Part 1

+++ Miracles +++

Angel leaned against the front-counter of the Hyperion, he knew an encouragement speech would be the right thing to do now, but he hadn't found the words yet.

Wesley was bending over a book on the other side of the counter, re-reading details; that was nothing Angel had the patience for right now.

Gunn was sharpening swords next to the weapons cabinet. There weren't a lot of weapons left, and Angel suspected Gunn just tried to occupy his hands.

Spike leaned against the counter only a few feet away from Angel. The blonde was smoking and staring at the floor unblinkingly.

Angel could have said the blonde brooded, but that would be the pot calling the kettle black.

Lorne sat in the lobby. The green demon was uncharacteristically silent.

Angel let his eyes rest on the office clock and sighed.

"We've got 24 hours left, why don't you all head home and do..." ...whatever one should do in the last 24 hours of one's life.

"Did you reach Cleveland?" Wesley asked and looked up from his book. Nobody was leaving.

"No, just their machine." Angel rubbed the bridge of his nose. He had left a note on Buffy's machine, hoped the Slayer would at least call back.
It didn't look like it...

"Ah, cheer up already!" Gunn ordered. Angel cast him a look that said: how can I? I gave up around last week...

Sighing, the dark vampire placed his elbows on the counter and then hid his face in his hands.
"I think we could use a miracle now..." he muttered and Spike was about to reply, when the hotel front doors burst open.

All heads flew up and turned in the direction of the night outside where a voice yelled:

"Ladies and Gentle-demons, welcome to the Hyperion! It has lots of rooms without furniture, a downstairs kitchen, old decor, and if there is something tall, dark and broody then we’re gonna call it Angel!"

A man sauntered into the lobby. He wore black boots, not unlike Spike's Doc Martins, dark blue jeans and a white button-down shirt that was partially hidden underneath a dark blue denim jacket. His hair was dark brown, shaggy and pulled back into a little ponytail. One of his eyes was dark brown too, the other covered with a black eye patch.

"Hi!" The man grinned. "You called the cavalry?"

Whilst he strolled over to Angel, whose mouth had dropped open, other people started to spill into the lobby.

Two demons, one looking like an angel without wings, the other like he had had an accident with something acid, carried a big wooden chest, swords and axes sticking out of it. They set it down with a heavy 'thump'.

An elf, with really pointy ears and long blond hair came in, carrying an armload of crossbows, plain bows and loads of arrows.

A tiger - surely demonic because he was twice the normal size - trotted in and curled himself up on the floor, followed by a panther just slightly smaller.

The next demon had four arms and a third eye on his forehead. He carried medical stuff, and wore a white shirt with a big red cross on the chest and the word 'Doc' written across.

All eyes turned towards the young man, who was still grinning, when he reached the counter and stepped between Spike and Angel, opposite to Wes.

Spike had forgotten his fag, Wesley was clutching his book and Angel’s mouth was still wide open.
Nobody spoke a word.

Suddenly a pair of pale arms wrapped around the newcomer's neck and the smiling face of a dark haired girl appeared over his shoulder.

"Daddy's looking like a fish!!" she squealed, mimicking the movement of a fish-mouth with her hands. Then she laughed and stared to twirl around the lobby. Lorne eyed her critically.

The dark haired man had his eyes on the girl too. "Uhm... Vince, could you...?"

A vampire, giving off the vibe of age, dressed all in black, left those gathered by the doors and went to the girl. He bowed politely before her, then put his left arm around her waist, took her right hand in his and started to waltz through the lobby with her.

"That's not what I meant..." the man between Spike and Angel complained.

"Huh! Since when did we ever do what you want us to?" A light-brown haired youth piped up from his place next to the sword-box. He was dressed like a hunter ready for battle, armed with a lot of stakes. He had a little fairy on his shoulder.

"Too true..." The dark haired man turned toward Angel, pointing at the still open mouth. "Deadboy, you're letting the flies in." He turned towards Wesley. "Hi, Wes! Nice hairdo! Not so Watcher-ly anymore."

Wesley looked ready to faint, Angel still had his mouth open and Spike went down on his knees - howling with laughter!

Spike's forehead was resting on the floor, he was laughing so hard his whole body shook and a new voice piped up. "Is he going crazy again? God, I so hope he‘s not, 'cause that would be awful, and I know what I'm talking about 'cause I was there." The youth carried an open cooler with blood bags and food.

Everybody - except Spike - stared at him and he blushed, raised the cooler and squeaked: "Kitchen?" He was pointed in five different directions.

Finally Angel managed to close his mouth and gasp out a weak: "Xander?"

The man with the eye patch turned towards him. "Deadboy."

Angel swallowed. "Xander..." "Deadboy."

Spike laughed harder.

Angel tried again. "Xander..." "Deadboy." "...What happened to your face?" Xander eyed him critically. "Last time I checked it was fine..."

"Daddy still looks like a fish!" Drusilla explained, whilst she and her companion waltzed by.

All eyes were on the pair whilst the 'Doc' helped someone sit down on a couch, who looked like he was sick and leaked a magic-vibe.

The doors got pulled close and a voice reported: "All in, headcount done!"

Oz, red and blue stripes in his dark blond hair, walked from the doors he had closed toward Xander. "What's with him?" he asked, pointing toward Spike who had calmed down a bit, but was still on the ground. Xander shrugged. "Must be a vamp-thing..."

Angel's eyes were still a little wide. "Xander..." "Deadboy!" Xander's head whipped around to look at the vampire. Angel could only gesture helplessly with one hand towards the group of demons gathered in his lobby.

Xander grinned. "Deadboy, my Gang! Gang, this is Angel!!"

A chorus of "Hi Angel!" rose, only Drusilla yelled: "Hi Daddy!"

Spike started to laugh again.

+++ Dragons +++

Spike sat opposite to him and simply grinned.
It annoyed the hell out of Angel.

Ok, so he was pissed.
Ok, he had slain his dragon but he was still pissed, because it had been Xander Harris – of all people on this planet – that helped him.

Xander had been ‘holding the dragon down’ so Angel could slay it.
And that pissed Angel off.
He should have been able to do it all on his own.

On the other hand…

Angel glanced at the mighty dragon's head which they had barely managed to drag through the hotel doors.
Well, having some help with such a giant thing was good.

Now Angel's and Xander's Gangs were sprawled in the lobby, Doc was running around, fussing over them and patching up the wounded.

Angel's eyes followed the self-assigned medic towards the youth that just got his shoulder bandaged.

The boy was Connor; Angel had no doubt of that. Even when everyone else forgot about the boy, he still remembered him so clearly.
And it had been a dead give-away when the boy had taken a look at Lorne, scrunched up his face and asked: “Do I know you?”
The little fairy that always stuck with Connor reminded Angel of a male Tinkerbell (book verse). Shining with a bright pink light, the little creature had fluttering wings on his back. It also called itself Tink and had the tendency to give snarky remarks.

The dark vampire turned his head and scanned the rest of the group. Drusilla, for example, was more out of it than ever. She, Doc and the sick magician – Ethan or something – had stayed behind.
When Spike had tried to lure his Dark Princes into the bloody battle, she had only told him that her star, deep inside of her, didn’t like something like that. That got Spike very confused.

Angel let his gaze wander some more and rested it on Shasha, the true heaven-sent angel, whose wings had been broken off and were now re-growing slowly. He was a sight to behold, his hair all golden locks, his eyes crystal blue and his face the most beautiful – he had been the cruelest on the battlefield…

Next to him was the demon that looked like his left side had been dipped into acid. The skin was burned – in a demonic way – and turned into a dark black. A bit like when you get a little wound and it heals over with a scab. Even the demon‘s face was half covered with this black crust. Angel couldn’t recall his name but it sounded so much like ‘Hatshu’ that he was temped to say ‘bless you’ whenever someone called the burned demon with the dark blue hair.

Vincent, the vampire that Angel had thought was old, seemed even older. He spoke with a Rumanian accent that reminded him of Dracula. Xander sure thought the same, 'cause every time when ‘Vince’ spoke up unexpectedly, the human would cringe – a little.

The Panther, Ink, and the Tiger, Rei, had changed into their half-human forms which meant they now resembled lean, but well muscled, humans with swishing tails and cat-ears sticking out of their hair.
Ink was a bit shorter, with yellow eyes and dark black hair/fur, while Ray had blond hair with dark brown tiger-stripes all over it and his tail. His eyes were a glowing green.

The elf – whom Angel was temped to call ‘Legolas’ (movie verse) – seemed to be called ‘Cutie’, ‘cause every time someone called that, the elf would answer.

It had surprised Angel to no extent to see Andrew – whom he had heard of from Spike – following them into battle. After he saw the boy's first Summon, Angel was very glad to have him with them.

Gunn had held himself very well against all those demons, and Cutie seemed to have taken a liking to him.

Wesley was already running around with a notepad and a pen, collecting information from all those different demons.

Lorne sat in their middle, blending in perfectly, telling Wesley for the fifth time that he came from a place called Pylea, and no, he did not eat humans.

Opposite to him, sat a grinning Spike and that annoyed the hell out of Angel.

“Ok, Spike”, he gave in, “what do you want?”

“Simply admit it!” Spike grinned from ear to ear.

“Admit what?” Angel growled. “Admit that the whelp saved your broody ass, Peaches!”

“Angel, it wouldn’t be nice to kill the vamp that saved the world!” Xander settled down between the two vamps, mostly to keep Angel from killing Spike right now.

Angel smiled at the boy. “Xander…” “Deadboy.” Spike snickered. Angel ignored him.

“It was very brave of you to help us out. Thank you.” Xander shrugged his shoulders. “Well, I was thinking ‘I’ll scratch your back if you’ll scratch mine’ here.”

“Need help?” Spike eyed him. “Please, if I can help you in any way…” Angel began.

“Just a place to stay and lie low for a few days.” Xander interrupted him. “Promise we’ll be gone in a week.”

“Please, stay as long as you want!” Angel insisted. “There’s plenty of room here!”

“Yeah,” Spike snickered again. “Plenty of rooms - but no beds!”

A new thought crossed Angel's mind, while he had an internal debate with Angelus on why Spike couldn’t be staked right now.

“Is someone after you?” he asked, head turned to Xander. Xander smiled. “Yeah, kind of…”

“Kind of?” Spike lit a new cigarette.

“Well, I think we shook them off, but I can’t be sure.”

“I hope you don’t mind,” Angel had raised an eyebrow, “but who can chase around a group of demons that can slay dragons and avert apocalypses?”

Xander grinned. “Well, they’re mean, green, start with an “I” and make Master-Vampires run screaming for their mommies. Go figure it out!”

He stood up and went over to his group, telling an overexcited, up-and-down-hopping Wesley that his home was earth and his race was called ‘humans’.

+++ Lawyers +++

A few hours later the lobby had emptied. Angel suspected it was around midday and he was left alone, sitting on the counter, brooding over one thing and another.
Well, he wasn’t all alone. The dragon‘s head still lay at one side of the lobby, eyes closed, half hidden in the shadows; it looked like there was a whole dragon asleep in his hotel.

Angel could also hear some sounds around the hotel.
The purr-like snore the two demon-cats gave off, for example. They had taken Wesley’s office as their new place. The rest of the Group was either upstairs or in the kitchen.

Angel's head came up as he heard the clicking sound of heels on the outside steps. Funny, he could hear that, but not Xander approaching yesterday.

Lilah Morgan was leading a group of four men in suits toward the Hyperion. The guys behind her were quite sure that Angel was dead, or rather dust, right now. They knew for sure that the apocalypse had been averted, but they seemed to be very sure about Angel's death too.
Lilah felt tempted to think the same. ‘Go to the Hyperion, count those dead, and then go home’.

Shoulders straight, Miss Morgan pushed the doors open and entered the Lobby.

First thing she saw was Angel, drumming his heels against the front-counter. She gave a shriek.

Next thing she saw was a dragon's head lying around in the lobby. She gave a louder shriek.

Pressing her hand against her heart, Lilah tried to catch her breath and slow her heart down again. The four men in suits stared at Angel and the dragon, quite confused.

Angel jumped off the counter. “Hey, you came to collect the corpse? Or to congratulate me on my victory?”

“I’ll vote for the victory-thing…” Lilah muttered under her breath then stepped closer up to Angel, walking a wide arc around the dragon's head.

“Nice trophy,” she said. “Thanks!” Angel felt like grinning and did so. “It was an unfair battle – they had no chance against us.”
Lilah gave him a sour smile.

“Can I do anything for our champion now?” her voice sounded cold. “As a reward?”

Angel smiled. “I want to see Connor.”

Lilah raised an eyebrow. “Connor? Whom you gave to caring, normal parents, so that he could have a carefree, normal life?” “Yes, exactly, that Connor. I just want to drive by his house and check if he’s fine.”

The female lawyer shrugged her shoulders. “Sure, can be done. If you bring a camera you can take some photos.”

Before Angel could reply to that, two voices came from the kitchen and Conner and Andrew crossed the Lobby to go upstairs.

“Hi boys!” Angel greeted with a smile.

“Hi Angel!” Andrew waved.

“Bye Angel!” Connor waved and both climbed upstairs, discussing if it was easier to learn French or Klingon.

Grinning, Angel turned to Lilah and slapped his hand onto her shoulder. “I’ll make sure to bring a camera and some extra films.”
Lilah just swallowed heavily.

Feet coming down the stairs made both look in to that direction, Angel's hand still on Lilah’s shoulder.

“Hey Deadboy, new girlfriend?” A rather sleepy Xander made his way downstairs, left hand on the rail, careful steps, and eye-patch in place.

“Xander, this is Lilah Morgan, lawyer at Wolfram and Hart.” Xander reached the two, rubbing the sleep out of his right eye.

“Nice to meet you.” He extended his hand to her after hiding a yawn behind it. “I’m Xander Harris from Sunnydale.”

Lilah’s eyes got wide. “A knife named Kathy!” she whispered and started shaking Xander's hand rather enthusiastic.

“Huh?” both Angel and Xander looked confused.

Before anymore could be said, the four men had finished examining the dragon and spoke up.
“We came to a conclusion.” Number one said.

The others turned towards them. Angel‘s hand still on Lilah’s shoulder, Lilah’s hand still wrapped around Xander's.

“This dragon is not real.” Number two said. “Merely a fake.” Number three nodded.

“There was no fight last night.” Number four explained. “We merely miscalculated the date and time.” Number one nodded. “The apocalypse is still to come.” Number four agreed. “We have to research the right time, date and place.” Number three said.

There was a moment of silence.

Then Xander got angry. “Miscalculated, no fight, fake dragon my ass!! Someone hand me my crossbow!! NOW!”

The hotel doors fell shut behind the four lawyers leaving in a hurry.
Lilah still held Xander's hand.

“What’s with the commotion down here?” Gunn came sauntering down the stairs. “Oh, Lilah…” The dark man went emotionless.

“Gunn.” Lilah nodded her head. “I assume you had no casualties?”

“No,” Angel squeezed Lilah's shoulder a bit. “all home and safe.”

A strange humming made them look upstairs and Wesley chose that moment to appear.
Humming, hopping like a little girl, arms swinging wide back and forth, he crossed the high gallery.
He had looked like little red-riding-hood going to her Grandma.
Silence fell over the Lobby.

Xander looked at Angel. Angel tried to look reassuring. “I’ve got shackles downstairs…”
Gunn – only halfway down the stairs – held up a hand. “I’ll… investigate on that…”
Xander turned to him. “The shackles or Wesley?”
“Both,” mumbled Gunn and went back upstairs, following the ex-watcher.

Lilah turned frightened eyes to Angel.
The vampire shrugged his shoulders. “I only said we all got home safe. I didn’t mention sane.”
“Maybe I should…” Lilah Morgan ran as fast as her high heels would carry her.

+++ Families +++

Later that evening, everybody was up and moving around the hotel.
Wesley had calmed down and gotten over his ‘high’.
“Stoned on information…” Spike had whispered to Xander, and the young man had laughed.

Angel was still pondering – brooding, really – on the idea of approaching Xander on the Connor matter. He had no clue if him claiming father-ship over Connor would be welcome right now.
The decision was taken from him, when Xander walked over to him and asked for a few moments alone.
“Sure!” Angel led Xander outside, Connor following.

“Angel, this might sound a bit strange,” Xander pushed Conner in front of him, “but does our Stephen here look familiar to you?” Angel just looked confused. “Stephen?”

