25  -  ... Into the Maw of Hell

#

Barely a minute had passed since Darla had called them to say that everything was all right. Angel was alive, the Restoration hadn't been reversed, and none of their friends had been killed in the attack. Giles had breathed a silent sigh of relief that they were all okay, though he wasn't quite sure at the moment whether he was more relieved about hearing Darla's voice or hearing that Buffy was all right.

Then came another radio message.

"Rupert! Wesley!" They heard Darla's voice through a hale of static.

"Darla, what is it? I can barely understand you."

"No time for talking! Arm the bomb! Quickly!"

Giles' blood froze.

"Darla, what ...? I don't understand. What is going on down there?"

"No time, Rupert! Just do it! If you don't hear from us in the next five minutes drop the thing and get out of here as fast as you can!"

"Darla, what the hell ...?"

"Exactly!" Darla just said. "Five minutes, Rupert! If you don't hear from us by then there won't be anyone left down here."

Darla's voice fell silent and the connection broke. For a long moment Giles could do nothing but stare at the radio in front of him, not believing what he had just heard. Wesley looked down through the window and could just see an eerie light shining down in the dark landscape.

"Let's get to it!" Giles said finally.

#

The demon had barely manifested when it opened its mighty jaw and growled, a bright vortex of energy beginning to form right in front of it. All eyes were drawn to it, the eerie light shining from it seemed composed of the worst nightmares they had ever seen, a light that heralded the end of the world.

"Akathler!" Angel whispered. "I never dreamed ..."

"What is that thing?" Buffy yelled, frightened by the expressions of terror she could see on both Angel's and Darla's faces.

"Akathler." Angel told her without taking his eyes away from the growing vortex. "A demon that bridges dimensions. I have read about it. With one breath it can create a vortex that will swallow a world and everything on it, damning it to Hell for all time."

A wind was starting to pick up inside the room, a searing breeze that slowly but surely grew in intensity. Buffy found herself drawn toward the vortex, a small portion of her mind attracted by the glare she could see inside. What would it be like to jump into it?

Angel started moving all of a sudden and for a moment Buffy thought that he would do just that, jump into the vortex. Angel ran past it, though, and arrived at the table where the Necronomicon still rested. Without hesitation he picked up the book and an aura of light surrounded him.

"What are you doing?" Buffy yelled, the wind becoming louder and stronger by the second. She could see some loose papers from a nearby table drifting toward the vortex.

"The Necronomicon can summon Akathler." Angel just said. "I just pray we can find a way to banish him again. Otherwise ..." He didn't say anymore.

Buffy noticed Darla talking into her radio and understood enough of the words to realize that the situation was quickly spiraling out of control. She turned around to face the large crowd of Vampires still standing behind her, most eyes riveted to the vortex.

"Get them out of here!" She yelled at Spike and Luke. "Get as far away as you can and quickly!"

Luke hesitated for a moment, but Darla nodded and he began screaming at his people to evacuate. Spike remained where he was, though, as did Darla and Faith. All of them were busy watching Angel, who was immersed in the book. The glow of the Necronomicon seemed to grow stronger as well.

Buffy could see drops of blood from Angel's open wounds stain the pages.

"Angel!" She yelled, walking closer to him.

He didn't hear her. His thoughts were focused on the Necronomicon, trying desperately to convince the magical book to reveal a way out. His every cell was singing with the dark power swirling around him. The vortex grew and the wind picked up. Dark shapes could be seen moving against the glare inside.

Blood is the key to dreams, both the sorcerer and the Host of Caritas had said that. His blood had opened the Necronomicon, had activated it. The Host had said that he would find the book or it would find him. He had also said that a door would open. And that only blood would remain in the end.

"Blood is the key." Angel murmured and a page of the book opened of its own accord.

The runes on the blood-sprinkled page reformed themselves into words of meaning, though Angel wouldn't have been able to say which language it was. He knew them, that was the important thing. He also knew what he had to do.

His blood had summoned Akathler and opened the portal to Hell. His blood would close it once more.

"Angel?" He became aware of Buffy standing close, her eyes looking at him full of desperation.

"We need to get out of here!" She said. "Darla has told Giles and Wes to nuke this place. Let's get going!"

"No, that won't work." Angel said. He knew it wouldn't. The Necronomicon was telling him so right at this moment. "I have to close the vortex."

Buffy stared at him, then at the still growing portal. The shimmering disk was now the size of two men and the wind was starting to pick up small objects. She could see images inside the portal amidst flickering fire, things too disturbing to name them. Things that shouldn't exist outside a child's scared nightmares.

"Close it?" She asked. "How?"

Angel didn't say anything. Instead he just pulled her in and pressed a kiss to her lips, embracing her with an intensity she had never known from him before. For a moment Buffy relaxed in his embrace, forgetting about the catastrophe about to happen. Then she realized what was going on.

"Angel?" She asked him as he let go, her eyes telling him that she knew what he was planning.

"Just remember I'll always love you." He whispered.

"Angel, no! I won't ..."

Without further warning he hit her in the face and Buffy slumped to the floor, unconscious. Angel nodded to Spike and he picked her up in his arms, staring at Angel all the time.

"Make sure she gets to safety!" Angel told him. "And get yourself out of here, too!"

"Is there no other way?" Spike asked. Darla and Faith stood by his side, also staring at Angel.

"I am afraid not. This thing will not be stopped by a nuke or any other earthly weapon. My blood opened it. There is no other way."

Bloody tears ran down Darla's cheek, but she nodded. Spike's face was an immobile mask.

"Give 'em Hell, mate!" He just said, then turned away and ran toward the exit with the Slayer in his arms. Darla followed him after a moment's hesitation, the emotions she couldn't put into words pulsing across the link Angel still shared with her. They didn't need words between them.

"Get going, Faith!" Angel told the only other person still present.

She stared at him for another long moment, tears beginning to trail down her cheeks.

"I love you, Angel." She told him.

"I am sorry I couldn't give you what you wanted, Faith." He said, smiling sadly at her.

"You gave me more than anyone else ever did." She replied. "I will never forget you!"

With that she was gone and Angel stared after her for a moment, then turned toward Akathler. The vortex was still growing, having swallowed half the room already. He stared at the book he held in his hands. The book that had changed the world and made his dream come true.

"Is this the price then?" He asked it, not expecting an answer. The Necronomicon Nocturnum still glowed and the glare of Hell in front of him grew brighter.

"So be it!" He whispered and used the knife he had rammed into Grigori's chest just minutes earlier to cut open his left arm. Blood flowed out of the opened vein and splashed onto the Necronomicon, the paper drinking it up like starved ground. Angel could feel the dark power around him growing, his blood sparkling with unleashed energy.

With the light of hell reflecting in his eyes Angel began to chant.

26  -  Is This Death I See?

#

For a long time Buffy had a lot of trouble thinking about anything beyond things like "Oh, what pretty stars!", but gradually awareness returned. Awareness that she was being carried by someone. Memory also returned and she remembered that Angel had knocked her out.

She also remembered why.

Spike didn't have any chance to react. What had been a quiet bundle of flesh but moments ago came awake like a whirlwind and was out of his arms a moment later, knocking him to the floor in the process. He looked up in time to see Buffy running back the way they had come.

"Buffy! Come back!" Knowing that he should not take the time to think things through, because then he would never do it, he started after her. He had promised Angel he would get her to safety and he would bloody well do so.

Grigori's retreat started to crumble around them as the unleashed energy of the portal ate away the building's structure. Spike was ten steps behind Buffy when the ceiling between them caved in and he had to jump back. Unleashing a string of curses he had to waste precious time to seek an alternate route.

Buffy never even noticed that Spike was on her heels. She didn't pay much attention to the collapsing building either. The only thing she knew was that Angel was doing something incredibly heroic and stupid and she would be damned before she left him like this.

"You said you'd never leave me!" She muttered to herself as instinct guided her way back to the room where Hell was coming to Earth. "You promised."

#

There wasn't anything left of the room. Angel noticed that almost clinically, loss of blood and his tiredness robbing him of the strength to care. There was nothing left except the widening portal that would devour the world and him, standing on what remained of the room's floor. Or maybe he was floating by now, he couldn't tell.

The Necronomicon was still in his hands, pouring out power even as it swallowed his life's blood. The blood was not behaving like it should, a part of his mind told the rest. Blood was supposed to run out of the wound and then fall to the floor, preferably at a right angle to it. It wasn't doing that right now.

The blood was flowing out of his wounds and stopped paying attention to gravity right then and there. Angel watched with a kind of morbid fascination as droplets of his life floated around him, sparkling with unearthly energy, seeming to form a pattern that was just beyond his perception.

The Necronomicon was murmuring with him right now, the words spilling out of his mouth without ever going past his conscious mind. He could feel Akathler just ahead of him, widening the portal with every foul breath it took. Magical power was gathering in the room and Angel felt like it would tear him apart at any moment now.

His first time with the Necronomicon hadn't been like this, though he hadn't really paid much attention to it then. A hundred Vampires had been on their tails, looking to rend them to pieces. Angel had never given a second thought to what might happen if he did the spell wrong or if the book didn't accept him in the first place. He had just opened it and unleashed the power, thereby changing the world.

It was different this time around. So much of his life was flowing into this spell that his very mind seemed to merge with the book. He could feel its incredible age, putting the combined years of the Vampirium Elders to shame. Power beyond his imagination had gone into the forging of every page, the carving of every rune. He looked at the Necronomicon as he had never done before and it was looking right back at him.

"Let the door be closed now and forevermore!" Angel spoke the final words of the spell and could feel all strength seeping away from his body. Blood was still running from his wounds, mingling in mid-air, pouring his life into the spell that closed around him with a snap. Akathler roared as power pushed against power.

Angel was reduced to a spectator as a demon older than civilization struggled against the power of a book older than language itself. The air between them was burning, hellfire spewing forth from the portal and meeting flying droplets of blood in a fireworks of thundering energy. Angel wanted to avert his eyes, but could not find the strength to even close his lids.

After an indefinite amount of time the pressure suddenly fell away and Angel found that there was nothing holding him up anymore. The Necronomicon slipped from his fingers and closed of its own on the way to the floor, looking to all the word like a perfectly ordinary book. Angel didn't much care at this point. He slumped to the floor and his eyes finally closed.

For a moment he imagined that someone was calling his name.

#

Buffy's world was reduced to cracking walls, unstable floors, and the sound of a building in its death throes. She was close now, she could feel it. The searing heat she had felt earlier when she stood in front of the portal was permeating the corridors around her and grew stronger with every step she took.

The floor directly ahead of her crumbled and fell down into another corridor. Buffy took two more steps and leapt, easily making the gap, and hit the ground running on the other side. Something inside her was screaming to hurry up, as there was not much time left. She didn't know whether that voice was talking about the building or Angel, but she was quite sure that neither of them were in great shape right now.

Had Darla told Wesley and Giles to hold the nuke? Or was the bomb falling down on her as she ran? She didn't know. Neither did she have the time to stop and talk to them over the radio, even if she had managed to make herself heard over the noise surrounding her now.

An eternity seemed to pass while she was just running through corridors and keeping the building around her together by sheer refusal to have it collapse on her when she finally reached the room she had been in just minutes earlier. What was left of the room anyway.

Even as she watched she saw that Angel had done it, whatever it was he had done. The portal was still there, but shrinking before her eyes. The huge demon that the sorcerer had called into existence with his dying breath was screaming and growling, but it didn't seem to help any. The portal collapsed and seemed intent on sucking in the rest of the room while it was doing so. The wind picked up and Buffy had to hold on to the remains of the door to keep her footing.

Angel was lying on the floor, not moving, slowly being pulled toward the portal.

"Angel!" She screamed his name, but he didn't react in any way. Abandoning her handhold she ran toward him, skidding to a hold right next to his prone form. The wind was tugging at her with increasing force, but the Slayer simply refused to be moved. She dug in her heels and held on to Angel.

Seeing him almost made her cry. He was pale as a sheet, looking as if every last drop of blood had fled his body. The many wounds he had sustained didn't bleed anymore, what remained of his clothing was drenched in drying blood. Buffy felt tears run down her face but didn't pay attention to them as she pulled at him, slowly drawing him away from the collapsing vortex.

"You said you'd never leave me!" She kept muttering as the tears streaked down her cheeks. "You fucking said you'd never leave me!"

Buffy had lost all sense of time when the portal finally collapsed and the pull vanished. She stumbled back, still holding on to Angel, and landed on her behind with a painful thud. She didn't care even a second. Angel had not moved once during all the time and she drew him into her lap, desperately looking for any kind of life sign.

"Wake up, Angel!" She whispered as she caressed his cheeks. "Please wake up! You said you'd never leave me! You can't break your promise like that! It ain't right!"

She had no clue on how to tell a dead Vampire from a live one. Both were dead bodies, right? So how did one tell them apart? Weren't dead Vampires supposed to crumble into dust? That meant he was still alive, right? He had to be.

Without conscious effort her mind went back to their last words. Angel had held the Necronomicon and mumbled something about blood being the key. Yes, she remembered. He had told her what the Host of Caritas had said to him, those cryptic remarks that hadn't done a thing to help him.

"In the end only blood will remain, the blood of one you love more than life itself." Buffy mumbled, remembering the words. