From my perspective this happened many years ago. I was the President and CEO of a law firm called Wolfram and Heart in Los Angeles. When my team and I signed up we knew all to well it was the center of evil and were arrogant enough to think we could change it. Near the end of our run and old friend told me about a secret society called the circle of the black thorn. I set in motion the plan, which was supposed to destroy the circle and put the hurt on the senior partners.
my part of the plan was the hardest. I had to convince the circle that I was willing to trade sides. To prove my loyalty I had to sign away my future. Removing my association with the Shanshu prophecy, a prophecy which said that if I survive the up coming apocalypse I would become human, When I arrived in that alley I had no idea how much that signature was going to cost me and the world . . .
~Alley way just north of the Hyperion Hotel, Los Angeles – 2004 ~
Angel ran down the alley, sword in hand, ready for anything to spring out and try to attack. As he reached the end Angel looked around for any sign of his crew.
“Boo.” Spike said from an adjoining alley.
Angel turned to him seriously.
“Anyone else?” he asked
Spike shook his head. From his condition Angel knew that Spike had been through one hell of a fight. Spike walked out slowly and stood next to Angel.
“No so far,” Spike replied with a hint of exhaustion in his voice, “you feel the heat?”
“It’s coming.” Angel replied
“Finally got ourselves a decent brawl.”
“Damn!” Gunn called out as he bolted down the alley, “How did I know the fang boys would pull through.
Angel and Spike rushed up to Gunn. Although Gunn walked with confidence there was something that told them this was only an act.
“You’re lucky we’re on the same side dogs ‘cause I was on fire in there.” Gunn continued
Gun began to lose steam. Spike and Angel caught him and sat him down on some abandoned crates. As they did so Spike noticed the stomach wound Gunn suffered.
“Supposed to wear that red stuff on the inside Charlie boy.” He comments lightly
Gunn begins to shiver. It was obvious to all that he wasn’t going to last much longer. Slowly he looks to spike.
“Any word on Wes?” he asks
Illyria drops down from the top of the building and lands next to the group with precision. She looks to Angel with her usual even stare but something in her eyes showed a hit of sadness.
“Wes is dead,” she said seriously.
The Group dropped their head in sorrow. They all knew the risk of this plan but it didn’t make the new any less devastating.
“I am feeling grief for him,” Illyria continued, her voice beginning to quiver slightly, “I can’t seem to control it.”
She looks to Angel her expression a picture of determination.
“I wish to do more violence.”
From behind them the angry cries of a giant demon army approached rapidly. Spike looked to Illyria.
“Well wishes just happened to be horses today.” He comments
“Among other things.” Angel replied
The group turned to see their opponents. The demons ranged from human sized to the size of a small office block. Above a dragon flew overhead.
“Okay,” Gunn said masking his anxiousness, “you take the 30,000 on the left.”
“You’re fading. You’ll last ten minutes at best.” Illyria replied
Gunn stared at his opponents. His fear switched to determination. Slowly he climbed off the crates.
“Then lets make them memorable!” he exclaimed
the battle was intense. We barely had any room to breathe let alone fight and for every demon we killed more would jump in and take its place but in the end only three were left standing.
Myself, Spike and Illyria.
All three of us surveyed the carnage around us. It felt like we had been battling for months but as it turns out it had only been six hours. After all the fighting was done something didn’t feel right
“Is it just me?” Spike commented as he leaned against the wall gasping for breath, “or didn’t these guys put up much of a fight.”
“You noticed that to.” Angel replied
Illyria tossed one of the corpses aside effortlessly and looked at the two injured vampires.
“They were weak. Not worthy of a force this size. If I were to lead them they would have not failed so miserably.” She commented
This didn’t make any sense to Spike. Why send out the largest demon army in the world only to get them selves slaughtered. He looked over to Angel
“So what are we thinking? Cannon fodder?” Spike asked
Angel got back onto his feet slowly. He clasped his upper arm to try and stop the bleeding.