“You know, the thing is …” Connor tugged at his sleeve, looking down. “I know I’m adopted and I really hated those jerks, so I ran away with Xander. But I keep having these visions – like a memory – of a green guy – just like Lorne – who sings to me, and of a vamp – with yellow eyes and fangs and brown hair – who grins down at me and makes funny faces and…” Connor trailed off.

“I didn’t knew babbling was infectious.” Angel said to Xander. “Yeah, that’s Sunnydale-me rubbing off on him…” Xander ruffled Connor's hair.

Angel looked down at the boy – Stephen – and smiled, ready to tell the truth. “It’s a long story.”
“We got time.” Connor replied, indicating that Xander was staying too.

So Angel took a deep breath. “You’re my son. Mine and Darla's…”

Xander piped up. “Darla? As in Dust-Darla?” Angel grinned. “Darla as in My-Dusted-Sire-Brought-Back-To-Life-By-W&H-Darla.”

“Ah.”

“So my mom's called Darla. And she is – where?” “She dusted herself, giving birth.”

“Oh!” Connor looked stricken.

“I named you Connor, by the way, not Stephen. We lived here and every one of my team loved you. But you got kidnapped and taken away to a hell-dimension I couldn’t get in. When you got back out you were 16 already – 'cause time was running more quickly in that dimension – and still in danger. So I made a deal with W&H who promised me a good home for you.”
Ok, so it was the edited version of the story, but who cared!?

Xander left a few moments later, leaving Connor and Angel to themselves, 'cause they obviously needed it.

Crossing the lobby Xander arrived in just the right time for a proper cup of tea!
At least that was what Wesley said, handing a cup over to him. The warning looks shot by Gunn and Spike made sure he didn’t decline it, but took a sip bravely.

“So, mate, who told ya?” Spike lit a cigarette.

“Who told me what?” Xander asked, confused.

“Well, first of all, it was kind of surprising to see you here. But a most pleasant surprise!” Wesley sipped his tea. “We hotwired the Cleveland machine, so I could hear important messages too. Faith and the Slayeretts have gotten a bit lazy since Buffy and Dawn left for Rome.”

“U can hotwire an answering machine?” Gunn looked very astonished. Xander shook his head laughing. “No, not me. Shasha. He can hotwire nearly anything. He has a kink for electronics.”

“Why would a heaven-born creature like him develop a kink for electronics?” Wesley nearly dropped his cup.

“Cause they’ve got no electricity up there?” Xander shrugged his shoulders, both eyebrows raised.

Spike laughed.

“He even repaired my microwave by poking three forks into the back and kicking the thing once.” Xander explained. “But I think the kick was just to show-off.”

Spike laughed harder, Gunn joined him.

When he could speak again, Spike lit his next cigarette. “’S nice mate, but not what I meant. I meant who told ya I was back?”

Xander shrugged his shoulders again. “Nobody! Was quite a surprise when I came in yesterday. Nearly made me forget my speech.”

Everybody stared at him. “Nobody told you?” Wesley nearly dropped his cup again. “But… but…”

“Nibblet never told ya?” Spike had his fag dangling from his lips, looking astonished. “No, but I’m glad you told her. She was so upset when she noticed she had lost the bracelet you gave her.”

“Wait a minute!” Gunn put his hand up. “The whole town went down and that girl was upset about jewellery? Was it at least expensive?”

Xander laughed. “No, it wasn’t. But she was upset about losing all the pictures of her mom, too, if that calms you.”

“U Sunnydale lot are strange!” Gunn explained and went to get himself something real to drink.

Emptying his cup, Xander remembered a question which had been bugging him. “Hm, which reminds me: where’s Cordy? Haven’t seen my favourite cheerleader yet. I thought she worked here too. Or did you chase her off to her posh Hollywood apartment before the big fight?”

Spike and Wesley exchanged looks – both willing the other to explain the absence of Cordelia to Xander.

“Nobody told ya?” Spike started to hate Buffy a little more with every passing moment. They had told her! Couldn’t she at least have told Xander too?

“Xander…” Wesley placed a hand on the other men’s shoulder. “Cordelia fell into a coma over a year ago and died after a while…”

“Oh…” A deep hurt settled into Xander's eye and made itself comfortable there. Spike hated this.
He ground his fag out and placed an arm around Xander's shoulders.

“’T‘s not that bad, pet. She was good…” He had no real words right now.

Xander gave a weak smile and patted Spike's hand that lay on his shoulder. Wesley had removed his to take the tea-cup away from Xander.

“’T‘s all right, pet.” Spike tried again. “Still got da Demon-bint left…” He grinned.

“Oh…” Xander looked up, his eye a little wet. “Oh! No, no… Anya died during the battle… She never made it out…”

Now Spike really had no words left. He grabbed the young man into a bone-crushing hug and simply held on while Xander placed his head on Spike's shoulder and his arms around his waist.

After a moment, Spike felt – and heard – his sire and one of Xander's boys coming up to them. But he didn’t look up from where his head rested against Xander's neck.

“What’s with them?” Angel asked, a little confused note in his voice.

Wesley gave a small sigh. “We just had to tell him that Cordelia is no longer amongst us – and he had to tell us, that a girl named Anya didn’t survive the battle of Sunnydale…”

“Anya? Anyanka? His wife?” Angel asked with a little disbelief. Wesley's eyes got a little wider. “His wife?”

“Yeah,” Connor nodded. “Anya. Anyanka, vengeance-demon and Xander's wife. Buried in a deep hole with many others. He’s probably thinking about Cassidy too.”

“Who’s Cassidy?” Spike was tempted to let go of Xander just to turn and glare at his sire. Couldn’t the big poof smell the hurt, the fear, the tears?

Xander rested his chin on Spike's shoulder, so he could look at the others. “Cassidy was a teen we met. 14, going to school, having friends, hanging out at the mall, never saw more of the world than the city she lived in… We lost her too…”

“Demon?” Wesley asked full of pity. Xander nodded a bit. “Yeah, she was… But a totally harmless one…”

Wesley cleared his throat while Spike started to grin against Xander's neck.

“I think he meant if a demon got her…” Angel replied. Xander gave a suffering sigh, stepped out of Spike's embrace and mumbled: “The same thing we’re still running from got her… Simply killed little innocent her…”

“It always gets the innocent ones first…” Wesley sighed too.

“Yeah!” Connor spoke up. “Like little innocent me! I just learned that I got kidnapped as a baby! I mean: who kidnaps babies?”

“Yeah, their diapers stink!” Spike chimed up, smiling. Xander smiled too and tapped a finger against Spike‘s nose. “Not a good - !”

He stopped abruptly, eye going wide, face going pale, lips pressing close and forming a thin white line.

Spike and Angel both heard Xander's heartbeat speeding up – fast, faster, high speed. Spike noticed the waves of fear-pain-fear-pain coming from Xander.

“Xanny? Pet?”

“Shit!!” Connor darted forward and grabbed Xander's right arm. “Help me sit him down!” Spike grabbed the left arm and pushed Xander down on the ground, crouching down next to him.

“Shit, Xanny, breathe!” Connor commanded and rubbed his hand over the older man's back, giving a pat now and then.

“What’s wrong with him?” Angel crouched down too and a little fear had crept into his voice.

“Pain wave.” Connor said. “If we’re lucky it’s just a bad one and he stays like this – breathe, Xanny – if not it will be a worse one…”

“How do we notice?” There was a little panic in Spike's voice. Never before had he seen Xander go down in so much pain. Ok, maybe once, with his eye…

As if he had waited for this line, Xander opened his mouth, sucked in much needed air – and let out a scream.

It was long, shrill, suffering, and heart-wrenching and every Banshee would have been jealous.

Angel, Wesley and Spike became absolutely terrified. No human being should be able to scream in pain like that.

Connor just sat there, letting Xander hold his arm in a bruising grip and pressed his free hand to Xander's back.

When he was done, Xander fell silent, taking shuddering breaths, heart still beating a mile per minute. Then his eye rolled up in his head and he sank unconscious against Connor.

It took five minutes of total silence before Spike found his voice again. “What the bloody fucking hell was THAT?!”

+++ Apocalypses or Visitors +++

It was still early in the night, but the hotel had quietened down.

Xander had been carried upstairs and tucked into bed. The two giant cats had followed. And the rest of the Gang adjoined to the upstairs rooms too. Only Connor stayed with Angel, while the dark vampire explained the whole story to Wesley, Gunn, Lorne and Spike. Ok, so Angel told them an edited version again. But he finally felt good around Wesley once more, and he didn’t want to give that up again.

Of course, Conner was immediately welcomed into the team and invited to stay as long as he wanted.

Spike was about to say something to his new ‘uncle’ when two cars pulled up into the hotel driveway.

“Who’s that?” Gunn craned his neck a little and Lorne took off into Wesley's office, closing the door behind him. “Customers?” Wesley guessed.

Conner squinted his eyes a little. “I see a small blond woman and a guy in a brown suit…” Angel raised an eyebrow, then squinted his eyes too to take a better look. His eyes flew open with surprise.

“It’s Buffy and Giles! And Dawn too!”

“Is that bad news, or do I just have to get more rooms clear?” Gunn turned to Wesley. “Could be bad news… More apocalypses…” Spike pondered. “Maybe they are on a holiday!” Wesley offered.

Outside, an argument was going on, which Dawn broke up by all but running into the lobby.

“Nibblet!!” Spike made two steps and had his arms full of the light brown-haired girl seconds after.

“Spike!!” Dawn happily hugged the blond vampire, arms around his neck. “It’s so good to see you!”
Then she pulled back a little and hit Spike full force – which really wasn’t much for the vamp – into his chest with a fist. “Don’t you dare to ever go up in flames again!” she yelled and Spike laughed.

“Not if I can help it, Nibblet!”

Willow was the next who got into the lobby. “Hi,” she greeted, smiling a little. “did we come at a bad time?”

“Absolutely not!” Wesley took her hand and she was greeted by everyone.

Buffy and Giles finally came in too. Another man and a woman were trailing behind.

“Good evening!” Giles greeted formally, while Buffy just smiled and waved and said “Hi Angel!”
While Angel hugged the petite woman, Spike preferred to keep one of his arms around Dawn, lighting a new fag with the other hand. He had the creepy feeling that he knew the new pair that came with Buffy.

“How are you?” Angel wanted to know, when Buffy did let go of him. “Oh, I’m just fine! Came back from Rome a few weeks ago. Italy is wonderful.”

“I’d prefer Paris or even bloody Prague…” Spike whispered to Dawn, who of course knew all the stories about William the Bloody and the Dark Princess, having heard them first hand from said vampire.
Buffy then took a step back and gestured to the two people behind her. “Angel, do you remember Riley Finn and his wife?”

Angel looked up. “Well, I remember Finn, didn’t know he was married.” Politely he extended his hand. “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Finn.” She laughed a little and shook his hand. “Please just call me Sam.”

Sure enough Riley and Angel didn’t shake hands. “Well, I can’t say I’m overly joyous to see you, but welcome to Angel Investigations. How can we help you?” It’s hard to shake off a routine…

“Oi!” Spike complained. “We’re so not helpin’ these jerks!”

“Nice to see you too, Hostile 17!” Riley countered, smiling broadly from ear to ear.

Spike grinned back just like that. “Commando-boy, you do know that the bloody chip is gone, don’t you?” His grin got even wider.
Riley's eyebrows shot up and his eyes went wide. “It is?”

“Yupp!!” Spike vamped out. “One happy lil’ vamp here! – Oofff…” Dawn had – very forcefully – placed her sharp elbow underneath Spike's ribs. “Oh, cut it out already…”
Spike de-vamped and glared at the teen in his arms. “Well, don’t hit me then, hit ‘im!”

“Uhm, Riley…” his wife glared at him and pointed towards Spike. “Nah, it’s ok – or at least so I’ve been told.” Riley glared at Buffy.

The Slayer just shrugged her shoulders. “It’s fine really. They are both on a non-human diet.”

“Both?” Sam stared at Dawn in shock.

“Not her, me!” Angel explained, slightly angry – why was nobody telling anybody anything anymore these days? – and vamped out, just for the show of it.

Sam raised both eyebrows.

A tugging at his shirt made Angel lose his vamp-face and look down to Connor.
“Who are they?” the boy asked, pointing a thumb towards Buffy, Riley and Willow.

“Oh, well this is Buffy, the Slayer,” Angel gestured his hand around, “and that is her best friend Willow, one powerful witch, and Buffy's sister Dawn, Riley and Sam Finn and…” He trailed off and started to look around for Giles.

The ex-librarian had wandered off with Wesley and they were now having a discussion over a couple of books. Angel gestured towards him. “And that would be Mr. Rupert Giles, a watcher, just like Wesley.”

“Figures…” Connor mumbled and leaned against Angel, who started to smile happily.

“Buffy, Dawn, Willow, this is Connor – my son!” Pride was rolling off of him in a huge wave. Spike grinned.

Buffy looked a bit offended. “Do I want to know since when Vampires can have children?”

“Since last Wednesday…” Connor replied with a smug little smile.
“Connor!”
“Sorry! Hey, what am I supposed to say? I’ve got no clue when I was born! Or where…” The boy pouted and poked out his lower lip a bit.

Angel melted like ice in the sunshine. “Ah, it’s ok!” He patted his son's head. “Why don’t you go and sit on the counter with Spike and Dawn?”

“Sure!” Being a good little child, Connor turned and hopped onto the counter. Followed shortly by Dawn who was lifted up by Spike.

“How’s that possible?” Willow‘s interest had perked up. “And: who’s the mother?” Buffy glared a little. Well, it wasn’t her, so why should she care?

“Magic and Darla.” Angel replied evenly.

“Darla? But wasn’t she dust?” Willow remembered the blond vampire all too well.

“It’s a rather long story – and you didn’t come here to hear it. Why are you here anyway?”

Buffy smiled sweetly at him. “Riley needs help and he called me. And because I know that you can help me, we came here…” She stroked her hand up and down his shirt-clad arm.
“Ah, but when I called you last week and asked you to help with the latest apocalypse you couldn’t even call me back?” Angel was getting pissed, little by little.

The bleached-blond girl just shrugged. “Sorry. Nice dragon by the way. So, this problem: there’s a group of demons attacking random groups of students and we can’t find any kind of pattern. So we thought you could help.” Her hand was still stroking.

“'Cause I’m such an experienced demon and demon-fighter…” Angel's smile was getting sarcastic. Buffy patted his arm. “Exactly! We brought some files, can we sit down somewhere?”

All of a sudden Angel's smile became mean – in an Angelus-kind-of-way and Spike flinched a little.
“Well, I could agree to help you – on ONE condition – or maybe two…”

The smile Buffy wore could have fired-up a bedside table-lamp. “Sure, we agree to anything!”

“We do?” Willow and Riley asked in unison. “Yes, we do! What is it then?”

Angel’s smile got a little more Angelus-like and Spike was ready to grab Dawn and run for it.

“I want you all to sing Karaoke!”

++++

 

Part 2

+++ Still plenty of rooms – still no furniture +++

It had taken ten minutes to calm Spike down, who had toppled off the counter, howling with laughter.

Angel had poked his head into Wesley’s office, to get Lorne to agree on a private session at the Caritas.
Of course, the green demon had agreed. He had started to make phone calls and sneaked out of the Hyperion later.

But it wasn’t so easy to get the Sunnydalers out of the Hotel.
Buffy had – of course – disagreed with finding a hotel of their own. “I don’t see why we should leave. This is a hotel, isn’t it? It should have plenty of rooms!” “Plenty of rooms, yes,” Angel agreed. “Plenty of furniture, no!”

“There’s also no normal food in the kitchen. Just blood for me and Spike and I and maybe some Instant-Coffee.” “Why?” Buffy pouted. “Don’t Wesley and Gunn live here too? What about Connor? Don’t you feed him?”
“Hey! Don’t drag me into this!” Connor yelled from the counter. “I only just arrived today!” “Wesley and Gunn have their own apartments where they live. They only come here for work.” Angel frowned. Hadn’t Buffy gave him the brush-off some time ago? Talking about cookies? Why was she trying to make herself at home in HIS hotel?

“Buffy, I’m pretty sure it would be appreciated if we found a different hotel for tonight.” Giles had finally let go of the books. “I’m pretty sure Angel still has some work to do – and I’m not sure if I’m very comfortable with this dragon-head…”
“Oh, Giles, it’s already dead!” Buffy started to venture up the stairs. “So, which rooms would you suggest? First floor, second floor, third floor?”
Angel took a deep, unneeded breath. His own room was on the third – and so were the rooms of Xander’s Gang. “Take the first floor, the rooms are in better shape there than on the other floors!” Wesley beat the vampire to an answer. “Angel, would you like Gunn and I to stay too?” “The more the merrier!” Gunn grinned and went after Buffy. “Here, let me check those doors for you!”

Dawn tapped Angel lightly on the arm. “I’m very sorry about my sister. I have no clue what’s gotten into her…” “Doesn’t matter…” Angel replied, a tired smile on his lips. “Why don’t Spike and I go get your bags from the car? Sure you brought luggage. Riley, you and Sam going to stay too?” Angel started walking towards the cars, Spike following, hoping that the two Finns would decline his offer.
“No, we will hop back to our little out-post. I brought some of my men along for the hunt. So we camp out of town. Buffy has my number, if she needs me!”
They said their farewells, whilst Spike and Angel carried bags for Buffy, Dawn, Willow and Giles upstairs. Wesley and Gunn had spare rooms with some of their things on the second floor – Fred’s floor.

When Angel fell onto his bed late in the night, still being able to hear Buffy roaming around her room, he suddenly felt so old…

When someone knocked on his door, Angel didn’t even lift his head. “What?” he just asked and was surprised to find Connor next to his bed moments later. “Xander lets you know that he’s fine, but that he also would like to stay unnoticed by Buffy. I already told Wes and Gunn.”
“Wesley allows you to call him Wes?” “Yupp, and Lorne headed for the Caritas. He told you to be there tomorrow after nightfall.”
“You’re a great messenger…” Angel smiled a little.

Then he suddenly pointed towards the middle of the room. “Your crib was over there. Right in the middle, so I could see you from wherever I was in the room.” Connor smiled. “It was white, wasn’t it?” His father nodded. “I’m just so sorry I wasn’t a better dad for you…”
“As long as you don’t hit and beat me everyday, you are a far more better father then the jerk I stayed with before I ran off.” He grabbed the blanket and tugged it up Angel’s body. “I’ll shut the windows!”

“You’re handling this whole vampire-issue rather well…” Angel told him, watching the boy move around the room. “Hey, I’m gaining a rather insane sister! I’ll deal.” He grinned at Angel. “Sleep tight and don’t mind the noise during the day, ‘cause, some of us? So not undead!” They both laughed and Connor left.

Angle lay awake for a while, pondering the strange happenings. Especially Xander and his Group. Xander, who seemed so different from the time in Sunnydale.
His door opening and closing brought him out of his thoughts and made him sit up.

A rather sleepy looking Connor in a pair of boxers and a t-shirt far too big for him, shuffled towards Angel.
“Had a nightmare, daddy…” he whined, in a voice more asleep then awake. “Wanna sleep here…”
And in the next moment he was crawling into Angel’s bed, curling up next to his father.
Angel looked astonished but laid himself down again, smiling at his already asleep son. Minutes later Angel joined him.

+++ Sleeping Arrangements +++

Spike had no real idea about the current time, but his inner clock told him to sleep, so he figured it must be day-time.
He wondered a little at why he couldn’t sleep, then got up and went in search of Xander’s room.

It wasn’t hard to find Xander with his vamp-senses. Spike simply listened for the right heartbeat and followed the right smell.
He found Xander in the middle of a king-size bed, two little kittens curled up on his legs, forcing the boy to sleep on his back.
“Hi Ink, hi Rei…” Spike went around the room, silently closing the heavy curtains, blocking the light out – for him, and to guarantee Xander some more sleep instead of being woken by the sun.

When he pulled back from the window close to the bed, Xander looked at him, his eye only half open, clouded with sleep.
“…Spike…? Wha tim ish ish…?” Spike couldn’t help himself and grinned at the slurred words. “Dunno pet. Go back to sleep.”
Peering carefully at the windows, still more asleep than awake, Xander slurred: “Ish day… Wanna shleep too?” And he lifted the covers a bit.

Spike pondered this for half a second.
Go back to his own cold room and sleep in his own cold bed or snuggle up with the warm whelp.

Some decisions come easily…

Carefully Spike climbed into bed next to Xander, resting on his side as close to the boy as he could get.
“You ok?” “’M fine…” Xander shifted a bit, resting his shoulder and head against Spike’s chest.
Suddenly a wide grin spread over his face, eye closed. “’m comfy…” He mumbled in his best attempt to copy Spike.
“Oi! Git!” Spike pretended to be annoyed, but chuckled and moved an arm around Xander’s waist. “Sleep now,” he ordered – and Xander slept.

+

Spike had no idea when he had fallen asleep or how long he had slept, but he woke to impatient tapping on his shoulder.
Sleepily he looked up – noticing that Xander had turned in his sleep and was now snuggled with his back to Spike’s chest, bodies pressed close together.

Noticing that one cat was now lying on his hip and the other was curled against the back of his bent knees, Spike gave a growl to the demon leaning over him.

“I just wanted you to take notice that this is MY human you’re cuddling with!” the demon with the burned skin demanded, before he climbed into the bed and snuggled his own backside into Xander’s front.

The boy seemed to like his sandwich-position, ‘cause he tightened the grip he had on Spike‘s hand over his chest and threw the other arm over the blue-haired demon.

Seconds later, they were asleep again.

+

Angel didn’t wake up at all.
His brain took in the fact that it was day – and that his door had opened and closed – but Angel slept on.
Yes, somewhere deep down he registered that someone – someone with a dangerous vibe – stood next to his bed, but that was no reason to wake up at all.

‘Cause, most important to him, was the warm body he was wrapped protectively around.
Everything else could surely wait…

+

Buffy had crept into Angel’s room during the middle of the day – in hope of finding the vampire fast asleep, so she could climb into bed with him.

While she stood next to said bed, she had to admit that Angel was fast asleep.
But much to her dismay, Angel was curled around the boy that called himself ‘his son’… Connor…

“What are you doing?!” she hissed at the boy.

Connor cracked an eye open. “I’m trying to get some sleep. Why? What does it look like to you?”
The smug grin reminded Buffy a bit too much of Spike.

“Get out right now!” she hissed, a little louder.
“Shh! You’re gonna wake daddy up…” Connor’s lips twitched up a little more.

+

Angel stirred.
Somewhere in his room a snake was hissing.
Or at least it sounded like a snake. A big, ugly, poisonous snake…

But the warm body curled into his arms was calming and soothing – so Angel slept on…

+

“Do you really think you have a right to be here?!” Buffy now sounded angry.
“Wait, let me think about that!” Connor tapped one of his fingers against his chin and gave her a thoughtful look.
“Yeah, I do!” He snuggled back a little and rested his head back on his father’s arms.

“I’m going to throw you out – personally!” The Slayer made an angry grab for the boy – only to find him gone.
The next second one of her arms was twisted behind her back and pulled upwards sharply.

Buffy gave a surprised hiss of pain and arched her back, but couldn’t get Connor’s grip to loosen.
“Sorry Miss…” he hissed in a cold voice. “Half-a-vamp here! You gotta be faster than that! And now you’re going out!”

He manoeuvred her towards the door and even though he was smaller than Buffy, she had to follow.
The death-grip on her arm prevented any other movement.

“And out you stay!” Connor growled and pushed her through the door, slamming it shut and locking it.
Buffy started to bang her fists against it immediately.

+

Angel stirred again.
Somewhere, some really loud banging was going on.
Like someone was trying to drive a nail into the wall using a troll-hammer.

The warm body was gone and Angel moved his hands over the sheets, searching for it.
A moment later the body returned and Angel hugged it to him with a deep, satisfied sigh.
He settled back into sleep.

Somewhere, someone was still using that troll-hammer…

+++ Life’s a song and you can sing along +++

When Angel awoke shortly before dusk, Connor was gone.

With a sigh Angel regretted the absent of his boy, but remembered that his child was human and needed to eat and drink – and use the bathroom.

Having slept surprisingly well, Angel climbed out of bed with a last contented sigh and took a shower.
Getting dressed and downstairs, Wesley had already prepared him a thermos of blood.

Gunn was in the lobby too, talking animatedly with Dawn and Willow, while Giles and Wesley were again buried in the books.
Connor sat on the counter, banging his heels against it and smiling at Angel.

Buffy, who was talking to Riley over the phone, just shot the vampire a glare and turned away.

Angel raised both eyebrows. /What did I do now?/

+

Upstairs Spike awoke to a well known feeling – Drusilla stroking his hair.

Slightly confused, the blond vampire opened his eyes.
Somewhere during the night/day they had all scooted down the bed, and Spike was now on his back, in the middle of it. Drusilla was squeezed in between him and the headboard, his head resting in her lap.
She was stroking his hair and smiling down at him.
On his right side Xander was curled up, head on Spike’s chest, one arm across the vampire’s belly.
Behind Xander the blue-haired demon was spooned, one arm over Xander’s waist.
On Spike’s left side the angel was curled up, similar to Xander, with the golden locks spilling over Spike’s chest.
One of the cats slept on Spike’s belly, next to Xander’s arm, the other lay on the vampire’s upper legs.
Looking a bit further down, Spike spotted the elf with his head on Spike’s knees, both arms gripping Spike’s legs, body curled around Spike’s feet.

“Bloody hell!”

Vincent chuckled lightly. “Yes, a very nice way to wake up, isn’t it?” His Rumanian accent was heavy in his voice.

Spike wanted to utter more curses, but somehow he seemed to have forgotten them. “Oh, bloody buggering hell…”

“Were you planning on joining the quest to the Caritas?” Vincent leaned into Spike’s line of view. “If so, you surely could use some help getting up.”
Spike just glared at the older vampire, who chuckled again, red eyes alight with humour.

“Here, let me help!” Ever so carefully, Vincent took Shasha into his arms and lifted him off the bed into a chair. The angel didn’t even wake up.
Handing both little kittens to Drusilla, Vincent lifted the elf a little, so Spike could get his legs back.

Very slowly Spike slid out of bed, careful not to disturb Xander – and the other sleepers.
While Spike stood and stretched and tried to get some feeling back into his body, Vincent returned Shasha into the mass of bodies on the bed.

“Have a nice evening and tell us how it was…” Vincent advised, before he settled back into his chair, picking up his book.
Spike mumbled something and went downstairs.

+

It was quite easy to get everyone to the Caritas.
Angel, Spike and Connor took the convertible, Wes and Gunn took Gunn’s old pick-up.
Buffy, Giles, Willow and Dawn went in their own rental car while Riley and Sam came with a jeep.
They also brought another Solider with them. Commander Fox, second in command to General Finn, and two normal foot-troopers.

Right in front of the steps down to the Caritas, Angel stopped the whole group and turned to those unfamiliar with the bar.
“Listen, and listen carefully, please!” Angel raised a hand to get everybody’s attention. “There are a few things you have to know about the Caritas and its host, Lorne. First, there’s a law in the Caritas. It says: no violence!”
“No violence?” Commander Fox raised an eyebrow. “Yes, no violence!” Angel repeated. “That means no bar-fights, no throwing of any objects and no ripping off any heads.”
“And usually everybody knows that?” Sam looked sceptical. “Yes, the usual crowd knows and they live to the law. And even if we’re the only ones down there today, I want you all to live to the law too!”
Willow and Dawn nodded enthusiastically. “Well, yes, of course!” Giles adjusted his glasses.
Buffy shrugged her shoulders. “If –everyone- lives to that law…”
“You have my word as a General, that none of my men would start anything!”

Angel sighed. “Now, about Lorne…”
“He simply is a sight to behold!” Wesley explained, smiling. “He is?”
“For one, he wears these really bright suits! Yellow, red, blue, purple…!” Gunn waved his hands around. “Right bright! And never with matching ties or shirts!” The dark young man grinned and ventured downstairs.
“Yes,” Wesley nodded. “As you will see, his clothes will not always match…” Wesley went downstairs too, while Spike ground his cigarette out.
“And he has the tendency to call people pastries…” Angel explained unhappy.

“Pastries?!” Now everyone was equally confused.
Until a voice from downstairs yelled up. “Angel-cakes! Are you coming down or shall I come up and get you?”
“We’re coming Lorne, we’re coming!” The dark vampire gave a sigh. “See, he loves to call me pastries!”

Dawn started to laugh real hard, but was silenced by her sister’s glare pretty soon.
“I so have to see this!” She went down with Spike and Connor.

Downstairs the bar and the stage were well lit with colourful lights in red, blue, green…
The tables in the middle lay a bit more in the dark, just illuminated by the lights coming from the bar and the stage, where the karaoke-machine stood.

Dawn thought that this was a pretty neat and normal bar – until she saw Lorne.

The tall, green Demon wore a light purple (he later called it ‘Plum’) coloured suit, with a dark blue shirt underneath.
He was talking to Wes and Gunn, waving one hand around, while holding a martini in the other. He looked like a poster-boy for a gay-magazine. Ok, a gay-demon-magazine.

Dawn was stunned when the demon turned towards them.
“Spikey-poo! You came too! Quite a surprise! And Connor-honey too!”
Lorne hugged the vampire and the half-vampire before turning towards Dawn.
“And who might this beautiful little Lady be?”

“I… I’m Dawn…” she managed to stutter. “Ah! Dawny-sweets! Come on, have seat!” He gently pushed her towards one of the tables. “What would you like to drink?”
“Coke?” She squeaked, whilst sitting down on the chair he held out for her. “Connor-honey?” “Coke, too!” “Spikey-poo, surely I can get you some Jack Daniels?” “Sure, luv!” Spike slumped into the chair next to Dawn, while Connor took the one on the other side.

Whilst giving their order to the bartender, Lorne yelled up the stairs again. “Angel-cakes! We’re just waiting for you!”

Willow and Giles were the next ones to walk into the bar. They both stopped dead in their tracks for a moment. Then they joined Wesley and Gunn at the bar, very careful not to say anything else to Lorne than their names and what drinks they would like.

Out in the street Angel still stood with Buffy, Riley, Sam, Fox and the two nameless boys. And probably their weapons, but Angel wasn’t about to comment on that.
“Just remember: no violence!” he said, and turned to go downstairs. Buffy immediately clung to his arm and leaned on his shoulder.
Angel felt a head-ache coming on – but he didn’t comment on that either.
Riley, Sam, Fox and the other two followed.

Even Buffy stopped for a second when she saw Lorne.
“Angel-cakes! Finally!” The green demon hugged the vampire. “I thought you wanted to stay up there all evening! And you must be Buffy! It’s soooo nice to meet you!”
Lorne simply ignored the soldiers. “Come on sweetlings! Sit down, join the bar! What would you like to drink?”

Silence for a moment before it burst out of Buffy: “Oh my god! He’s like Sweet!!!” And after a second: “Please don’t tell me that you sing!”

Spike burst into laughter – only now getting the reason why Dawn had stared so much.

“Well, of course I do sing, silly!” Lorne took a second martini from the bartender. “But who’s Sweet?”

“A demon we once met.” Willow explained. “He had red skin and wore bright suits too.”
“And that’s bad because?” Angel had raised an eyebrow – and started brooding about how to get his arm out of Buffy’s death-grip.
“He made people sing and dance and then combust into flames.” Giles explained in his matter-of-fact voice.
“Oh!”

Dawn made a movement with her head and suddenly, she, Willow, Spike, Giles and Buffy were standing in a row.
On Dawn’s count they started to sing, while grasping hands in a wave-like motion.
“Understand we go hand in hand”
They let go of each other hands in the same wave-like motion.
“but we walk alone in fear”
“Tell me!” ~Giles~
“Where do we go from here?”

Spike was the first who broke away in laughter, followed shortly by Dawn and Willow.

Lorne, who had been able to take a ‘look’ at the happenings back then, smiled into his martini.
“Well, I’m not much into this spontaneous combusting but the singing and dancing sounds nice. Got the number of his dimension?”
Spike only laughed harder.

+

A few minutes later everyone was seated.
Dawn, Spike and Connor shared a table in front of the stage.
Buffy and Angel were seated behind them – Buffy, again, firmly attached to Angel’s arm.
On their left the five soldiers occupied a table.
On their right Willow, Gunn, Wesley and Giles had taken seats.
Lorne leant against the bar and was ready for the things to come.

