All characters that have appeared on Buffy the Vampire Slayer do not belong to me, they belong to Joss Whedon. All others, i.e. Lily, Zachary, Aaron and Matthew, along with the plot all belong to me, so please don't copy.
I took the story Gone by Anya and switched Willow and Buffy's places to write this sequel so Buffy and Angel can be together. This is my first fanfic, all feedback is welcome. Please enjoy.
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Part Four
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LOYALTY TO THE FAMILY
Angel moved silently and easily through the sewer tunnels, hidden from the sunlight. He wrinkled his face at the stench that pervaded the air. He’d forgotten just how badly European sewers stank. Twice as much as American ones. He supposed it was a good thing that James had gotten an apartment with a secret passage that led to the sewer system, else he would have had to bring Buffy along with him. He didn’t plan on telling her about the others until he was certain they could help. They were dangerous and Angel didn’t necessarily trust them. The only reason he had left her at all was that he was sure she wouldn’t wake. Knowing Buffy was safe allowed him to concentrate on the meeting ahead of him.
Angel turned left, then right, then right again, taking the round-about way so no one would be able to trace his smell back to Buffy if something happened to him. Soon he left the newer tunnels and entered the older ones that had been there practically since Rome was built. After a while a new odour greeted his sensitive nose, slipping through that of the waste. Musty and dry, it was the odour of death. He turned one more corner and stepped into a large cavern.
The room was huge, seventy by thirty feet, with a high ceiling and cells lining two walls. The one doorway was the only way in and the only way out. Candles flickered in ancient candelabras, revealing a multitude of torturing devices that had been collected over the centuries. Angel flinched at the memories he had of using those machines while the demon had been in control of his body. The screams and the blood seemed to leap out at him and for a moment he was back in time, could see the victims bodies as clear as day. . .
“ Well, well, well. The old man’s finally come crawling back.”
Angel whirled, a snarl in his throat. Two young men and a beautiful woman stood two meters away from him, arms crossed over their chests in an unfriendly manner. A priest hung back, looking incredibly out of place and uneasy with the morbid essence of the chamber. Angel grinned maliciously at the first three, quipping “ It’s been a while hasn’t it?”
“ Nearly eighty years,” answered the man in the middle. Black hair fell over shockingly white skin and bright blue eyes. “ Welcome back. . . Brother.”
Angel’s eyes snapped at the reference, “ I’m not your brother, Aaron, not by blood.”
“ No,” the younger vampire agreed sharply, “ but we are outcasts, like you. We’ve had our souls restored. You are of our kind.”
Angel grimaced, “ Let’s leave that topic for now.”
“ Yes, let’s,” the woman standing beside Aaron said, then sauntered up to Angel and wrapped her arms around his neck. “ Welcome home, Angelus.” She kissed him playfully, knowing it would make Aaron jealous and Angel angry. It worked.
“ Stop it, Lily.” Angel commanded, lifting his hands up and removing her arms from around his neck. “ I’m just not in the mood today.”
The red head pouted, green eyes flashing. “ Oh, all right. But it’s only a delay.”
Angel pointedly ignored her and approached the other man standing beside Aaron. “ Hello Zachary. How have you been?”
The light haired vampire stood still for a moment, contemplating the one before him. Of the three, Zachary was the one Angel liked best. Even when his demon had been in control, Zachary had been quiet, willing to allow the glory to go to someone else so long as he could do as he pleased, uninterrupted. After he had regained his conscience, Zachary had retreated even farther into himself, preferring reading and writing to speaking. But Angel had discovered that when he did speak, it was worth listening to. Now the quiet vampire spoke low, but loud enough that the others could hear him if they strained. “ It’s good to see you again, Angel. I’ve missed our talks.”
“ So have I,” he replied, reaching out to grasp the outstretched hand firmly. He clasped the Scots’ shoulder, then turned his gaze on the old man half hidden in the shadows. “ You must be Matthew.”
The priest stepped forward, glad to finally be reunited with one of his lost children. “ It is good to meet you, my son,” he replied. “ I have heard many stories, some of them legends, about you. I am glad you have decided to return to your family.” Matthew’s family consisted of the vampires he watched. Like his father and his father’s father before him, Matthew recorded the comings and goings of the few vampires that had had their souls restored through various long lost aspects of Magick. While he had never met Angel, like all the other lost ones, he still cared for him.
Angel steadied himself. He didn’t enjoy bursting the old man’s bubble. “ I’m not here to rejoin the family, Matthew. I need your help.”