“I don’t know. The senior partners are definitely up to something we need to work out what it is before they do any more damage.” He replied
Suddenly both vampires heard a soft whistling sound. The looked around for the source but couldn’t see anything that could be making it.
“What the hell?” Spike asked
There was a bright flash of brilliant white light and when both Vampires opened their eyes again they were standing in the last place they were expecting to be.
The white room.
Both Angel and Spike looked around defensively to see if they were being cornered for any reason. Off in the distance they saw a person approaching. As Angel’s eyes began to focus he realized immediately who it was.
“Lilah.” He growled to himself
Lilah Morgan approached the pair of vampires. She smiled at them both and proceeded to clap.
“Very, very, good,” she said in her trademark sarcastic tone, “it was touch and go for a few minutes there but in the end our heroic adventurers pulled through.”
“What do you want Lilah. You’re fresh out of offices to offer us.” Angel snapped
“The senior partners felt that a friendly face would help ease the transition.”
“And they chose you?”
“Apparently, what ever dimension they live in, irony isn’t widely used.”
“You still haven’t answered his question pet. What the bloody hell do you want with us?” Spike replied
Lilah grinned happily at them both. From under her arm she produced the cylinder holding the Shanshu prophecy. Unsealing the end she pulled out the ancient scroll and held it lightly in her hand.
“I’m here, Gentlemen, to give you you’re reward.” She announced cheerfully, “the Shanshu prophecy says that if the vampire with a soul survives the Apocalypse he will become human, well, you both survived so one of you is going to get to be a real boy again . . . Spike.”
“Me?” Spike asked in amazement, “Angel has done a lot more good. He deserves the fancy heart beat more then I do.”
“Well unfortunately he waved that right.” Lilah replied
Spike turned to Angel in a combination of confusion and anger.
“You did what?” he asked
“I had to make sure the circle believed that I was willing to cross over. This was the only way I could prove to them that my motives were in the right place.”
“This was you’re one chance mate. You could have gotten rid of that ‘perfect happiness’ crap and got yourself a real life.”
“What would that prove?” Angel replied, “Would becoming alive again replace the thousands of lives I took? No Spike you stopped two apocalypses in a row I think you deserve this more then me.”
“As touching a moment as this is we really need to speed this up.” lilah interrupted
Spike psyched himself up and stood ready.
“Alright I’m ready. Heartbeat me.” he said
“Whoa slow down platinum blond it’s not that simple. To make you human I’m going to need the essence of a warrior.”
“Fine by me. Just don’t make him a sissy boy I want to have some shred of dignity with my shiny new pulse.”
Angel looked at Lilah closely. She was definitely hiding something and was not afraid to let him know.
“What do you mean by essence?” Angel asked
“You know. The energy, the life force. The thing that makes the hero want to go that extra mile.” Lilah replied
Angel’s curious expression quickly shifted to a shocked one
“You mean a soul.”
She shrugged playfully
“That’s one interpretation.” She replied
"alright then use mine." Spike said
"No good," Lilah replied, "It's already in you body. we need an essence from a different source."
Lilah walked up to Angel slowly never losing her air of smug confidence.
“You really didn’t think you were going to win did you Angel? Just because you killed a room full of cloak loving people.”
“You knew I’d do this from the beginning.” Angel said
“Duh! Why do you think we offered you the office.” she replied, “By the way, how did that day with Cordelia go?”
Angel took a step back in shock.
“No” he said in quiet alarm, “that’s not true.”
“Hey, to get the boulder down the hill sometime you need to give it a little shove. We had to make you thought there was hope otherwise we would’ve never get you back on our team.”
“The bloody hell you will.” Spike yelled, “Find yourself a new patsy I’m not taking the deal!”
Lilah looked casually over to the defiant Spike.
“So it’s true,” Lilah comments, “Bleaching you’re hair does make you more stupid. I never said this was a deal.”
“Well what ever the hell it is count me out.”
“I also never said you had an option.”
Lilah quickly trusted her hand towards Angel. With a look of pain Angel arched his back and screams as a plume of white mist streams out of his body. The mist travels through Lilah and is directed at Spike. As the mist hits spike he begins to glow. The more mist that enters the brighter he gets until Spike gives of a giant explosion of light which returns them to the alley way.
Spike struggles to his feet slowly. He looks around the empty alleyway displeased.
“What happened to all of the demons?” he asks nobody in particular
“They vanished.” Illyria replied, “ When the burst of illuminated energy occurred the fallen disappeared.”
Spike shook his head. This did not look good. He put his hand on his chest and his expression changed to shock.
“I can feel it,” he exclaimed, “my heart.”
It was the most beautiful think he had ever felt in his life. The rhythmic pulsation of the muscle soothed him. This was short lived when he began to hear the sound of soft laughter.
Spike had heard this laugh before, many centuries before; this was the laughter of a man with no conscience, no heart, and no soul.
Angelus
“Oh my god.” Spike said softly as Angelus casually rolled onto his back.
Angelus smiled presently to himself. He casually put his hands behind his head and stared up at the clouds.
“Do you remember the night you were sired Spike? The clouds look almost exactly the same.”
“This is not funny Angel.” Spike said feeling the first pangs of terror.
“C’mon Spike you and I both know Angel’s dead, thank god, now it’s time for the big boys to play.”
Angelus flipped up onto his feet. As he did so he morphed into his vampire face. Angelus walked menacingly up to Spike.
“I spent to long away from the office and now I have all this work to do. I mean, first of all, there’s Faith I have to kill, then there’s Willow of course, now I have a whole world of slayers I have to clean out. Do you know how long that’s going to take?”
Spike moved slowly back against the wall. From the sidelines Illyria watched the scene curiously. Angel’s behavior had radically changed and she wanted to know why. She walked around behind Angelus and examined him slowly. Sensing this he rolled his eyes and gave an annoyed look to Spike
“Can you get your dog off my back.”
“You’re demeanor has altered. You are not acting like yourself. Why?” Illyria asked
Angelus turned to Illyria. He slowly looked her up and down and smiled slyly at her.
“Have I ever told you, Illyria, that I have always wanted to ride you like a mechanical bull?” Angelus
“I am confused,” Illyria, replied, “why would you use me like an artificial male bovine?”
“Well maybe if you slip out of that red outfit of yours I can demonstrate on you.”
“I was to believe that you lower beings disapproved of exiting your domiciles without coverings.”
“I’m sure once I kill a few of them they will change their mind. Say, you still have all of Fred’s . . . attributes right?”
Spike had heard enough. He rushed Angelus and tried to pound him in the back but without his vampire strength the attack was useless. Angelus sung his arm around and grabbed spike by the throat. Slowly he turned to face the former vampire.
“Why did you have to go and do that spike? Now I’m just going to have to put you through unbelievable pain.”
Illyria intervened. She knocked Angelus’ hand off Spikes throat and kicked him back into the wall. Spike rubbed his neck and gasped for air.
“You will not hurt this one,” Illyria exclaimed, “I have grown attached to him.”
“Forget the speech blue let’s get the hell out of here!” Spike yelled as he made his way down the alley.
Illyria followed. Watching Angelus carefully as she pulled himself out of the broken pile of crates.
Angelus stared down the path the two of them used and shrugged.
“Guess they just made the list.”
He swung around and was startled by an immaculately dressed man standing behind him.
“That was an impressive display sir.” The man commented happily
“Who the hell are you?” Angelus asked
“Forgive me, my name is Judson Fox, Wolfram and Heart sent me to be your personal assistant for the duration of the project.”
“What project?”
“The apocalypse.”
“Right the apocalypse,” Angelus replied in a disbelieving tone, “tell me, why aren’t I going to rip out your innards and use them as finger-paint?”
“For two reasons. Number one I can get you access to the full resources of Wolfram and Heart, including things Angel never had access to . . .”
Angelus rolled his eyes. He swung in with a left hook, which passed through the man effortlessly. Angelus looked up at him stunned.
“ . . . And two I’m to actually here. This is a type of astral projection. I’m currently standing in my office in Wolfram and Heart in Chicago.”
“You guys already lost hero boy what make you think I’ll stick around?”
Judson smiled.
“Because we both want the same thing Mr. Angelus.”
“And I’ll bet you’re going to tell me what that is.”
“To kill the people who will try and stop us.”
Angelus fell silent. This doesn’t sound like a bad deal. Working with Wolfram and Heart would make getting around a lot easier. Plus the unlimited resources will come in handy to.
“We have a jet fueled and waiting for you at LAX.”
“Where am I going?” Angelus asked in a confused tone.
“Where every you want, but, I assume there are some people you would like to visit first.”
Judson was right. There were people that Angelus wanted to see but this time he had to think strategically. It wouldn’t be long until Spike sounded the alarm so he had to move quickly and go for the person who he knew they would send after him. The person who restored his soul twice
Willow . . .
~ The Himalayas, Nepal – Two days later ~
Willow sat serenely in the center of the meditation camber of the Tibetan Temple. Her Astral self was seeking the location of more of the recently activated Slayers. After a few moments of searching she returned to her body. Shivering slightly she calmly stood up and collected her meditation supplies.
Willow gently pushed her way through the entrance back out into the great hall.
“I think I have found two more slayer. One is in Africa the other is . . . In . . .”
She stopped dead in her tracks. The floor was covered completely with the dead bodies of the monks who lived in the temple. Willow covered her mouth in horror as she looked at the carnage. In her shock she never heard the footsteps move up next to her.
“I always said you could never trust monks.” Angelus said casually, “they say they found enlightenment then the next thing you know they make a mess by leaving their corpses lying around to rot.”
Willow swung around in surprise. She looked at Angelus cautiously.
“Angel? What are you doing here?” she exclaimed
“ Eating the best takeout meal I have ever had. I tell you, you don’t know what flavor is until you’ve eaten a holy man.”
“What’s wrong with you?”
“Me? Nothing. In fact I’ve lost weight. Got rid of a few pounds of useless soul that was holding me back.”
Willow gasped again. She tried to run but Angelus caught her before she got two steps away. During the struggle Willow managed to form an energy ball in her hand. She trusted it at Angelus sending him flying back against the wall. Willow stood firm as her hair slowly turned to white. She Glared at Angelus, who was picking himself up off the floor.
Willow began to chant. Around her energy began to swell. When the power reached it peak she directed towards the Vampire. As it sailed quickly across the room Angelus pulled a charm out from his pocket and collected the energy. Willow dropped to the ground feeling drained.
“That was neat!” he yelled excitedly, “with the lights and the whooshing. It gave me chills.”
“How?” Willow asked exhausted
“Turns out I have friends in high places. They gave me this Wethalim absorption charm as a gift. I don’t know exactly how it works but they tell me it can block attacks from even the most powerful witch.”
Angelus looked at the charm for a moment the he pointed it at Willow. The energy streamed out and struck her head on immobilizing her against the sidewall. Angelus walked casually up to the restrained Wiccan. He smiled and played with her hair.
“I’ve always admired you,” Angelus said softly, “When you weren’t busy naming you’re demon fighting team after cartoon dogs you kept yourself active by trying to destroy the world. What ever happened to that Willow?”
Willow tried to keep her game face on. It wasn’t very successful. Angelus continued to lovingly stroke her hair.
“It’s a shame she had to leave she was so full of life. Perhaps it’s time we bring her back.”
Angelus tilted Willow head. He morphed his face and bit down hard. Willow tried to fight the Magic holding her back but it was too powerful. She felt her life slowly draining away. Her head began to spin as her body became limp. Just before he drained the last drop he stopped feeding. Picking up a sharp piece of metal from the ground he sliced his forearm and leaned it against willow mouth.
She desperately tried to resist but the draw of the blood was too strong. She drank deep from Angelus’ vein. After a few moments she collapsed to the ground dead
Angelus had to wait till nightfall before calling in the helicopter. Just before it arrived Willow was reborn. On the trip back to the Wolfram and Heart private jet she told him about a plan, which will help them cause apocalypse. There was only one thing they needed to find . . .
the fragments of the Gem of Amarra
~ Former office of Angel Investigations, Los Angeles – few days later ~
Angelus and Willow scrounged through the rubble on the roof of Angel’s first office. This was the last place Angelus remembers the gem being. After a few more moments of searching they found it. During the explosion the fragments of the broken ring were scattered far apart but through the efforts of the Vampires they had managed to recover enough for willows spell
“What exactly is this thing going to do?” Angelus asked hesitantly
“Like I said on the plane,” Vampire Willow replied, “it’s going to transfer the remaining energy of the gem to every Vampire in the world. It’s the same principal as using the scythe to activate all the slayers.”
“This is not going to ruin my hair is it? ‘Cause without a reflection it’s hard to make it look this way.”
Vampire Willow placed the fragments in the center of the ring of candles and smiles
“No silly.” She replied playfully, “All it’s going to do is make us invulnerable. Now Shhh! I have to concentrate.”
Vampire Willow sat cross-legged in front of the gem. She hovered her hands over the remains and closed her eyes. For the longest time nothing happened. Then the fragments began to glow. A burst of energy shot out in all directions. Angelus stumbled back as he felt the rush of energy flow through him. When it was over he smiled to himself evilly. Breaking off one of the broken wooden poles he slammed it straight into his heart.
Nothing happened. He stood there arrogantly with the wood protruding from his chest enjoying the feeling of not being able to die. Quickly he pulled it out and the wound closed instantly.
Vampire Willow applauded. She jumped to her feet and hugged her sire.
“This is perfect Will” Angelus said happily, “we can finally make the world what it should be.”
Willow looked up at Angelus and gave him puppy dog eyes.
“Now that we can’t be killed can we please go eat some slayers?” She asked sweetly
“Anything for my Magical Willow. In fact I already have two in mind.” He replied.
~ Rome, Italy – that evening ~
Buffy moved slowly through the Graveyard ever alert for any signs of movement. Suddenly, from behind, the vampire she’s been stalking jumps her. Buffy quickly rolls out of the way. The vampire flips back up onto its feet and starts to yell at her in Italian. Buffy cringes at it and shakes it’s head.
“Look pal!” she yelled back, “I’m still very rusty on my Italian so unless you’re willing to tell me where the train station is I say we get straight to the fighting okay?”
The vampire rushes her. She effectively dodges and retaliates with a series of punches and kicks. During one of Buffys punches the vamp dodged and kicked her in the stomach. She fell backwards onto the ground as the vamp jumped on top of her. Effortlessly she flips him over so she is now sitting on top. Stake at the ready.
“Potete diretti me alla stazione di treno?!” Buffy replied confidently
At that moment a shockwave of green energy sailed across the landscape. Both slayer and vampire were knocked back by the wave. Buffy looked up and noticed the vampire glowed for a few seconds. Not thinking about this two much she flipped back onto her feet and proceeded to attack the vampire again. When she found her moment to strike she plunged the stake into his heart and the vampire fell to the ground.
She watched patiently waiting for the Vampire to turn to dust but he didn’t. To Buffys horror the Vampire removed the stake from his chest and climbed back onto his feet.
“Uh oh.” She said softly to herself just before she ran.
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