“So sweetlings! Who’s gonna start?” He smiled widely.

With a little hesitation Dawn got up. “The sooner I sing, the sooner I’m done! Let the humiliation begin!”
Spike tugged at her sleeve. “How about a duet with double-humiliation for the both of us then, Nibblet?”
Dawn’s face lit up. “You would do that? Oh, you’re still the best!” She hugged the vampire and dragged him on stage.
Lorne came over and set up the machine after they had picked a song. Back at the bar, Lorne got the little notepad and a pen ready. Wesley had provided him with both, seeing that Angel and Lorne couldn’t speak freely about what Lorne ‘saw’ or ‘read’.

Dawn and Spike did quite a good performance on stage. The audience clapped enthusiastically, Gunn and Connor even whistled at Dawn for the little dance she had done.
Even the two soldiers clapped – which earned them a glare from Commander Fox, who had his arms crossed over his chest. They ignored it…

Lorne was excited! Never before had he seen something like Dawn. She was probably the most powerful being in this room tonight.
Lorne smiled and took a sip of his fourth martini. He had seen much from her past, but also her loyalty towards her friends – especially Spike and Xander…

Willow was next to go. Lorne helped her pick a slow love-song.
While the witch sang, Lorne could feel her love for Tara, her hurt at her death, the pain when she tried to end the world – he was quite surprised about that and made a mental note to never anger the witch – and he could feel the power still in her.
Yes, Willow was a powerful witch, with a lot of pain and hurt buried inside, who cared deeply for her friends – again especially Xander…

When Willow stepped down – much applause following her – Giles approached Lorne and asked him for a guitar. Giles preferred to sing and play himself, rather then using a karaoke-machine.

Of course Lorne had a guitar! He even brought Giles a stool, so he could have something to half sit, half lean against.

Rupert Giles was very, very, very talented when it came to playing the guitar and sing along. The Scoobies had already had the opportunity to listen once or twice or even more.

The whole bar fell silent when Giles played up and afterwards it took them a minute before they applauded madly.
Only Commander Fox did not move his hands at all…

Lorne had to wipe a little tear away and take a big swing of his fifth martini. He had felt the love and affection that only a father could give his children. He had felt the anger that was the ‘Ripper’ inside the Watcher. And Lorne had seen the man stand up for his ‘children’, to defend them and keep them safe.

“Come on, Angel, you’ve got to do a duet with me!” Buffy had stood up and was now tugging on Angel’s arm.

“NO!!!” Spike, Wesley, Gunn and Lorne yelled as one.
“Please, good lord, no!” Wesley pleaded.
“Woman, you must be crazy!” Gunn shook his head.
“Sweetling, give a poor soul-“ Lorne placed a hand over the place on his chest where his heart should have been “-a break and don’t make him sing! Believe me – he can’t sing!”

Angel – very upset with his friend‘s actions – stood and led Buffy on stage.
“Well, at least he can’t sing Mannilow now!” Spike ordered a second JD.

So Buffy and Angel sang – and the audience shuddered and cringed. Both singers were no good…

But Lorne frowned on what he read from Buffy.
The girl hated Connor, wanted Angel back, wanted Angel in bed, was fed-up with her friends, was fed-up with no longer being the only Slayer. She was fed-up with not having a boy-friend, she was fed-up with Spike and Angel not coming running at the snap of her fingers.
Lorne saw her standing alone in the end, in the dark…

Frowning some more, Lorne took in what Angel had to give and was surprised to see the vampire stand protectively between a large group of soldiers and everyone Lorne had met during the last 48 hours.
There was a fight coming up – no doubt!
Lorne sighed deeply and grabbed his sixth martini.

“Your turn now!” Angel smiled at Riley and Sam.
“Sure! This is getting more fun by the minute!” Riley jumped up. He seemed to enjoy himself. Or at least the three beers he had had…
“Fox, you will have to do a number too!” Sam laughed, while Riley led her away.

Commander Fox’s face made it quite obvious how little he liked the idea.

While Riley and Sam did a surprisingly good duet, Lorne took a very close look.
Yes, they loved each other. Yes, they both valued friendship more than their work. Yes, they both knew the difference between good and bad demons. Yes, Sam trusted the Sunnydale-lot and yes, she started to trust the L.A.-Gang too. Yes, Riley doubted everything his boss said and didn’t take orders lightly.
And yes, both would stand on their side against the other soldiers during the fight.
Lorne found that quite a relief.

When the two Generals stepped down, Lorne nodded to Angel. No threat from those – at least not right now.

“Turn up the music! Have some more drinks!” Angel ordered, then he waved Riley and Sam over and cleared his table. “Bring on the files, I’ll help.”

+++ Clues in a change of view +++

Riley and Sam sat down next to Angel and Buffy, forming a half-circle around the table. Wesley and Giles stood behind them, while Willow and Gunn joined Spike, Dawn and Connor at their table.

First, Riley placed a large map of America on the table. Different cities were marked with bright red dots.
“These are the cities where the attacks happened!” He explained.
All Angel saw were random dots on a map. There was no pattern of any sort – so much he was sure of.

“And these-“ Sam placed a rather large file-holder on top of the map “-are the attacks that happened.”
“A few of them are really strange!” Riley opened the holder. “I’ll give you a few examples.”

“The first attack happened nearly a year ago. In a small town I’m sure you’ve never have heard about. These students – 15 of them – lived in a house on campus-ground. Until one day they didn’t show up for classes and when someone came to look for them, they were all dead. The bodies were everywhere in the house. The kitchen, the bath… No pattern, no sense. The bodies were ripped apart or open and there was a lot of blood on the walls and floor. But still no pattern.”

“15 students in their campus living quarters during the night…” Wesley took notes.

“The next attack happened inside the university…” Sam took the next file from the holder. “20 students and 2 teachers in the physics-lab. Again much blood and ripped apart bodies. But this time they came during a lesson. The next class to use the lab found them.”

“20 students, 2 teachers in a campus-lab during the day…” Wesley raised an eyebrow.

“This is one of my favourites!” Riley explained while he took the next file. “Happened three months ago. 30 students, 5 teachers, on their way from an excursion back to the campus, in two buses. The demons had a truck, rammed them off the street and killed them. Again with much blood and tearing apart…”

“That seems to be a pattern!” Wesley chimed up happily while he wrote down: “30 students, 5 teachers, on the drive to campus, during the day, with a truck!”

“Yes, and that pattern makes us believe it’s always the same demon or rather group of demons.” Sam took the next file. “This is MY absolute favourite!! ‘Cause it makes no sense at all! 20 students and 5 teachers, six month ago, during their swim-training in the campus pool. This time we had red water.”

“20 students – swimmers – and 5 teachers, during day, in the swimming-pool…” Wesley looked confused.

“Then we had – about two weeks later – a group of 40 students and 20 teachers! During a daylight excursion through a forest. Blood and body-parts everywhere!”

“’m startin’ to like that!!” Spike chimed up from his table and got angry glares from all around. “Wot?”

“There’s an awful lot of teachers, don’t you think so?” Wesley turned to Giles. “Well, yes, of course. On that excursion they had a teacher for every two students!”

“Really?” Riley frowned down at his file. “Let me check this!” He grabbed the folder and flipped through the files, giving Wesley just the details.
Mostly groups with either 10, 15 or 20 students and only randomly up to 5 teachers.

Gunn had stepped up to their table and stared down at the map.

“You were right, on the first impression, all this makes no sense or has any pattern!” the younger Watcher explained.

“’scuse me for sayn’ this, but I think I found u a clue! Wes, gimme a blue pen, please!” Gunn held out his hand.

“Well, of course!” Wesley fished a blue marker from his inner pocket. “Will this do?” “Sure!”

Gunn bowed down over the map and with much concentration – and his tongue poking out between his lips – he started to connect some of the cities with lines – just like in a children’s-puzzle of connection numbers.

When he leant back to admire his work he explained: “It makes kind of sense from my point of view!”

Riley grabbed the map and turned it around.
And when he faced America up-side-down from Canada, it made sense.

‘Cause in large letters, someone had sprawled the word “H E L P” across the nation.

++++

Part 3

+++ At the scene of terror +++

Puzzled, everyone looked down at the map.

“Well, this could be a rather large coincidence…” Wesley muttered, repressing the urge to polish his non-present glasses.
“After a certain amount of years on the hellmouth I came to the conclusion that coincidences are rather non-existent…” Giles did polish his glasses at this.

“Great, but that doesn’t explain why a bunch of brutal demons write the word ‘help’ with their victims.”
Feeling confused and helpless, Riley crossed his arms over his chest, nearly dropping the holder in the process. Sam grabbed the files before they could hit the ground.

“Maybe if we showed you some pics of the crime-scenes! Could you maybe find a demon by the way it slashes its victims?” She looked hopefully at Angel, Wes and Giles.

“If we had books…” Giles began.
“We have plenty of books…” Wesley stated.
“If we had information…” Giles tried again.
“We have plenty of informers…” Angel stated.

“Then let’s do this!” Buffy hugged Angel’s arm rather enthusiastically and Angel frowned.

The phone at the bar started ringing and Lorne went to pick it up.
“Caritas-“ He didn’t get further than that.

A shrill voice started to scream at him, and everybody turned to look at him. The voice hung up and Lorne was left to stare at the receiver.

“What was that?” Angel had raised an eyebrow in interest.
“Angel-cakes, I’m getting scared!” Lorne replaced the receiver. The green demon placed his hands on his hips and – good lord! – pouted.
“Angel-cakes, that was my darling Seth, telling me to get my ass out of town, preferably yesterday, ‘cause something big and mean hit L.A.!”

“Who’s Seth?” Angel stared at Lorne in confusion. “How big and how mean?” Wesley grabbed his notepad.
“Seth? The tattoo-guy? 7 feet tall? He’s fleeing town?” Spike looked more alarmed than when they faced the dragon.
“Who’s Seth?” Angel tried again, but was ignored.

“Fox, call the out-post! I need-“ Whilst Riley tried to get his order out, the radio-set from one of his soldiers clicked to life and started buzzing.
Seconds later the sounds of fighting, screaming, running and dying escaped the little box.
“The camp’s under attack!!” Commander Fox was the first through the doors and out on the street.

“Lorne! Stay put! I’ll call you!” Angel and his gang were right behind the soldiers, followed by Buffy and friends.

Lorne sighed deeply. “Great, just great! Life’s going to hell…” He poured himself his tenth martini.

+

When the four cars came to a screeching halt at the out-post, nothing of the camp was left standing.

Torn and shredded tents covered the place, the still bleeding bodies of at least 20 soldiers all around.
Dawn, Connor and Willow stayed in the car.

The soldiers had been stabbed, sliced, diced… Bones and spines broken, throats and hearts ripped out…

Sam turned around, threw up and climbed into the car with Dawn, Connor and Willow.
Giles was polishing his glasses furiously and Wesley wished he still had his…

Only Spike looked like he found all this amusing and entertaining.
“’m really starting to like these fellows…” He grinned at his sire.
Angel gave a depressed sigh. “Please, stop joking around. This isn’t fun…”
“Oi! I think I have a right to be happy, peaches! I had that bloody chip frying me brain, not you!”
Angel sighed again, turned and walked over to Wesley.

The young Brit was swallowing hard, again and again.
“You know, you can throw up if you like…” Angel suggested, while his own stomach heaved. But for a different reason. The smell of human blood was making Angelus scream in his head.
A few feet away he heard Spike whisper: “Such a waste of all that lovely blood!”

“I think I’m going to be ok…” Wesley’s voice was just slightly unsteady.

On their left Riley was trying to get to the headquarters-tent, without stepping on anything – or rather, anybody.
Buffy just stared at the mess, not willing to move in any direction.

Gunn moved around between the bodies too, obviously looking for clues. His gaze fell on one of the shredded tents and he crooked his head to the side.
After a moment of concentrated staring he yelled over to Angel. “Hey, boss-man! I think I found us a clue!”

Carefully, Angel moved towards him, Riley left his trail to the main tent and followed the vampire.
“What do you think?” Gunn asked, pointing his finger towards the side of the tent that lay outstretched before him.

Angel and Riley stared. Silence settled in, until Giles and Wesley reached the scene too.
“Good Lord!” Giles took off his glasses and pocketed them.
Wesley sighed. “Is it just me or does the word ‘help’ smeared with blood on a tent at a scene of such terror make no sense?”

Gunn raised an eyebrow. “Come again?” “He thinks this is getting weirder every bloody second!” Spike yelled from were he had ventured to, on the other side of the camp.
Angel glared at the younger Vampire and everyone chose to ignore him.

That left Spike with the opportunity to pick up his own clue.
Roughly he plucked the white object from a dead soldier’s hand and stared at it.
It was a feather.
A simple, white feather. A bit too large and a bit too ‘pure’ and ‘shiny’ for any bird Spike knew as being white.
But what else, if not a bird, had white feathers?
Carefully, Spike tucked his clue into one of his duster’s pockets and trotted back towards the others, who had gathered to go back to the hotel.

There were no more clues here and nothing they could do. Commander Fox was already talking on his phone to somebody about this.

In silence the group drove back into town.

+++ Duel of power +++

From the destroyed camp they headed straight home to the Hyperion.

Of course Angel had invited Riley and Sam – and the other three – to stay the night. The offer was accepted with an open heart.

But when they turned up on the driveway, the army was already there again.

Three military-transporters parked on the street. At least 30 soldiers were spilling out. Someone who looked important – probably General McKenzie – was standing on the front-steps.

Even before everyone was out of the cars, the soldiers already spilled into the lobby.

“Riley…” Angel gave a dispirited sigh. “When I invited you in, I didn’t mean you could bring all your jolly little friends…”

Riley sighed too. “Believe me, I’ve got no clue what they are doing here. I’ll go and check the deal…”

Following Riley, the others walked really slowly into the lobby.
The soldiers were running around, apparently searching the place. For what, Angel and friends had no idea.

“General McKenzie!” Riley screamed at the top of his lungs. Angel and Spike flinched a little.
“Ah! General Finn!” An elderly man with grey hair strolled towards him. “You came to investigate this place too?”

“No,” Riley shook his head, “we came here, because this place belongs to my friend Angel over here.” He indicated with his hand towards the vampire.
“Ah! And where has this ‘friend’ of yours been about two hours ago?” The older General crossed his arms over his chest, making Angel his suspect of the day.
“He was sitting in a chair right next to me at a place called Caritas.” Riley hissed, a bit of his anger getting into his voice. “And after that he went with me to the scene of crime. And even before that he was at ‘his’ hotel, under ‘my’ supervision.” That was a total lie, but nobody cared.

“Ah! So we’re going to stay here!” It wasn’t even a question.
Spike’s eyes got a little wide and a little wild. Angel crossed his arms over his chest. “No!” he said firmly. “You are neither invited nor are you welcome here. You may leave right now!”
The General just gave him a little glare but ignored him otherwise.

“Finn, we’re staying!” “NO, we’re not!” both Angel and Riley yelled angrily at the same moment.

“Those jerks are worse than W&H!” Gunn commented.

“Who’s worse than us?” a female voice asked and Angel got slapped into the chest with a big, brown envelope.

“Hello Lilah…” Angel, Wes and Gunn greeted with even, flat voices.
“You’re having a celebration party over the dragon now?” The blond lawyer indicated her head to the dragon head, which still lay untouched in the lobby. Some soldiers stood around it, stunned.

“No, not really, but feel free to join… What’s this?” Angel had finally grabbed the envelope.
“Well, duh!” Lilah gave her best ‘do you have to ask’ face. “It’s the copies of Connor’s birth-certificate, all his hospital and medical papers and of course his new papers and ID-card. What did you think it was?”
“Right about now, nothing would have shocked me…”

Silence fell over the room, whilst Lilah was just standing next to Angel, and nobody, not even the soldiers, moved.

“Lilah! Did you need anything else?” Angel was getting frustrated, and annoyed. Not a good mix…
“Well, yes, indeed!” Lilah smiled. “Your presence is required at the office ASAP! It seems that ¾ of our L.A. clients have fled the city! Rumour is that something mean just got into town.”

“I’ve heard that before…” Angel took a deep breath. “Lilah, I’m already investigating on that. Please make everybody get as much information from our clients as possible. Then call me. Don’t come here, simply call me!”

“Humph!” With a flip of her hair, Lilah Morgan left the hotel – slowly.

