well maybe I don’t need any help.”

“You’ve got three cuts there that need attention and you’re just after waking up from a concussion! I think you need help.” Buffy lowered her eyes and he moved in to dress the cut again.

“One wrong move and you’re dead, ok?” Angel nodded and dressed the cuts. She hissed in pain as he put the gauze down and made sure it was flat against her skin. He put the cotton down too and cut the bandage into widths that would cover it. He started taping down at the top and moved down, running into the obstacle that was her shirt at the bottom. He paused and she sighed loudly, pulling it down slightly. He finished and she sat up, her hand flying to her head and she began to fall backwards.

Angel caught her and held her up and she waited for the pain in the back of her skull to dissipate so she could speak. She looked up and smiled slightly. “Painful, very painful.” He nodded and ran off to the nearest store that was open to get a bag of ice. When he got back, he wrapped it in a towel and gave it to her.

“Thanks, what was it?”

“Angel.”

“Angel, nice name. So, how come I’m still alive, not drained of all my vital fluids?”

“I was cursed, about a hundred years ago I killed a girl and as a punishment, her family, sorcerers, gave me my soul back, so I might remember every deed I had ever done and feel sorry for it, feel human remorse for it. I haven’t killed or fed from a human since.”

“Nice story. Explains why the vamps liked using you for target practice..” She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth against the pain in the back of her head. He turned at a phantom noise and hissed in pain. She looked at him with a small amount of worry.

“You ok?”

“Staked in the shoulder earlier on, remember?”

“Oh, lucky shot. Another couple of inches and you’d be ash.”

“Thanks for reminding me of that.” Buffy smiled and he rubbed his shoulder.

“Hey, can, can I do anything to help? Usually I’d just stake you, put you out of your misery but, y’know, eye for an eye.”

“I’ll be ok, really, I’m fine.”

“Come on! Don’t be such a baby, lets see it.” Angel lowered his eyes and she pulled his bloodied shirt off, reminding herself that he had a really, really, good body. She winced when she saw the burn marks and she turned him around to get at the stake wound. The flesh around the hole was ragged and on his other shoulder, there was a tattoo of some kind of mystical beast wrapped around a capital A.

“Nice tattoo.”

“Thanks.” Buffy worked in silence, dressing the wound as best she could, hoping she wasn’t hurting him. Angel closed his eyes and tried to ignore the soft hands on his back that worked so deftly to repair his torn skin. When she was finished, she sat in front of him and started on the bubbled burn wounds.

“You, you don’t need to do those.”

“Why? They’ll hurt too.” Buffy dug around and managed to find some burn cream. She applied it liberally and covered the burns. “I never thanked you for giving me a hand back there. It was useful.”

“No problem.”

“Why, why did you wait for me? Why are you here?”

“I was in New York three years ago when a demon came to me, a good demon. He told me that I could make a difference. He brought me to LA, I saw you get called. I followed you, saw you slay your first vampire, the fight your parents had.. He said you’d need help, that you were so young and totally untrained. I said yes. We thought you’d go to the Hellmouth so I came here and waited. There was a Harvest, a massacre that would allow the Master to rise, and I tried to stop it. Needless to say I didn’t and I was captured.”

“Why didn’t they kill you?”

Angel looked away from her. “They, somehow they knew that I was waiting for you. The Master said he’d bring me your head on a platter. Meanwhile, he let his favourites throw boxes of lit matches on me.”

Buffy finished the last mark but didn’t bring her hands down from his chest, his cool flesh. “Well, you should have gone to Cleveland, if you wanted to help.” She let her eyes close and when she talked, her voice was a whisper. “I could really have used it.”

Angel was at a loss. He put a hand on her shoulder and tried to cheer her up. “The Master’s dead, so are his favourites, Willow and Xander. Hopefully the rest’ll go too.”

“Wishful thinking Angel. They’ll need a reason to leave.”

“They will.”

“And I have no idea what that’ll be. Do you want to go find Giles, the Watcher here?”

“No, not now. You need to rest.”

“I’m a big girl.”

“A big girl who’s lost a lot of blood this evening.”

Buffy wrinkled her nose and looked at her now red shirt. “Well, I feel fine. I’ve had worse.”

Angel was about to say something when a vampire burst through the door.