“ You’ve got to be kidding me!” Aaron exclaimed from behind him. Angel looked over his shoulder to see the 150 year old vamp stalk towards him. “ You leave the family, insult and embarrass all of us, disappear for nearly eighty years, suddenly blow into town again with some whore and you expect our help?!”
Anger swept over Angel like a warm current and he growled out loud, feeling his face change swiftly. He struck Aaron across the face with a back hand slap and had him dangling against a wall, a hand wrapped around his throat before the younger vampire knew what was happening. He tried to strike out, but Angel was too strong. Aaron hissed low in his throat, yellow eyes narrow, “ Son of a bitch!”
Angel growled low in his throat, his anger matching Aaron’s. “ You can call me whatever the hell you want, you can stab me in the back, you can hate my guts, spit in my face and refuse to even look at me for the rest of eternity, but don’t you ever, ever, call Buffy a whore!” With each ‘ever’ Angel slammed Aaron against the wall. The vamp glared at his attacker, hating him with all his soul. Angel saw the hatred but didn’t care. The anger coursed through his veins, red-hot and demanding an apology or satisfaction. He had no doubt he could beat Aaron in a hand-to-hand fight. “Take it back, or I break your face,” Angel threatened, baring his fangs.
“ Now, now boys,” Lily said in a southern accent, hurrying to Angel’s side and placing a restraining, well manicured hand on his shoulder, “ there’s no need to fight. Aaron didn’t mean anything by it, honey, he was just so upset and shocked at seeing your handsome, little face again after such a long time. He takes it back, don’t you, darling?” Aaron didn’t answer, merely continued to stare at Angel’s face. “ Come on, we’re all family here, aren’t we? You boys can play some other time, right now Matthew, Zachary and I are just itchin’ to find out what could have enticed Angel to come all the way back here, when even a promise of a date with me couldn’t, hmm, sugar?” The female vampire turned her charming green eyes on Angel and smiled. Slowly, he loosened his grip on Aaron and lowered him to the ground, where he stood, rubbing his neck.
“ Don’t try something like that again,” he warned, glaring at Angel.
“ So long as you leave Buffy alone, I won’t have to do something like that again,” Angel replied quietly, never looking away from his ‘brother’s’ face. For a moment all was silent while the two male vampires tried to stare each other down.
Zachary cleared his throat, causing them all to jump. “ Perhaps it would be wise to get to the point now?”
“ Excellent idea, Zachary.” Matthew said, seating himself on an old, wooden chair that creaked dangerously when he placed his weight on it. “ Where have you been all these years, Angel? I know you haven’t been in Europe or Asia since the family spans all the way to Japan. Did you finally get around to visiting the Serengetti like my father told you to?”
“ For the first year or two. But for the most part I’ve been in America.” Angel replied, taking a seat across from him. Aaron chose a seat farther away and Lily settled himself on his lap. Zachary preferred to stand where he could watch all of there expressions and stop a fight before it occurred. He knew his family well, and was certain that the other two males would require little provocation to get at it again, especially if Aaron chose to make another remark about Buffy, whoever that was.
“ America!” Lily exclaimed. “ Did you make it to South Carolina, Angel? I do so miss the low country.”
“ Yeah, Lil, I spent a while in just about every state. I’ve been hunting vampires for a living. In fact, it was my life. All that mattered was killing as many of them as possible. The hate consumed me, I didn’t care about anything else.”
“ So why did you come back here?” Aaron asked sarcastically. “ Wipe out all the vamps on North America?”
Angel didn’t bother to look at him, merely replied, “ It’s a long story. If you guys would shut up for a minute, I might be able to get it out.” Only Lily had the good grace to look apologetic. “ After a while I moved to Sunnydale. For those of you who don’t know, which is probably everyone but Zachary, Sunnydale isn’t just any normal Californian town. On the outside it looks like a quiet, boring town, where the locals have nothing better to do than watch water boil. But it was built on an ancient mound of evil, something as attractive to a vampire as a sun-set beach is to humans. The Spanish called it ‘Boco del Infierno’. The Hellmouth.”
“ Sounds like a real charming place,” Matthew said lightly, not liking the way his son’s voice had changed. Full of pain, full of anger. . . Full of memories.
“ Yeah,” Angel agreed with a chuckle, his mood momentarily elevated. “ A real paradise. I hung around for a while, waiting for the apocalypse, waiting for her, and once she came, I did everything I could to protect her-”
“ Who?” Lily frowned confusedly, her pretty white brow furrowing. Lily always made it a point to look beautiful.