“Who was that?!” Both Buffy and General McKenzie asked.
“That was Lilah Morgan,” Gunn informed them. “Lawyer and second head of the L.A. branch of Wolfram and Hart.”
“What did she want from Angel?” Buffy had crossed her arms over her chest.
Gunn smiled a little. “Angel is first head of the L.A. branch of Wolfram and Hart.” “Oh!”

Angel gave a long, suffering sighed. He rubbed his face tiredly. “I think I’m getting a headache…”

“Sir!” Commander Fox approached General McKenzie. He dragged a young, blond man with him, who was far too pale and far too thin. His cargo-pants and army-shirt seemed at least two sizes too big, his arms were wrapped around his torso, his head bowed down, eyes on the floor.
Angel smelled misery in it purest form.

“Sir, the hotel is clear. A few traces of vampire and also traces of human, but not our demons.”

“Wait a second!” Riley raised a hand. “You thought that the demons whom we’re chasing would hide in here?”

“I’m getting a headache…” Both Riley and Angel mumbled tiredly.

“Ah! If there are traces of a vampire in your hotel you should watch out and protect your neck!” The General grinned at Angel.

“I will make sure to remember that…” Angel mocked in an even voice. “NOW GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HOTEL!!!”

Nobody moved.

“General McKenzie, we really should leave now.” Riley spoke up again. “I would like to discuss today’s happenings with you. And Angel has agreed to help with our case, so I think he needs some space to do his investigations.”

“Ah! He can investigate around us! Set up camp!” The last order went to the 30 soldiers in the lobby.

Angel was fuming now and used every bit of anger he had to yell at the top of his lungs.
“GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HOTEL-“ he vamped out “-BEFORE I DECIDE TO MAKE YOU MY DINNER!!”

Dead silence.

Then the first snickers from Spike.

Trying very hard not to laugh, he stepped forward and tugged carefully on the older vampire’s leather coat.

“Come on, peaches. Step back and let the nice army-boys leave.” More snickering.

“Ah!” The General now spoke more quietly. “At last someone to stand up against this…”
“Oi!” Spike interrupted. “’m not trying to save ya, silly git!”
Now Riley interrupted. “General McKenzie, you might be older, but this is my case, and those are my friends. So I highly advise that you leave now.”

The older man made no move.

After a minute of intense staring, Angel backed off and took a step back. Shaking off his vamp-face he said in a grim voice: “Well, you leave me no other choice then! I’m going to take drastic measures…”

Wes and Gunn got a little nervous, but Angel turned and walked into the still clustered group of his friends until he stood towering over Willow.
“Uhm…” The girl got a little nervous.

Suddenly Angel dropped to his knees and looked up at Willow with big, pleading eyes.
“Willow! Sweet little Willow!” He raised his hands in a begging/praying gesture. “If you can ever forgive me for the incident with your fish, please do so right now and remove those soldiers from my lobby! Make the earth open and swallow them or turn them into toads! I don’t care as long as you make them go away! Please!!”

He sunk to the floor, making it look like Willow was a goddess he bowed before.

Spike went to his knees too. Holding his midriff in silent laughter. Buffy was grinning from ear to ear. Wesley and Giles tried to hide their amusement Watcher-style.

“Uhm…” Willow bowed a little to pat Angel on the back. “I certainly can’t do the ‘open the earth to swallow them’ thing and I’m not sure on the toad-thingy either, but maybe you’ll like this!”

Lifting her long skirt a bit, Willow strolled forward to the middle of the lobby, right into the crowd of soldiers. With a sweet smile she made some of them move a step until she stood in the centre.

Still smiling, Willow dropped her head back and stretched her hand towards the ceiling. Every –EVERY- soldier followed her line of sight, looking up at the ceiling too.

They returned their eyes to Willow when the girl started to speak.
“Mother of nature! Goddess of the elements! Your daughter stands before you! Lend me your winds!”

A bluish-white ball appeared between Willow‘s outstretched hands, and within the next few moments little twisters of wind formed around all those soldiers standing around Willow.
The twisters grew and swallowed the soldiers.

With a sweep of her hands, Willow commanded the whirlwinds out of the doors – taking the soldiers with them.

Stunned silence spread in the lobby, where now only the cluster of friends, Riley, Sam, General McKenzie, Commander Fox and the thin blond were left.

Willow stood in the middle of the lobby and dropped her arms.

“How was that for starters?”

Giles applauded her. “Very well done, Willow, very well done! You adapted everything I taught you! Very well done!”
Willow blushed and gave a little bow.

Angel started to move to her, still on his knees. He hugged her waist and buried his head against her belly. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you…”

Tears of laughter streamed down Spike’s face.
Buffy, Dawn and Connor were laughing out loud.
Wesley hid his face on Gunn’s shoulder, still trying very hard not to laugh.
Gunn was snickering lightly.
Giles had to wipe at his eyes.

Only Willow looked a bit stricken.
“Uhm… Buffy… Your ex-boyfriend is hugging me… Make him stop?”

Riley asked seriously: “General McKenzie would you now leave, please?”

With a furious glare General McKenzie stalked out of the lobby, followed hastily by Commander Fox, who still dragged the blond boy with him.

Following a sudden instinct, Riley burst into laughter too. “That was hilarious!”
Sam stared in awe. “Willow! You’ve become an unbelievable uber-witch!”
Willow blushed a deep red. “No, I’m not…”

Angel used that moment to get up. But because he still hugged Willow, he lifted her up in the progress.
Willow gave a short shriek and was carried over to her friends.

“How about you all sit down for a bit and I’ll check if we’ve got anything to drink in the kitchen?” Angel shooed the group over to the sofas.
“Sounds great!” Buffy smiled. “Can I help you?” “Nah, I’ll go with him! I know our kitchen!” Gunn interrupted and went downstairs with Angel.
Buffy glared at his back.

+++ Snatched +++

Half an hour later everyone was talking about the demons, possible reasons, clues and ways to find and stop them.
Angel had tried to call several of his contacts but none of them answered their phones.

Angel, Wesley and Giles were just having a heated discussion about the word ‘help’, when the phone on the counter rang.

Angel grabbed the receiver. “Angel Invest-“

He was stopped short by Lorne’s shrill, panicked voice. It was impossible to understand a word, the green demon was, at the same time, yelling and crying.
And that made shivers run down Angel’s spine. Never before had he seen Lorne lose himself that much. Not even in Pylea.

“Lorne! Lorne! Calm down!” He screamed into the phone. “I can’t understand you! What happened?!”
Between sobs and panic, the vampire understood at least, that the Caritas was under siege by someone who frightened the hell out of Lorne – even more than the thought of going to his home-dimension.

Everyone had gathered near the phone by now and Spike tapped Angel on the shoulder.
“Tell him to get into the sewers! I’ll pick him up!” Grabbing a sword from the weapons-cabinet, Spike hastily left the building through the underground exit.

Angel had to yell a lot at the frightened Lorne to get him to move, and when the phone was hung up, all they could do was wait.

++

It took far too long!
Angel was pacing up and down the lobby with wide strides.
Every two minutes he would look at the office-clock, sigh angrily and then pace again.

“Angel, please! Calm down!” Wesley was getting frustrated. He too, thought that it
was taking Spike and Lorne far too long to get back to the hotel.

“Hey,” Gunn looked up from the files Riley had given him, “Spike needs at least 20 minutes to get to the Caritas, even if he runs really fast. And because Lorne sure as hell can’t run at all, they’ll need probably 40 minutes to get back. So relax! They will be here soon!”

“Why are you worrying so much anyway?” Buffy looked up from polishing her nails. “Lorne is a big, mean-looking demon. I’m sure he can handle an attack.”
Angel just growled at her and paced some more.
Wesley shook his head sadly. “No, I’m sorry, but Lorne couldn’t defend himself against a spider. I admit that his whole family are warriors, but he is surely the ‘black sheep’. All he can do is sing and mix cocktails. I’m very afraid for his safety too.”

“That is fascinating!” Giles stepped in-between the glaring Buffy and the younger watcher. “Could you tell me more about Lorne’s race and his home?”
Soon both watchers were engaged in sharing information, while Buffy returned to polishing her nails.
Willow and Dawn had found the outside ‘garden’ and sat there in silence.
Riley, Sam and Gunn were still flipping through the files, Connor sat on the counter, while Angel paced up and down the lobby, looking at the clock and growling every two minutes.

It was taking them far too long!

++

Angel was just having an inner debate with Angelus about simply driving to the Caritas to see what was wrong, when noises in the basement alerted him.

Seconds later he heard Lorne scream his name, while running up the stairs.
And because Lorne only screamed “Angel” instead of “Angel-cakes”, the vampire hurried to meet him at the basement-door.

Lorne was in a bad shape when he stumbled into the hallway.
His clothes were partly torn, he was bleeding from different wounds in his arms and back, he was shaking with fear, still sobbing and generally out of breath from running.

“Lorne! What the hell happened?!” Angel grabbed the demon and added in an after-thought: “And where the hell is Spike?!”
“They… got Spike!” Lorne rasped out, then started to sob onto Angel’s shoulder whilst the vampire tried to manoeuvre him towards the sofa.

Connor quickly gathered the first-aid-box from underneath the counter, where he had seen it earlier.
Wesley brought a bottle of Angel’s whisky and a glass.

Lorne was still sobbing but trying to talk at the same time. “At f-first… *sob* …and t-then… *sob* …a-and they… *sob* …a-and h-he… *sob*” Angel didn’t get a word…

Gunn carefully removed Lorne’s jacket without the demon so much as noticing, while Wes offered him a glass of whiskey.
Lorne grabbed the bottle.

Connor had somehow managed to get behind the demon to tend to his back.
With a deep frown he asked. “Lorne, does your shoulder hurt?”

“…l-like fire!” The demon rasped and handed Wesley the half-empty bottle back. He tried to turn his head, but Connor placed one hand on his face and pushed his head back around.
“Don’t look!” the boy advised with a shake of his head. “I’m just glad I took lessons from Doc… Gunn, are there tweezers in the box?”
“Nope!” But with a few fast steps Gunn crossed the lobby and snatched some small tweezers from Buffy’s beauty-case. “Hey!”

“Will these do?” He handed the small object to Connor. “Sure!” The boy wiped them clean with an antiseptic cloth.
“W-what…” Lorne tried to move his head again but was pushed back by Connor.
“Head straight!” The youngster commanded.

Gunn and Angel both grabbed Lorne’s shoulders, when Connor poked the tweezers into a small hole – like a wound from a gun-shot – on Lorne’s back.
Lorne screamed like a wounded animal.
With a fast move, Connor tore a small black object, not unlike a bullet, from the demon‘s back.

Riley leaned over. “Is that one of our tracers?”
“Yupp!” With expert fingers, Connor twisted the little black object and a small sound emitted.

Connor tossed the tracer aside and returned to patching up Lorne.
The green demon had started crying again, but at least Angel could get a decent story from him, ‘cause his panic seemed to be gone.
Or was at least replaced by some sort of shock.

“I-it was all f-fine, b-but then t-these s-soldiers came, a-and they y-yelled and w-wanted to make me come with t-them. A-and when I s-said n-n-no, they t-tried to smash the b-bar, but they c-couldn’t because o-of the sp-spell. And that only m-made them a-angrier and they s-scared me so much, s-s-saying these h-horrible things and I called you…”

Lorne had to blow his nose with a handkerchief provided by Wesley.

“A-and then, I went down t-to the sewers and headed towards the h-hotel and t-then I met Sp-Spike, but s-suddenly the s-soldiers were there t-too and Spike tried to fight them a-and told me to run a-and I did so, b-but I think t-they h-have Sp-Spike!”

The green demon was shaking pretty badly now.
Angel swallowed.
Everyone else stared in horror. Even Buffy looked concerned.

“I’ll rescue him…” Angel whispered and squeezed Lorne’s shoulder.

++++

Part4

+++ Angel to the rescue +++

Lorne had fallen asleep on the sofa and Sam had tucked a blanket around his form.

Angel was raiding his weapons cabinet. He grabbed two axes, four swords and a crossbow.

“Angel, you’re not going on a crusade! Please, calm down!” Wesley was desperately trying to calm the vampire down.

Riley was, meanwhile, trying to reach General McKenzie and get some information from the man. But his calls weren’t answered.

“Boss-man, calm down!” Gunn tried to take the weapons from Angel. “You don’t even know where to look!”
“And if I have to look under every stone in the whole of L.A.,” Angel growled furious, “I’ll find him! I’m fed up with these soldiers!” Angelus agreed.

Yes, Spike was irritating and annoying, but he was HIS childe! His family…

“I want to help!” Dawn whined, tugging at Willow’s skirt.
“I know Dawny, but we can’t…” The witch replied with a sigh. “Nothing we can do?” Dawn looked at her with helpless, pleading eyes.
“No, I’m so-“ She slapped her hand against her forehead. “I’m so STUPID!”

“Huh?” Everybody looked at her.

“I can do a tracer spell to find Spike!” The redhead ran upstairs. “I just need some herbs and…” A door banged.

After a long silence Angel muttered: “I’m liking her even more with every passing minute…”

++

Minutes later Willow had prepared her spell over a map of L.A..

Angel had fetched her one of Spike’s shirts, so she had something personal from the vampire.

Muttering some Latin words, Willow blew the mixture of herbs over the map.
The powder glowed, twirled and settled over one spot on the far left of the map.

Gunn was disappointed. He had hoped for a spell with a little more light and sound. Like the tornados from earlier.

Angel took one close look at the map and only a few seconds later, his car left the parking lot.

++

When Spike awoke, he first noticed that his head hurt.
Remembering the soldiers, he came to the conclusion that a headache was not a good sign.

“Oh, bloody buggering hell…”

“No, this is usually worse than hell,” a small voice explained, close to him.

Spike cracked an eye open. He was lying on his back in something that looked like a cage. Just wide enough for him to lie outstretched and not even high enough to stand up in.
Lifting his head a little, he took in his surroundings. It was a hotel-room, with nearly no furniture, but a lot of technical equipment strewn around.

“Bloody buggering HELL!” Spike growled and sat up as far as he could. His head was touching the bars now.

Just a few feet away, the miserable blond figure from earlier sat hunched over, knees drawn up and arms wrapped around them protectively.

“Oh bloody buggering hell!” The bleached-blond shifted a bit, until he was a little more comfortable.

“You’re repeating yourself…”

Spike humph-ed and started to pat down his duster for his fags and lighter.

“Please! Don’t smoke in here!” The other blond sounded slightly panicked, when Spike pulled the packet and the silver lighter out.

“Wot? You don’t like the smell?” Spike couldn’t help himself and smirked a little.

The other gave a small snort. “Nah, but do you see that?” He pointed upwards and Spike followed his gaze to the ceiling.
There was a water-sprinkler-system that surely didn’t belong to the hotel. And smoke-detectors every few meters.

“The soldiers like to smoke a lot…” At Spike’s confused look, the small guy gave a tiny smile.
“The sprinklers are filled with holy water…”

Spike kept himself from cursing – and repeating himself – again and shifted a bit further towards the bars to lean against them.
“Yeah, that’s something these soldier-jerks would do!”

For a while silence settled in.
Until Spike decided that not being able to smoke and not talking irritated him.

“So, what’s your name, mate?”

The blond turned one eye towards him. “Nikolai.” Spike raised an eyebrow. “Where from?” “Russia.”
“Can’t hear that. Been living in the New World for long?” Nikolai smiled. “Yes, a couple of years now. 50 at least…”
Grinning, Spike introduced himself. “’m Spike! Or William the Bloody, if you like.”
“William the Bloody? Part of the Scourge of Europe?” The other blond now looked at him in awe.
Spike’s grin got a little wider. “Yeah, that would be me; my Sire, the Dark Princess; her Sire, Angelus and his Sire, Darla.”
“My Sire mentioned you often. He always wanted to meet the Plague of Prague…” “That’s my sweet Dark Princess! Where’s your sire now?”
The natural blond gave a suffering sigh. “Probably dust… I lost all trace of him when the soldiers got us five years ago.”
Spike’s eyebrows shot up. He remembered being captured for a few days and he had hated it! But being like this for five years… With a chip in his head!? He suddenly felt the urge to hug the smaller one – or maybe stake him…

Suddenly, Nikolai’s head shot up. His eyes widened a bit. “Be quiet!” he hissed, then shrank back into himself, head coming down to rest on his knees.