“Angelus, talk about sleeping with the enemy. I’m gonna rip out your spine you bastard.”

“Get out of here now.” Angel stood in front of Buffy and picked up a small velvet box that was in the same place he’d left it three years ago. He opened it and growled at the other vampire. He had something in his hand and he threw it at the snarling demon, wispy smoke emanating from his hand when he opened it.

The object hit the other vampire square on in the face and he ran, screaming in pain. Angel smiled and nursed his burned hand. Buffy looked around curiously and picked up the thing. It was a silver cross, simple but elegant.

“Wow, so how long have vampires kept crucifixes near their beds?”

“It was for you, a good luck charm or something.”

Buffy smiled and stood up. “So definatly a ploy to get into my pants.”

“I have no intention of getting into your pants.”

Buffy wasn’t going to let this go, it was a classic. “And why not?”

“Because I’m about twice your size, physics dictates that it’s impossible.”

Buffy shrugged. “Whatever, how come he could come in?”

“I have no idea, ex tenant?”

“Maybe, this place isn’t safe. We’d better go find Giles.”

“We? I’m sure any Watcher would love to see me.”

“I dunno, I think you’re kinda cute, may as well bring you along.”

Angel grinned lopsidedly and followed her out the door after he grabbed a clean shirt.


* * *
“Here, this is the place. I’ll go in and you, stand on the threshold and wait for an invitation.”

“I’ve been in here before, once, a long time ago.”

“The plot thickens.” Buffy kicked the door down and walked in, followed closely by Angel. She saw him as soon as she went in, the Englishman’s body sprawled over the carpet. His glasses lay at an angle on his nose and Buffy sighed.

“God, I hate this town.”

“Feeling’s mutual.”

Buffy knelt to close Giles’ eyes and stood. “What do we do with the body?”

“I have no idea. Wait and call the police, tell them he’s here?”

Buffy nodded and walked out. Angel bowed his head and remembered the one and only conversation he’d had with Rupert Giles, it had led to him fighting the Harvest and it had been the beginning of the end, for him, for everyone.

He followed her as she crept in the shadows. They both froze as they heard footsteps coming towards them. Angel looked around the corner and saw that it was the boy from the factory. He nodded at Buffy that it was ok and they stepped out of the doorway.

“Woah, hey. Scared me, bigtime. Feeling better?”

“Yeah, thanks.”

“Were, were you two in talking to Giles?”

“He won’t be doing much talking.”

“What?”

“He’s dead.”

Oz took a deep breath and sank to the ground. “Oh man, no, no, not Giles too. That leaves, me.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Thanks.” The boy took a deep, shaky breath and seemed to think for a minute. “Hey, you two need a place to crash?”

“Yeah, kinda.”

Oz stood up. “C’mon, this way.”


* * *
“Welcome to casa de Oz. If it’s messy, sorry.”

“It’s great, thanks Oz. I need to make a phone call ok?”

Oz nodded and rooted in his freezer for some food of some description. He pulled out a tub of frozen sheep blood and put it in the microwave for Angel. Angel studied Buffy as she dialled a number in Cleveland and waited for someone to pick up.

“Hey, is Johann there? What?” All the colour drained from Buffy’s face. “What, what happened? When? Oh, God, no. No, I won’t. Thanks, Brun, no, I won’t. Goodbye.”

Angel frowned as she slid down the wall, knees drawn up to her chest. A single tear slid down her cheek and her scarred lip began to quiver. Angel walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder.

“Buffy?”

“He’s, he’s dead.”

“Who?”

“Johann, my Watcher. He, he was chasing a vampire and he fell in front of a truck. I should’ve been there.”

“Buffy, I’m so sorry.”

Buffy didn’t hear Angel and Oz walked into the living room, he had caught most of the conversation. He bowed his head. “It never ends, does it?”

Buffy looked up at Oz and shook her head. Another tear ran down her cheek, and another and another until she was sobbing pitifully. Angel gathered her into his arms and rocked her, stroking her back and trying to give her strength. Much later, the three sat in the grey living room and listened as rain hit the glass in the windows. Angel watched Buffy as she stared at nothing and clenched her fists. Oz just closed his eyes and wanted to sleep, forever.

“Will you be going back to Cleveland soon Buffy?”