“ Her. The one your boyfriend insulted earlier. Buffy Summers. The slayer.”
“ What!!” The four chorused together, shocked as hell. Aaron sat up so fast that Lily nearly fell off. “ A slayer!” he yelped. “ I thought you were nuts, but I didn’t think you were really crazy!”
Lily stared at Angel as if he had grown a second head or something, " A slayer? What were you thinking? It isn't right!"
" You think I haven't heard all that before? You think I didn't realize that?" Angel said angrily, jerking his head up to stare at them, his eyes blazing. " I didn't start out trying to fall for her. The first time I met her she knocked me on my ass and pinned me to the ground. Hasn't let me up since," he said this with something like amazement in his voice. " She's been through a lot, some of it because of me. We both knew it couldn't work, but somehow the realization never really sank in, cause we still got together. I tried to help her with slaying as best I could, but I let her down. I let her die, twice." The pain in his voice shocked all of them. They had always thought that Angel had had a better life after he left the family, why else would he have left in the first place? But by the way he was talking, they seriously began to reevaluate their assumption.
" Don't feel sorry for me." Angel said sharply, as if reading their thoughts. " It's her that's suffered. The first time she died, the Master bit her and left her to drown. Xander and I found her and Xander performed CPR since I don't have any breath."
" Who's Xander?" Zachary asked, shifting positions.
" A friend of Buffy's. We had to leave them behind. Anyway, that was the first time she died. She came back in time to kill the Master and save the world. . . Again."
Silence fell over the room. Gently Matthew asked, " And when was the second time?"
Angel sighed, even though he didn't breath and rubbed a hand over his eyes. He seemed to have aged two centuries in a matter of seconds. " The second. . . The second time was about two and a half weeks ago. She was ambushed leaving the library late at night by a pack of the Anointed One's most powerful vampires. A few of them she could have handled, but a pack of them. . . I should have been there to help her. I should have protected her. The Anointed One tortured her for a while. Neither Giles, her Watcher, nor I thought she was in trouble. By the time I found her, it was too late. He fed from her and gave her the opportunity to become one of us. By then she was so weak, she was hallucinating, but she still managed to refuse." Lily's face had gone white. She remembered how she'd been changed. She thought.
" He wasn't willing to take no for an answer. He drained her, then injected his blood into her stomach. When I found her, she was still unconscious."
" So why do you require our help, my son?" Matthew asked, puzzled. " If the poor girl has already been changed into a vampire, there is nothing we can do. That part of the Old Magick is long lost to us, you know that as well as I do."
Angel leapt to his feet and began to pace, oblivious to the tortuous devices now that he was in the middle of his story. " That's the problem! Or the blessing! She's not a true vampire. She didn't accept the change, so the demon couldn't find a foothold in her mind. She can still go out in the sun, has no reaction to crosses and just barely has a reflection. She drinks blood like any normal vamp, but her face doesn't change, only her teeth. Her strength has tripled. God, she nearly broke some of my bones when we were practicing the other day. After that, I just let her rest. And," he paused. " She's immortal. Just like me or Aaron or Lily. But we're not sure if any of that can or will change. I came to you to ask you to help her. She's afraid and lonely and confused. We faked her death. Giles and I are the only ones who know she's still alive and she can't contact him regularly, maybe just right him a letter every year. She had to leave everything and everyone she loved behind her. Please," Angel turned and kneeled in front of Matthew, his voice earnest and desperate, " Help her. If you have a curse, a blessing, a spell of any kind that will anchor her soul so she knows she will never become a demon, give it to her. I'll do anything you ask. If you want me back in the family, I'll come. I'll stay until the day I die. I'll dedicate myself to it, do anything that requires doing, but please, help Buffy. She's just a little girl."
As he finished his speech, no one spoke. Even Aaron was shocked by the emotion in the elder vampire's voice. Angel hadn't gotten close to any human while they'd known him. Sure, there had been one night stands and such, but he'd never cared for any of them.
Matthew stared deep into Angel's eyes and saw the love and desperation. He leaned forward slightly. " I appreciate your offer, my son, but I will not buy your loyalty to the family. When you come back, you will do so because you realize it is in your best interests. I will help you and your lady friend if I can. The others will help me," at this he shot a glance at Aaron, " but I can promise nothing. I will need to meet the girl, Buffy, first. Right now, if possible."
Angel nodded, relief causing his shoulders to sag momentarily. He had caused the family so much pain, he had been almost certain they wouldn't help. Angel stood, feeling like a great weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Finally, they were getting somewhere. " I can take you to her right now, so long as you don't mind going through the sewers."