Just a second later Spike heard footsteps coming towards the room’s door.
The door bang open, revealing three soldiers, all smoking and grinning, with beer-cans and shopping-bags in their hands.

“Hey, look at that!” one of them shouted. “Our little sleepy-head is finally awake!”
Spike kept his growl to himself.

Behind the soldiers, Commander Fox came into view and shut the door behind him.
“How nice of you to join us again? Had a nice nap?” Spike bit his tongue to stop himself from saying anything.

“Don’t worry, vampire,” Commander Fox said with a grin, while he sat down on the bed opposite to the cage. “you’re gonna like it here, we are good company!” He and his soldiers laughed.
Spike could feel Nikolai flinch next to him.

“Listen, mate,” Spike’s mouth was once again faster than his brain, talking when he shouldn’t. “I’ve got friends who won’t like me going missing…”
Fox waved the comment away with one hand. “The green thing you were so keen about protecting? Don’t worry, he’s dead.”

Spike’s eyes narrowed. “And you will join our side soon. Tomorrow we’re gonna ship you to the Headquarters and they will get you chipped in no time!” Again he and his ‘friends’ laughed.

Spike’s eyes narrowed even further. They were not going to chip him again! He preferred death over the chip. But he would take as many soldiers with him as he could.

Suddenly, a few drops of acid liquid landed on Spike’s skin.
The cigarette-smoke had set off one of the sprinklers and bits of holy water were falling down.
Spike ignored them as well as he could. There weren’t that many…

“I feel like playing now!” Fox announced and the next thing Spike felt, was a stun-gun pressed into his arm and a bolt that had him stunned for two seconds.
But two seconds were enough for the second soldier to grab Nikolai and pull him out of the cage.

Spike just glared at the soldiers. His eyes promising pain upon them the second he got a chance.

One of the soldiers held Nikolai and the blond vampire couldn’t fight back because of the chip.
“Watch very closely, vampire!” Fox snarled at Spike. “By next week you will trade places with my favourite toy here, so you’d better learn right now.”

Fox grabbed Nikolai by the hair and pulled him closer. The vampire was on his knees before the Commander, when Fox pulled his zipper open.
He grinned at the blonde. “Now play nice…” And Nikolai leaned in between the Commander’s legs and began to suck.

Spike’s stomach did a little flip. He didn’t know what was worse. Scientists who thought they could create monsters or soldiers that used vampires as toys.
Probably the latter – from the view he was getting.

Spike didn’t turn his eyes away but glared daggers – and swords – at Fox. ‘That guy is dead meat!’
Yes, Spike noticed he had taken a liking to the Russian vampire.

Fox came with a grunt and pushed Nikolai a little backwards. Grinning at Spike he said: “See, that’s how things work here!” He laughed than turned to one of the still smoking soldiers. “Get me a bath ready, with a little extra. My toy looks like he could use one.”
The four men laughed and Spike felt like ripping their throats out.

While one turned towards the bathroom, the phone started ringing and someone picked it up.
“Hello?” Seconds later, he saluted to the phone. “Yes, General McKenzie, Sir! Yes, Sir!”
He handed the phone to the Commander. Fox listened for a moment. “Sure, be right over!”

“Boys, I’ll have to assist McKenzie, have fun with my toy!” Laughing he left the room.
One of the soldiers grinned at Nikolai, who had decided to fall onto his side at that moment.

+++ to ‘us’ or not to ‘us’, that’s the question +++

Angel had floored the gas-pedal angrily. The grim expression on his face had even scared an officer, who – for merely a second - had thought about stopping the over-speeding convertible.

Angel was mad at the soldiers. How DARE they grab HIS grand-childe!
He was picturing himself ripping the guts out of those soldier-boys, when he stopped his car at the parking lot of the motel the spell had pointed towards.

Seconds before he could jump out of the car, Angel stopped himself and tried to relax against the seat.
“What the hell is happening?” Even though he didn’t need to breathe, Angel tried to take some calming breaths.

He was mad as hell – but why?
Because someone had taken Spike away.
Why did that make him mad?
Because Spike was his grand-childe, his family. Because somehow, he had enjoyed having Spike with him for the last year.

Carefully, Angel patted his chest. Yup, his soul was still there.
Then why the heck did he feel so Angelus-like right now?
Why did he feel good about imagining himself killing those soldiers?

He didn’t get ‘one moment of pure happiness’ so his soul should be safe and secure and he shouldn’t feel like Angelus at all…
Angel started to brood.

A light to his far left disturbed him and, when he saw the tall figure of Commander Fox move away from one of the housing blocks, he felt his hatred return with a vengeance.

Commander Fox climbed into a jeep and drove off into the night.
Angel got out of his car, grabbed random weapons, and silently stalked over to where Fox had come from.

As Angel approached the stairs down to the basement, he could suddenly feel his grand-childe’s distress.
Spike was down there and something wasn’t right.
Hurriedly, but careful not to make a sound, Angel moved down the stairs towards the door.

Pressing his ear close to the door, he could hear people – soldiers – laughing, water running and Spike growling.
For a moment Angel pondered if he could get into the hotel-room without an invitation. But these were soldiers, maybe they had – Angel looked down.

A wicked grin spread across his face. He stood on a doormat that had the unmistaken word ‘welcome’ on it. Stupid soldiers…

Angel checked his weapons. He had brought an axe and a sword with him, gripping both hilts ready for battle.
Now the question was which one to drop in order to open the door…

“I’ll go and pick up more cigarettes!” A voice said on the inside of the room. Angel‘s wicked grin got wider. He vamped.

When the unsuspecting soldier opened the door and found an evilly grinning vampire on his doorstep, he shrieked in panic and tried to slam the door shut again.

But Angel had already raised his sword and brought the flat side down to knock the soldier out.
The guy dropped where he had stood, unconscious.

In a second Angel took in the room and his surroundings.
There was water running in the bathroom next to the main room. Spike was in a cage to his right, next to the open bathroom door.
A bed was to his left, two soldiers stood in the middle of the room, the thin blond he had seen earlier lay curled up at their feet. Obviously they had just beaten the boy.

“Oh, looky! Another vampire!” One of the soldiers said with a grin. “Hey there, vampy!” He waved at Angel.

Angel still had that wicked smile plastered on his face and through the link that was the bond of this family, he could hear Spike’s voice inside his head. ~Uhm, Angelus???~

“Oh, can’t poor, angry vampy-boy come into OUR room?” the second soldier teased.

Angel’s smile curled up a little more and he simply took a step over the body of the knocked-out soldier.
He kicked the door closed with his heel.

Both soldiers swallowed and straightened. “How did he get in?” “How am I supposed to know?”

Both guys in army-green tried to reach for their weapons, one reaching towards something on the bed, the second moving towards the bathroom.

Of course, vamp-speed make Angel faster and he managed to knock the solider out that had tried to get towards the bath.
Angel really didn’t intend to kill them anymore. Just scare them and knock them out, to show that nobody messed with him – and his family.

The second soldier had retrieved a large knife, and had hoisted the blond one up, holding said knife to the unresisting boy’s throat.
“Back off or I’ll harm him!” He was sweating, afraid and desperate to get away. Angel could see and smell it.

“I came for the other blonde.” He explained, pointing his sword towards Spike.
The soldier was breathing fast. “So, you’re not one of those demons who run around slaying soldiers and rescuing random hostiles?”

“I wasn’t five minutes ago, but maybe I’ll change my mind,” Angel suggested, then dropped his sword, using the now free hand to massage the bridge of his nose.
“Listen, soldier-boy,” he snarled, “you’re holding a knife to a vampire’s throat! How efficient do you think that is?”

“Uhm…” The soldier looked down to where the blade of his knife rested against the undead-one’s throat. The blond in his arms didn’t breathe or swallow. He was dead. He didn’t need to. And a knife slicing his throat would hurt, but not kill him.
The soldier swallowed and looked back up, only to find Angel’s vamp-face mere millimetres from his. He screamed and Angel punched him in the nose.

The soldier went down – unconscious; the blond vampire went down - his strength leaving him; Spike went down – laughing.

~Hell, sire, did you leave your soul in the car or what?~ Spike’s voice laughed inside Angel’s head.

Angel turned and opened the cage. “No, I’m all ‘soul-full, broody me’, now let’s get out of here! Lorne’s worried sick.”
“Was he hurt bad?” Spike crawled out of the cage and over to the other vampire. “Up we go!” he said cheerfully and patted the other’s shoulder.
“Angel, this is Nikolai. Can I keep him?” Spike made puppy-dog eyes at his sire.

For a moment, Angel was about to argue with Spike. Then he simply shrugged. “Give him to me, I’ll carry him.”

“I can walk on my own!” Nikolai protested weakly, while Spike tried to help him to his feet.
Angel chewed on his lip for a moment. Never before had he seen a vampire so helpless. The boy couldn’t stand on his own legs and kept falling over in any random direction whenever Spike let go of his arm.

For another moment, Angel pondered with himself and Angelus. Then, he simply couldn’t take Nikolai’s struggles to stay upright any more.
“Do you want to snack on one of the soldiers? I’ll kill him for you.” Yes, Angel knew what these ‘chips’ the Initiative used could do. Willow had let a little of it slip.

Spike just stared at him in confusion. ~You sure you didn’t leave your soul at home?~
Nikolai smiled. “No, thank you. These soldiers have the tendency to poison their blood with drugs to kill vampires.”
“Oh.” Angel looked at the three unconscious men. “Then I think pigs blood must do.”
Nikolai nodded with a smile. “Yes, thank you.”

Grinning at his grand-sire, Spike led Nikolai towards the door. The bleached blond made sure to hit the soldier lying there in the head with the door when he opened it.

“Oh, looky… Stairs…” Nikolai didn’t sound happy at all.

Angel had had enough. He picked the vampire up, with an arm under his knees and the other around his back.
He nearly fell over backwards at the non-existent weight of the vampire.
Spike picked up the discarded weapons and closed the door, following Angel across the parking lot.

Inside the motel room a little pink light, the size of a tennis-ball, appeared in mid-air.
Little wings could be heard whirring in the air.

Then the light grew bigger until the little pink fairy was the size of a teenager, a mop of pink hair on its head and a set of pink insect-wings on its back. A pair of black leather hot-pants and a tight top clung to the small body. Very small breasts indicated that the fairy was female.
“Those guys are more fun than I thought!” Tink exclaimed happily.

Smiling, the fairy moved to the bathroom and blocked the emergency-drains on the sink and the bath-tub. The water for Commander Fox’s bath was still running, the tub now set to overflow easily.

Tink turned on the faucets on the sink as far as they would go and watched the heavy downpour for a moment.
Back in the main room, Tink threw anything that looked like electronics onto the floor. She emptied dressers and boxes to the floor, smashing a piece here and there.
In the bathroom the water started to pour onto the floor.

Tink used her wings to levitate herself into the air. Watching the water starting to creep its way into the main room, Tink used what little magick was given her to seal the door, windows and air-ducts shut, so the water wouldn’t leave the room.

Smaller parts of electronics started to float around, giving off little sparks.
The water kept running and Tink kept watching until she was very sure that the water would flood the room completely, destroying the electronics and drowning the soldiers in the process.

Returning to her usual 8-inch size, Tink magicked herself out of the room, turned into a tennis-ball sized ball of light, turned the light off and set off to follow Angel again.

+++

Everyone assembled in the lobby breathed a sigh of relief, when the sound of a convertible pulling up to the hotel was heard.

Only minutes later Wes and Gunn nearly ran for cover, when Angel marched through the lobby and up the stairs.

“Angel!” Buffy called after him, but the vampire acted like he hadn’t heard her.

“Back off from the brood-pire there, luv!” Spike yelled from the doors, Nikolai leaning against him.
“Something’s got his knickers in a twist…”

“What happened?” Wesley demanded to know, whilst Lorne got up from the couch and got all concerned. “Spikey-poo, are you alright?”
“No clue, mate!” Spike shook his head at Wesley. “Acted all Angelus-like for a while, then went back to brooding…”

Spike lowered Nikolai to the couch Lorne had been occupying earlier. “Wes, how about something to drink here? Guys, this is Nikolai, he’s gonna stay awhile.”

While everyone buzzed around the lobby and questioned either Spike or Nikolai over anything and nothing – or in Buffy’s case ignored everyone and everything, Connor grabbed a mug with blood and went upstairs to search for his father.

++

Angel sat on his bed, back against the headboard, staring at the place where the crib had stood.
Every few seconds he would sigh and shift his legs a little.

Connor was well educated. He knocked before he entered his father‘s bedroom.
“Dad? I brought you some blood.” He stopped next to his father, who didn’t even look at him.

“Not now, Connor…” Angel rubbed at his face with one hand. “Not now…”
“Dad, is everything alright?” Connor set the cup down on the nightstand and stared at his father with concern.

Angel sighed and looked at the empty space of his room. “I nearly killed someone today, Connor.”
“And that’s bad because?” The vampire turned his head to look at the boy, who looked like he had no clue.

“Connor, it’s never right to just go and kill people!” Connor shrugged his shoulders. “People get killed in car-accidents every day. Every two minutes somewhere on this earth someone murders somebody. And every ten minutes somebody commits suicide.”

Angel looked away again. “Connor, that’s not the same…”
The bed moved and seconds later Connor settled himself into his father’s lap, back against the solid chest. He grabbed his father’s hands and wrapped his father’s arms around himself.
Angel rested his chin on top of Connor’s head.

“Dad, I’ve been travelling with Xander for about nine months now and I’ve learned a couple of things from him. I learned that it is in the nature of a vampire to kill humans. Keeping a vampire from killing people is against nature. It’s like keeping a tiger in the living-room and expecting him to act like a dog.”

Angel was about to protest and say something, but Connor slapped his arm lightly. “No, I’m talking now! You can talk later. I also learned that not all vampires are evil. You and Spike are very much human, for example. And Vincent is a vampire who has no soul, but isn’t ‘evil’ either. He kills people. But he chooses his victims wisely.
Like one time, when Xander, Vincent and I came across a guy who had just murdered a woman to get her purse. Xander was all ‘let’s turn him in and let the police handle this’ and Vincent was all ‘no, let’s not turn him in’. And the guy sided up with Vincent, of course. So after five minutes Xander said ‘alright, we won’t turn him in’ and the guy was all ‘ah, thanks guys!’ and then Vincent said ‘here is your penalty for killing the woman’ and then he drained him.
So, Vincent kills people and that’s alright, ‘cause he chooses people who deserve to die anyway…”

“But who decides who deserves to die?” Angel wanted to know and Connor smiled. “Let me quote a wise man here: many who deserve to live, die and many who deserve to die, live. (1)
There’s nothing to decide but your own point of view. The world isn’t just black and white; it has lots of shades of grey too. And humans aren’t always the ‘white-ones’ just because they have souls. Jack the Ripper and Hitler had souls too…”

For a moment, Angel was silent. Then: “Who said that?”
“The thing about the souls and the world being not only black and white? That’s from Xander…” Connor snuggled even deeper into his father’s embrace.

Angel fell silent again, brooding, and stroking his fingers up and down Connor’s arms without noticing.

“Want me to tell you a story?” Connor asked, face pressed against one of Angel’s arms. “Hm.”

“I’m gonna tell you the story of a boy named Stephan who met a white knight then…”

(1)(Quoting “The Lord of the Rings”, “Fellowship of the Ring”, Gandalf to Frodo in the mines of Moria.)

+++ Your friendly next door neighbour-knight +++

It was a Saturday morning nine months ago from today, in a little town that usually nobody noticed.

Stephan felt like hell, whilst he took the trash out for his mom. The thing that called itself his father had given him quite an awful beating last night.
This morning the bruises were already fading. Stephan healed much faster than other people. The little gashes his ‘father’s’ belt had left on his back were already fading into nothing but angry red lines.

Reaching the trash-cans, Stephan glanced towards the house next door. Two weeks ago new people had moved there.
Two men. One tall and dark, with an eye-patch, the other, smaller and younger.
Stephan had made several guesses as to who they were. Brothers, Friends, Lovers?

Personally Stephan liked the fantasy in which they were brothers best. ‘Cause in that fantasy, the older one would come and take Stephan as his lover. He would take him away from his abusive family and Stephan would lead a happy life…

Hearing voices and noticing that the other back door was opening, Stephan shook his thoughts away and disposed of the first trash-bag, then the second.
While he was closing the trash-can again, the neighbour with the eye-patch had reached his own trash-cans.