Buffy looked at Angel and shook her head. “There’s nothing there for me, not anymore. First Mom, now Johann. I’m staying here.”

Oz nodded. “Everyone’s dead. Mom, Dad, Giles, Nancy, Larry, even Cordelia.”

“She was the girl who told Giles to call me here, right?”

“Yeah. Willow and Xander got her.”

“And we got them, along with ferret face.”

“What’re we going to do?”

Angel sat up and looked at the two youths. “We have to be careful.”

“Why? Why the Hell should we be careful? I’ve got nothing else to lose”

“And that’s why you should be careful. You can’t charge into the middle of things, fight as if it’s Armageddon.”

“Why not? One dies, another is called. They won’t miss me.”

“Well, maybe it’s harder than you know.”

“Death? You’d know a shit load about that, wouldn’t you?” Angel glared at her. He couldn’t understand her. Too many battles lost, too many deaths on her hands had hardened her beyond her seventeen years but every so often, her could see the tinniest glimpse of the child she still was. He could see that she could be happy, she could have a good time but life hadn’t been good enough to let her. “Listen, vampire, I’m still the Slayer, just remember that.”

“Buffy, you’d be dead if Angel hadn’t stopped the master. You, we can’t blame each other because we don’t have much else right now. I’d be dead if you guys hadn’t shown up and maybe he is a vampire but I think he’s on our side.”

Buffy shook her head and grabbed a stake. “I’m going out. See you two later.”

Oz shook his head in defeat and a couple of minutes after she left, Angel followed her.


* * *
“Ten thirsty vampires, sitting on a wall, ten thirsty vampires, sitting on a wall. And if I come along with my pointy little stake there’ll be no thirsty vampires sitting on the wall.” Buffy sang as she walked, it was the only thing she knew to do. It was hard, Johann dying and now Angel and Oz. Sunnydale, the arse end of California was more dangerous than New York or Chicago, more dangerous than Cleveland, way more vamps here, she reasoned. She had a duty, to kill vampires but maybe some help would be nice, maybe she could take a day off, night off, once in a great while.. After a lot of walking, she ended up in a park at the edge of town. She stopped and sighed.

“Whoever’s there, come out now! I’m not in a good mood.”

Angel stepped out of the shadows and she threw her hands up. “Will you quit stalking me! I don’t need it right now.”

“You weren’t in the best state when you left. I just thought I’d come along and,”

“What?” Buffy cut him off, “to grab a little snack? To taste a Slayer’s blood?”

“No, I’m not going to feed from you. I never would.”

“Yeah? Really? Not even if you lost control for a second and let the demon out?” she stepped nearer him and he looked into her tumultuous eyes, so full of fear and hate, and other things he couldn’t name. He was backed against a tree and she knew it.

“So, not even if someone was so close you could smell their blood?” She stepped closer again, putting her hands on his chest and staring at his face. He tried to calm down, he could smell her blood, he could hear her heartbeat, thundering in his ears and he could smell her skin, blood, sweat and tears.

She closed her eyes and pressed closer still to him, right into him. Here was someone with a deathwish. They were so close that anyone would have though that they were lovers embracing. “Take it, if you want it.”

She tipped her head to the side, exposing her throat and the artery that beat exquisitely close to the surface. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he stumbled, gripping her waist and pulling her closer still.

“Why are you doing this to me?” Angel’s voice was husky, rasping with bloodlust but he fought the demon.

“Because I’ve got nothing left to live for, I want to die on my terms.. I want to have some choice in my life Go on. Bite!”

She pulled his head down, so close to her throat that he could feel the warmth of her skin on his lips. He fought with the demon and he swallowed thickly. He laid his lips on her flesh and kissed her throat gently, just over the blood vessel and she waited for the bite, for the release. He brought his hand up and turned her face to his and kissed her. She froze in shock, no one had kissed her in so long, not since she got the scar. She melted into the kiss and he held her with gentle hands. It had been so long since she had been able to let herself be held. The kiss deepened, pain and passion mixing to create a bittersweet feeling in their guts. It ended and Angel held her face, seeing the sullied innocence in her deep eyes and he kissed her eyes.

“I will never feed from you or anyone else Buffy, know that.”

Buffy put her head over his still heart and he stroked her hair, feeling the bump she’d received earlier on. He took her hand and they walked back to Oz’s place, very confused.


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