" We won't have to," Zachary said, moving towards the door. " The sun will set within a few minutes." The other two vampires made to follow in suit and Matthew pushed himself out of his chair.
" Wait a minute," Angel said, raising a hand to stop them. " You're all coming?"
" If I'm pulled into this," Aaron said, holding on to Lily's hand, " I want to know who I'm doing it for."
" Besides," Lily added, leaning her head on Aaron's shoulder and smiling mischievously, " I want to meet the girl who managed to capture your heart when I couldn't. She must be very beautiful."
Angel turned to look at Zachary, usually so unwilling to take risks or meet new people. Angel didn't want to force him into anything. " And you?"
Zachary answered quietly, without hesitation, " You are my brother through the family and a friend. Therefore, she is my friend because you care about her. I will do anything I can to help her and if need be, I will die for her."
" Let's not jump to conclusions," Matthew said, stepping through the doorway, " Not every time you four get together has to end in bloodshed."
The four vamps looked at each other, remembering the last time they'd been together. They'd nearly burnt down an entire village. Aaron looked back at Matthew and said " Sure. What ever you say."
* * *
Angel led the others up the stairs to the front door, the moon lighting the way. " She should be up by now, but she might not be, since she isn't used to the time changes yet and. . ." His voice trailed off as he noticed the door was slightly ajar. He glanced back and met Aaron's eyes, recognizing the sign of intrusion. Fear gripped his heart, and he suddenly remembered how soundly Buffy had been sleeping. Deeply enough that she hadn't woken when he had dropped a pan on the floor with a crash. Would she have noticed someone entering?
The entire group, immortals and human alike, fell silent, Lily easing herself between the old priest and the doorway. The four vampires had transformed from a group of comrades into a pack of dangerous predators. Angel held up three fingers. At the count of zero he kicked open the door and rushed into the room, the other three right behind him.
The living room and kitchen were spotlessly clean, the way Angel had left them. There was no sign of trouble. The four weathered warriors spread out, searching the apartment. Matthew had enough sense to wait outside. Aaron looked through the open door leading to Angel's bedroom and felt his stomach plunge to the ground. " Angel, the bedroom!"
Angel leapt over the couch without touching it and made it to the doorway in record time. He stopped short for a second. The sight greeting him made him as sick to his stomach as a vampire can be.
The room was in shambles, broken objects and furniture strewn around the room. The mattress and sheets were torn to shreds, a pillow had been impaled to the wall by a stake. Under it was a pile of dust that was all that remained of a one-time vampire. Angel could pick out at least two other piles at first glance. He flew into the middle of the room, calling her name, " Buffy!" The others came running, including Matthew. They paused with Aaron just inside the doorway. They knew the girl wasn't there, but Angel kept looking, searching for her anywhere, yanking open the closet, searching the adjoining bathroom. The other vamps could smell as well as see the blood splattered over the walls and floor. Some they recognized as the blood of their own kind, vampires. But some of it smelled different, not vampiric, but not human either. It was the smell of a hybrid.
Lily's sharp eyes caught sight of a piece of paper stuck to the bed by a specially made knife. "Angel," she called quietly. Angel whipped around, his game face on. He hadn't noticed the change, it had simply happened, the same with the others. He followed her eyes and crossed to the bedside, ripping the deeply embedded knife out of the bed with one violent movement, the single rose petal sitting on it barely entering his mind. He scanned it quickly with his eyes, feeling an anger like he'd never felt before sweeping over him, wiping out all reasoning, all mercy. With a viscous snarl he dropped the note and lifted the bed table , throwing it across the room with all his strength. It shattered against the wall into tiny splinters.
Silently Lily crossed the room and picked up the note. Angel turned his back on her, trying to get control of his emotions. Lily read the note aloud. " I told you I'd get even, old man. You were stupid for coming back and now your girl's going to have to pay for your mistake. Just like Ariel. But this time, I'm going after your head. If you want her back, more or less in one piece, wait for further instructions. Try to find me. . . I'll slit her throat." Lily looked up and hissed one name, pure hatred lacing her sweet voice. " Kalith." The other two vamps added their own snarls to hers, the animal hatred clear on their faces.
Angel threw his head back at the sound of the name and howled in pain and rage. He smashed his fist through the wall, breaking the bones, but not noticing through the rage. He threw his head back and screamed again, this time pain and heartbreak cracking his voice. " Buffy!"
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