“Good morning!” He said with a huge smile. Stephan just gave the smallest of smiles in return. “Morning…”
“I don’t think we have met yet,” a hand was extended over the small fence, “I’m Xander Harris.”
Just when Stephan wanted to hold and shake the offered hand, his mother yelled from the kitchen. “STEPHAN!!!”

So the boy just shrugged his shoulders and jogged back inside, never noticing the concerned look Xander Harris gave his back.

Later that day Stephan was locked in his room. His parents were about to leave the house and all he did was stare out of his second-story bedroom window.
He only did that, because from here he had a perfect view into the next door‘s kitchen window.

Right now Xander Harris and his smaller companion were preparing dinner.
Stephan sighed deeply. Xander Harris. Such a nice name and such a nice voice…

Such a nice body, too.
Xander was at the stove, stirring in two pots, swinging his hips to some music only he could hear and moving his lips like he was singing.
Stephan guessed that the radio was playing. The smaller one was laying the table. Plates, glasses, spoons, forks, knives…
Stephan couldn’t remember when he had had a family dinner like that… He wasn’t allowed at the table and his ‘mother’ nearly never cooked.

Downstairs he heard the front door slam and minutes later, his parent’s car pulling away from the house.
With one slightly raised eyebrow, he noticed that the smaller neighbour was pressed against the kitchen window and watched his parents leave.
Seconds later he gave a nod to Xander and took over the pots.

Xander Harris hurried outside and waved at Stephan.
Confused – and a little shocked that his spying had been discovered – Stephan opened the window and leaned a bit forward.
“Stephan!” Xander yelled from across the lawn. “Come over! I made far too much spaghetti!”

Stephan pondered on that for – oh, let’s say three seconds, then he pushed the window as far up as it would go, climbed outside and simply let himself fall, landing on his feet and dropping to his knees.

He heard Xander’s sharp intake of breath. “Heavens, don’t do that! You’re giving me a heart attack here!” Stephan climbed over the picket fence. “Sorry…”
But Xander was laughing again, leading the boy inside with a hand on his back.

This house was far more comfortable and welcoming than his own.
With eyes a little wider than usual, Stephan took in his surroundings. The hallway was unlit, but the living-room was. Stephan saw comfortable furniture, a few pictures on the walls and a few books and magazines on the coffee-table.
The kitchen was even more welcoming to him. A laid table, the smell of food, water and different juices just from the fridge… The furniture was white, but the walls had been painted yellow.
Stephan felt at home at once.

“Stephan, that’s Andrew. Andrew, this is Stephan!” he heard Xander say and took in the other man.
Or rather boy.
Andrew couldn’t be much older than his own 16 years. But maybe he just seemed younger because of his behaviour.
Andrew bounced over and started to talk a mile a minute. “So, you’re Stephan. Hi Stephan! I’m Andrew. But Xander just said that. We just moved here but you probably noticed that too. I’m glad you could come over, ‘cause Xander made far too much spaghetti. I like spaghetti a lot but I can’t eat it all alone. And Xander makes a great sauce too. With real tomatoes and meat and-“
“ANDREW!”

Silence.

“Thank you…”
Andrew pouted at that and settled down at the kitchen table. Xander turned the stove off. “Stephan, take a chair and have a drink. Do you like what we’ve got?”
“Yes, thank you very much.” Stephan took the chair opposite to Andrew, so that Xander could sit in between them.
Andrew helped himself to some apple-juice. “What would you like, Xander?” “Apple please!” Andrew poured him a glassful and held the bottle out to Stephan. “Apple? Or orange? Or cherry? Or water?”
“Apple is fine.” Stephan took the bottle. “Thank you.”

“Here we go!” Xander placed a bowl with spaghetti on the table, followed by a pot with sauce. “Dig in!” he exclaimed happily and handed the noodles to Stephan.

Seeing that there was enough food to feed an army, Stephan ate four platefuls.

Whilst they ate, Xander and Andrew made simple conversation with Stephan, who felt like part of the family because of it. His parents never talked to him.

He was told that Xander and Andrew came from a place called Sunnydale, which fell victim to an earthquake. Then they had been in Cleveland but moved again rather quickly.
They told him they had left friends behind in Cleveland. Three girls, named Willow, Buffy and Dawn. And a father figure named Giles.

Stephan was amazed with the easy way Xander and Andrew talked about themselves.
There was nothing Stephan could talk about. He was a teen, he went to school, his parents beat him, he healed too fast and everyone thought he was freaky.
No, he left those parts out and just told them about school. How he liked arts and sports and the library.

Xander sighed happily. “Oh yes! The joy of High-School! I remember Graduation so clearly…”
He broke into a wide grin. “We blew up the building. Literally!” He laughed about something only he remembered. Andrew’s older brother had been in his class, but Andrew himself was younger.

Stephan stopped for a moment. “You blew up your High-School?”
“The newspaper said it had been a gas-pipe!” Andrew explained. “It was fun…” Xander said dreamily. “And we survived.”
“The explosion?” “No, High-School!!” Xander helped himself to more noodles and Stephan wondered what new kind of ‘strange’ he had just discovered.

++++

Part 5

+++ Solving Some Problems +++

Angel had fallen asleep as soon as Connor had spoken the last words.

Day had come swiftly, and everyone had done one thing or the other.

Spike had shared a bed with Nikolai, not wanting the other vampire to be alone. Nikolai did not sleep well, no matter how many times Spike assured him that they were fine right now.

Lorne had returned to his room too. He had taken a long bath, redressed in a medium-blue suite with a white silk shirt and had fallen asleep in his favourite chair while watching TV.

All remaining humans – Buffy, Dawn, Willow, Giles, Wesley, Gunn, Riley and Sam – had settled down too. But being human made them get up during the day.

Connor got up a few times too, but always returned to his father’s side.
Angel slept on, like the day before, barely concerned by Connor’s leaving and returning.

It was in the afternoon, when Connor tried to shake his father awake.
“Dad! Dad, wake up! Please! It’s kind of urgent!”

Angel groaned and cracked an eye open. “Kind of urgent…” he mumbled sleepy. “Yes, there is a spooked, crying Lilah Morgan in the lobby,” Connor stared at the vampire, trying to figure out if that had caught his attention.
“Lilah…” Sleepy Angel closed his eyes again.

“Yes, a very spooked and heavily crying Lilah!” Connor replied, shaking his father’s shoulder once more.
“What would she cry for?” Angel mumbled into his pillow, while he tried to pull the covers over his head.

“I do not know,” Connor said, tugging the blanket back down, “but she wants to talk to you – like: now!”
Angel groaned and grumbled some more, but sat up and swung his legs out off bed. “Ok, Ok, I’m up… Be down in a sec…”
“Try not to fall asleep in the shower!” Connor told him laughing while leaving.

When Angel reached the lobby ten minutes later, Lilah Morgan was a wreck.
She sat on a couch, holding a teacup in her hands, and tears were still running down her cheeks, smearing makeup everywhere.

“Lilah, what happened?” Angel joined Gunn and Wesley, who stood in front of her, looking concerned.
“Something killed Lindsey!” Lilah managed to get out, before new sobs shook her body and she nearly dropped the cup.
Wesley took it from her and replaced it with a handkerchief.

“Is it just me or does that not make sense?” Angel looked at his colleges. “It’s as much as she has said so far…” Wesley replied while Lilah blew her nose and tried to wipe most of her tears away.

“The whole story goes like this…” she whispered and the three males leaned in closer.
“Y-you all know t-that restaurant we a-a-always take your most imp-important clients too?”

Angel nodded. “The place is carefully picked and heavily warded with all kinds of spells and security, right?” Gunn and Lilah both nodded.

“Last night, s-six of our m-most imp-important clients were to have dinner with us…” Lilah blew her nose again, steadying her breath.
“All six had at least two guards with them and W&H did sent Lindsey and 5 others… They were to discuss the e-evil thing that h-hit L.A….”

“And-and-and now they are all dead!!” Lilah broke out into sobs again, burring her face in her hands.

“Our demons?” Angel turned to Wesley. “I think some research is in order…” the ex-Watcher said coolly and walked over to his office.
Gunn went after him, picking up the map and files Riley had left on his way.

Angel placed a hand on Lilah’s shoulder. “Lilah, listen! I want you to get out of town! Go to Cleveland-“ She eyed him strangely, he smiled, “-and try to contact a girl named Faith and a guy named Robin Wood. They are leading the Slayer-Headquarters. Tell Faith I did send you and hide with them! Tell them to have the slayers on alert.”
Lilah nodded and tried to dry her face. “Stay for a while, but try to leave during daylight,” Angel suggested. “I don’t know if that’s safer but it’s easier to drive during daylight.”
Lilah nodded again and tried a small smile. “Go, research with your team, I’ll be gone in a few… Can I use one of your bathrooms?”
Angel grinned. “Sure.”

Then he joined Gunn and Wes.

“What do we have so far?” he settled down into one of the chairs.
“Let’s look at the facts like this…” Wesley took some sheets of paper and a pen.

“The Initiative came to Buffy – and us – with a case of demons killing humans.” He wrote that down while the other two nodded.

“The demons wrote the word ‘help’ across the country with their victims.” Again with the nods.

“At the same time-“ Wes raised his index finger “-Xander and his group are running away from something.” Nods. “Could this be related?”

“Maybe Xander’s friends are those demons killing all da students?” Gunn suggested.

Angel and Wes looked at him, then at each other. “Nah! No way!” they both said in unison.
Gunn raised an eyebrow.

Angel shook his head. “I’ve known Xander Harris for a couple of years now. He might be a white knight, but he is incapable of cold-blooded murder.”

“He also has no reasons to kill random students,” Wesley explained.
“I admit I was a bit surprised that Xander hung out with demons. I always thought he hated all demons with a passion…” Angel frowned.

“Bullocks, peaches! The whelp just hated you with a passion!” a laughing voice chimed in.

All eyes turned to Spike, who strolled into the room and sat down next to Angel.

“The whelp was with Anya – a vengeance demon – for years! And he was friends with me, too! Shared his basement and his apartment with me, he did! Bought me blood and watched TV with me…” Spike drifted off, smiling dreamingly at the ceiling.

Gunn’s face was split by a board grin. Wesley coughed politely and Angel just raised an eyebrow.

“Maybe da clue is with the victims then?” the dark man suggested and Wes turned to the folder.

Spike came back from his happy-place and blinked. Angel turned to Wes too.

“The victims are random students and random teachers at random universities in random towns. I don’t think we will find a pattern in there…” The dark haired vampire shrugged his shoulders.

Spike blinked again. “Students?” “Yes,” Wes smiled at him, “the demons we and the Initiative are chasing have slaughtered nearly 300 students and teachers.”

A nasty look settled onto Spike’s face. “How many of them female?”

“Pardon?” Wesley pushed his non-existing glassed up his nose.

“How many of the victims were female?” Spike repeated his question, still looking like he had bit into a lemon.
“How is that gonna help us figure this mess out?” Gunn wanted to know, but started to help Wesley flicking through the files.

Angel frowned at his grand-childe. “What do you know?”
“Just got struck with a sudden thought…” the blonde replied. “Might not even be right…”

“There are many female teachers mentioned, but near-to-no female students…” Wesley announced and looked at Spike. “What do you think that means?”

Spike sneered. “That means that you been fooled. It means they only told you what they thought you needed to know. It means they keep bloody important information-“
He stopped short and the entire colour drained from his face, eyes going as wide as saucers.

Angel made a grab for his arm, even when he was seated. “Spike!”

“Oh bloody buggering hell… Oh bloody buggering hell!! OH BLOODY BUGGERING HELL!!”
Spike had gone from whispering to screaming.

“Spike!” Angel yelled again, getting afraid.

Eyes still wide and face still paler than normal Spike turned to Angel. “It means they lied to you… It means Xander and his gang ARE responsible for all the killing…”

“WHAT?” Now Angel, Wesley and Gunn were confused to no extend.

“Spike, I think we agree on the fact, that Xander Harris is incapable of leading a group of demons into killing harmless students.” Angel tightened his grip on Spike’s arm.

“Yeah, he is. Incapable that is,” Spike said and stood up, getting rid of Angel’s hand in the process, “but those are no students!”

Wesley frowned. “Demons in pretty good disguises?”

“Worse than any demon you ever met!” Spike said. “Worse than the first evil and hell together…” Spike walked backwards.
“Spike!” Angel got up too.

“They are mean, green and start with a capital ‘I’…” Spike whispered before he ran from the room and up the stairs with vamp-speed.

Silence.

Then Gunn shrugged his shoulders. “Either he’s gone bonkers or he solved our problem without telling us…”

“Mean, green with an ‘I’?” Wesley repeated, frowning at Angel.
“It’s what Xander said they were running from. ‘Mean, green, with a capital ‘I’ and making master vampires run crying’…” Angel recalled what Xander had said to him the night they slayed the dragon.

Gunn shrugged again. “Still no clue, boss…”

In precisely this moment, Riley Finn poked his head into Wesley’s office. “Hi, may I interrupt?”

Angel’s eyes widened. “THAT’S IT!”

Everybody started at him.

“Boss, that’s da Finn-guy!” Gunn explained, figuring out a way to keep the vampire, should he try running too.

“Yes, and that’s the solution to our problem!” Angel exclaimed happily.

“I am?” Finn walked in, looking confused.

“Well, not exactly you, but I just figured it all out!” Angel flopped down into his chair. Then he started to brood, brows furrowing in concentration.

Riley Finn sat down next to Charles Gunn, while they all waited for Angel to speak up again.

When he finally did, his eyes went to Riley.
“Riley, how much do you know about the students that were killed?”

Riley shrugged his shoulders a little. “Not much. Just that they were students. If you want to know what they studied I would have to call the Pentagon.”

“Did you know, that there were nearly no female students? Plenty of female teachers, but just a few female students?” Angel continued.

“No, I did not! Is that an important clue?” The soldier sat up a little straighter.

“It might be…” Angel said and looked straight into Riley’s eyes. “Because I think that those students were Initiative-soldiers!”

Riley’s eyes got wide. “WHAT?” Gunn and Wesley looked no lesser shocked.

“No way!” The soldier jumped to his feet. “The Pentagon would have told me if those were dead soldiers! That would have been a most important case! There would be-“
Riley stopped short and fell back into his seat.

“Oh my god! Those are soldiers!”

Silence.

“Someone explain this to me!” Gunn demanded, looking helplessly from Angel to Riley, back to Angel and finally to Wesley.

“I’m not getting it either…” the young brit explained.

“It all makes sense this way…” Riley said, then he looked at Gunn and Wesley. “You just have to know the background…

I’m totally against the imprisonment and ‘testing’ of demons! Because that just led us to Adam and at least I remember clearly how that worked out!

So if the Pentagon still had soldiers out there who tortured demons without me knowing, then they would have to cover up the fact that those soldiers got killed by there own prisoners!

But when they tell me that demons killed innocent students I – of course – rush off to help and slay the demons – without even asking for their motives!

Oh, I am so stupid! By now one should think I learned to always check the other side of the story…”

Riley trailed off and looked at Angel. “This big nasty that hit L.A…. That’s not the demons we’re looking for, that’s us!”

“Wait!” Gunn raised both hands. “Those demons just run around killing soldiers ‘cause da soldiers torture and kill demons first?”
“Sounds like revenge to me,” Wesley said and placed his hands in his lap. “What do we do now?”

“If it’s really Xander and his gang who are responsible, then we have to talk to them first.”

“Xander?” Riley arched an eyebrow. “Xander Harris from Sunnydale? Responsible for this? Are you kidding me?”

Angel smiled. “Yes, it’s a bit hard to believe…” Suddenly he looked at Wesley, concern all over his face. “But it would explain why the angel had no wings and the other one looked like he was dipped into acid…”

Wesley’s eyes widened and there was silence again for a moment.

With a sigh Angel moved to stand up. “Maybe I should-“

“-talk to someone who knows what’s going on? Good idea!” a voice said from the doorway and all eyes turned to Connor, who leaned against the frame.

Angel sighed again. He looked at his son.
Connor simply smiled and settled himself into his father’s lap. “I travelled with Xander for nine month. I know stuff…”

“Tell us as much as you can, please…” Angel wrapped his arms around the thin youth and Connor started to tell another tale.

+++ Things that go bump in the Night +++

It was a month after the first night that Stephan had been invited for dinner into Xander’s house.
Since then he had been over nearly every evening and sometimes even stayed for the night.

He started to look healthier and a bit more like he was finally given food. His parents didn’t even notice.
Stephan could have probably moved in with Xander and Andrew without his parents ever noticing that something – or someone – was missing.

One evening Stephan and Andrew were in the living-room, while Xander dominated the kitchen and cooked something that simply smelled delicious.

Hearing the sounds of a car, both boys stared out the window and into the street.
The engine didn’t sound to well and after a few moments a van rather rolled than drove by.

Just a few seconds later the van gave a loud ‘boom’ and stopped, grey smoke rising from underneath the hood.

“Brake down completed!” Andrew grinned. Stephan tilted his head. “That van looks like it has been around the world and back three times…”

The driver, who had gotten out earlier, now stood in front of his car, looking defeated.
Stephan noticed a short man with funny red hair, maybe as old as Xander.

The man looked from their house to the one Stephan normally lived in and back. Then he made the right decision and walked towards Xander’s home.

The doorbell rang and Andrew got up. “I’ll get it! I think it’s OK!”

Stephan did not understand that, but Andrew went to open the door and said ‘hi’ to the guy outside.

“Hi, sorry to bother you this late, but my van just left me. Could I use your phone?” The driver sounded defeated and tired.
Stephan also heard Xander placing a spoon aside and drying his hands off.

Andrew stepped back and let the stranger in, without uttering an invitation.
“Thanks,” the young man went straight to the phone, “I’ll repay you for the call.”

But before he could lift the receiver, Xander poked his head around the kitchen door. “Oz?”
A moment of hesitation. “Xander?”

Shouts of glee and both of them were hugging each other.

“Oz! We haven’t heard of you in ages! Where have you been?” Xander said, bright smile on his face.
“Just returned from Europe. Was on my way to Sunnydale. Xander, how is everyone? How are you? And what happened to your eye?” Oz stepped back from the embrace to look at his friend.

“Long story, sad ending!” Xander still smiled and pointed towards the kitchen. “Hey, I got dinner cooking. Forget about your van and sit down!”

Then Xander pointed to Andrew. “That’s Andrew, Tucker’s brother!” “OH!” Oz said automatically and Andrew pouted. “Everyone always remembers my brother…”
“And that’s Stephan, he’s from next door and not from Sunnydale…” “Nice to meet you, I’m Oz.”

“That’s a strange name,” Stephan decided, but shook the other mans hand nonetheless.
“It’s my nickname. Actually my name is Daniel Osborne. My old band cut that short to Oz.”

“You played with the ‘Dingos’ right?” Andrew’s eyes had begun to shine with excitement. “My brother talked about how you used to play in the ‘Bronze’.”
Stephan had no idea what Andrew was talking about, but Oz smiled.

“Dinner!” Xander yelled from the kitchen and they rushed off to get the food. Xander’s cooking was – kind of – famous.

Oz and Xander talked about the time back in High school but always seemed to leave things out or cut themselves off, because they were about to say something Stephan wasn’t supposed to hear.

When all plates were polished off, they returned to the living room, leaving the dishes to themselves.

Oz settled onto the couch, next to Xander and Andrew and Stephan sat to their left and right – Stephan close to Xander.

“So, how is everyone? And why are you not in Sunnydale anymore? And what happened to your face?” Tonight Oz had probably said more than in his whole High school years together.

“Willow is fine, but she lost Tara,” Xander began. “You remember Tara, don’t you? Well, one day Tara got shot. By accident. But Willow got so angry…” Pause.

“Willow is in England, London, now, with Giles. Buffy took her sister Dawn and went to see the world. Last I heard they were in Paris, heading for Rome.”

“Buffy has a sister?” Oz looked a bit confused. “Yeah, Dawn. She-“ Xander cut himself off.
“She has been with Buffy’s father since the divorce.” Oz raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

“Well, Giles went to London and I’m here – with Andrew… That’s everyone, isn’t it?”
“What about Spike? He was friends with you, last I checked. And Angel?” Oz wanted to know.

“Spike is dead… Well, dead!” Xander made a hand motion that indicated more to the word ‘dead’ than Stephan understood but Oz nodded.
“And Angel runs a Private Investigation in L.A. – with Cordelia and Wesley Wyndam-Price.”

Oz gave a short laugh and silence settled in.

Stephan stood up. “Maybe I should go, so you can talk more freely.”

“No!” Xander started to protest, but was cut short by a strange noise.

Stephan, Oz and Xander fell silent, holding themselves still. Andrew looked frightened all of a sudden.

There was the noise again.
Stephan could here footsteps, but his hearing had always been kind of over tuned.

“Oz, do you hear that?” Xander whispered and Stephan wondered how Xander managed to hear the noise.
“Yes…” whispered the red-head. “Footsteps, at least 5 – no, 6 males, coming closer…”

“Great, am I the only one with non-supernatural-hearing around here?” Andrew complained in a near-silent whisper.

“Andrew,” Xander turned to him, looking deadly serious, “the moment I say ‘run’ you and Stephan gonna hit the sewers and not look back until you reached the safe-point, got it?”

Andrew nodded. Stephan had no clue what they were talking about but nodded too.
“Wait for me and Oz two hours then hit the road and don’t stop until Cleveland…”

Xander and Oz turned their heads, listening.
Stephan could hear them too. Someone was at the backdoor.

“Run!” Xander suddenly hissed and Stephan thought that his eye had glowed green, but that was probably just his imagination.
Andrew sprinted to the basement door, Stephan following closely.

The minute they reached the stairs the backdoor crashed open and somebody tall loomed over Stephan.
The boy reacted on instinct. His fist came up, faster and harder than he thought possible. He thought he heard something crack, but he was already running down the stairs and following Andrew through a duct into the sewers.

Now Stephan instincts took over completely. He took Andrews hand and lead him as fast as the other boy could through the maze of tunnels, following barely visible hints, obviously left there by Xander.
His eyes had always worked as well in the dark as they did during the day and only this once was Stephan proud and glad that he was a wired freak.

They reached a dead end with a latter and started to climb up.

It was in the middle of the night and nobody saw the two youngsters as they appeared on a half-full parking lot.

Andrew retrieved a set of keys from his pockets. “Xander’s SUV is somewhere around here. We can lock ourselves in and wait for them.”
“And how long do we wait?” Stephan asked, having heard Xander’s instructions, but not feeling like leaving the other two behind.
“We wait as long as it takes them!” Andrew said with a firm voice and unlocked a car.

It was dark red and blended in with the other cars perfectly.
Stephan climbed in behind Andrew and found himself in the driver seat.

“I guess you don’t know how to drive either…” he grinned at Andrew and noticed the bags securely locked in the back of the car.

Andrew shook his head. “No, I don’t but it always looks so easy when Xander does it.”

There were a few moments of silence before Andrew spoke again. “Say, you’re pretty strong – and pretty fast. And you can hear – and see – pretty well, too…”

“I’m a freak,” Stephan said, gaze locked on the windshield in front of him.

“Well, hadn’t I seen you outside during the day I would have said you are a vampire.” Andrew explained, eyeing the other carefully.

Stephan gave a snort. “Vampire! Do you really think vampires exist?”
The firm way Andrew said “Yes!” made Stephan look at him.

“You do? Why?” Andrew shrugged his shoulders. “I knew one. His name was Spike and he was friends with Xander and he was strong and fast too. But he’s dust now.”

Stephan remembered Xander saying that Spike was dead. More than dead. Dust.

And Stephan wondered, starring out the windshield again.

“Is there something like daylight-vampires?” he asked Andrew without turning to look.
“Not as far I know. I mean, they exist in the movies – ‘Blade’ was cool, but I don’t think they exist in real live…”

Andrew stared at Stephan for a moment. “Did you ever felt the need to drink blood? Did your face get bumpy once? Have you ever been bitten by someone or something?”

Stephan chuckled. “No, no and hell no!”
“Hey, maybe you’re a male slayer!” Andrew exclaimed happily.

“A male what?” Stephan looked at him. Andrew grinned. “There’s this one girl, you know, the Slayer! She is chosen to fight vampires, demons and everything evil! That’s by the way Buffy. And Faith! Faith is a Slayer too! She lives in Cleveland too. And Kennedy is a Slayer and Amanda and Eve and Chloe and Rona and…”
“I get it! I get it!” Stephan laughed. “But those are girls. And I’m a guy…”

And suddenly Stephan remembered, like he did so often, the face of a guy, with green skin and scales and red horns and he frowned.
“I remember a green demon that used to sing lullabies to me when I was a baby… Maybe I’m a demon.” He shrugged his shoulder and started into the night again.

After a while he asked: “What do vampires look like?”

“Well, they look like normal people, only that they are living dead. So they have no heartbeat and don’t need to breath or to eat – normal food that is. Vampires eat blood. Drink blood, I mean. Well, Spike would sometimes dunk his pizza into it, but that was only to gross us all out. And when a vampire shows his ‘gameface’ his forehead gets bumpy and his eyes turn yellow and his fangs appear. And they fear sunlight, ‘cause that sets them on fire. And they hate Holy Water, ‘cause that burns them and they can be either staked, with something wooden through the heart or they can be be-headed and then they turn to dust.”

Stephan smiled, not looking at his rambling companion.
Part of that description suited a second male he remembered. One with short, dark hair and yellow eyes and a bumpy forehead, laughing down at him.

“We should talk to Xander about this when he joins us. He knows about this stuff. Xander’s been friends with the Slayer forever! And Willow, his other best friend, is a witch! And Xander’s been fighting evil things for nearly all his life and everything will be fine…”

“What if whatever broke into the house has killed Xander and Oz?” Stephan didn’t want it to be true, but it had him thinking and he couldn’t help it. “Where those vampires too?”

“No,” Andrew shook his head. “Vampires can only get into your house if you invite them in.”

They fell silent again – something unfamiliar for Andrew – and simply waited for Xander and Oz to show up.

Just as silently as the boys sat, the sun crept up over the horizon and a new day begun.

Both boys did not move.
They eat something that had been stored away in the car and drank bottled water and did not move.

The second night crept in and still they did not move.
Stephan found it very strange. His muscled didn’t protest, neither did his bladder. He just sat and stared.

Again a bright sun started to rise.
This time when there were enough people around, they got out of the car and went to a public toilet nearby.

Then they waited some more and nightfall crept in.

It must been around midnight when Stephan finally sighed.
“How much longer?” Andrew bit his lip. “I don’t know?”

And suddenly they appeared between two cars to the boys’ right.

Oz was mostly carrying Xander, who looked like he had been beaten into a bloody pulp.

Andrew moved to make space for them to climb in and Stephan started the engine.
He had never driven a car before, but it wasn’t important now. All that mattered now was getting somewhere else – somewhere safe.

He managed to get the car out of the city and onto the freeway without hitting anything.

Oz was fussing over Xander, who was covered in cuts and bruises and had been bleeding but wasn’t now and Stephan was so thankful for that.

“Drive a little faster, not much, just a bit over the limit,” Oz instructed Stephan and settled Xander against himself and Andrew as careful as he could.

“What happened?” Andrew asked, cleaning some of Xander’s wounds with alcohol from a first-aid-box he had grabbed from underneath the seat.

“Do you know who or rather what the Initiative is?” Oz asked back and inspected the back of Xander’s head closely. Andrew nodded. “They are a bunch of soldiers who think they can play slayers. They chip vampires, so they can’t hurt people.”
“I think it was them who broke into your house. They separated me and Xander and it took me so long to find him. Let’s try to find a place to stay for the night. Stephan, shall we change seats?”

“No, thanks,” Stephan checked the rear-view-mirror and changed lanes, passing a much slower car, “I think I can manage for a while. There was a sign saying ‘motel, 68 miles’. We’re gonna stop there.”

And they drove on.

+++ Things that go Boom in the Night +++

“It… it was… nice… knowing you…” Cassie gasped.
A green liquid - her blood - spilled from her mouth, down her chin and onto his shirt.

He stroked a few strands of hair from her face. She looked like a little girl.
“You’re one of the braves I ever met,” he whispered to her. “I’m so sorry…”

“So… not… your… fault…” she managed and he just held her closer to his chest, her head against her shoulder.

The green liquid that resembled her blood still seeped into his shirt. And into his jeans.
But he wore black so nobody would see the stains.
Would there be stains of dark green? He could still see the stains of dark red from last week.

“Kick… kick… kick their Asses for me!” Cassie grinned at him and closed her eyes.

He was so sorry.
So sorry she had to die when her live had only began 14 years ago.
So sorry he could do nothing more than hold her.
So sorry it had been her.
So sorry he couldn’t cry right now…

Carefully he lowered the dead body to the ground.
Somebody would find her, wonder about the green stuff, call the cops, return her to her parents… She would be fine…

Someone crouched down next to him.
A moment of sadness in the other’s eyes when they swept over the dead body of the young girl.
Then anger and promises of pain when theses eyes settled on him.

And a smile – an evil smile – crept into the ruby-red eyes that stared at him.
“We found them!” the red eyes announced.

He felt his mouth lift on one side, felt the grin that showed teeth and promised hours of revenge.
“Let’s get them…” he purred while his single eye changed colour and turned from chocolate-brown to forest green.

+

As he ran through the night all he knew, all he cared about, all that mattered was the hunt.

And a good hunt it would be, the Hyena promised him.
She pushed him further, made his long legs run faster. He could feel his pack behind him.

They were hunting and a good hunt it was indeed!

He could smell their prey! Could smell their fear as they chased them through the woods.
The prey was so afraid of dying! But had Cassie not been afraid too?

He grinned even more when he heard one of them stumble, fall and scream!
No, no help for this one! No help, no mercy!

Within seconds the Hyena was upon the fallen soldier and tore into his throat.

+

Xander looked at the mess they had created.

Bodies and blood, blood and bodies all over the forest ground.

“Spike would have loved this…” he told nobody in particular.

“And I would have loved to meet Spike.” Someone stepped up to Xander and red eyes lingered lovingly on the splatter-movie-scene before them.

“Have we lost anyone?” Xander wanted to know, the soldier in him doing a headcount of his team.
“No, we are all fine. – What do we do now?”
“Now we cross the border to Canada.” Xander looked at the one next to him, rested his gaze on the missing left forearm. Make sure the pack is all right, the Hyena told him.
“Lick our wounds and heal.” Xander announced smiling.
“And when we think we have build enough snowmen and are sick of drinking hot chocolate in front of a fireplace, then we head down to sunny L.A. and visit a friend of mine ‘cause I promised Stephan to introduce them.”

Xander turned and so did the one next to him.
Together they left the woods in silence, climbing into their cars with the waiting rest of the team – pack, said the hyena – family, said Xander.

+

They were hunters, killer, demons.
They were friends, lovers, family.

And none had the right to imprison and torture them!

+++

The phone ringing made Connor stop.

Gunn got up to answer the phone at the front counter. “Angel In-“
“GET OUT!” a voice yelled. “Get out of the hotel right now!!”

Gunn was stunned into silence by shock for second. But Connor knew what to do. “That was Shasha! Move your Asses!”
The teen was up the stairs before Wesley had noticed he got up at all.

“Riley, get your wife! Wes, get Lorne! Gunn, get going!” Angel stormed upstairs too, rapping at Willows door, yelling down the hall for Giles.

Spike came downstairs, dragging a frightened Nikolai behind him and Buffy appeared from her room, asking was all this noise was about.

It took too long to get them all into the lobby, Angel pondered.

The Sunnydale-lot had followed Angel nearly without complains – except for Buffy, who had to make a scene and made them loose precious time when Angel had to explain at least the most important circumstances to her: Initiative – bad, they – in danger!
Nikolai and Lorne were still in shock and the enemy was too fast.

There was no other explanation for what happened when they reached the front doors.

Just as Angel and friends were about to leave, the soldiers burst in again.
This time with raised weapons and loaded electro-sticks.

Someone made Angel experience why theses things were called stun guns.
Buffy of course started yelling and Riley barking orders and trying to get ‘his’ soldiers under control.

But it was all in vain.

Only minutes later the group was backed up against the stairs, facing a lot of angry soldiers with guns and electro-stun-sticks.

Angel slightly wondered what went wrong…

++++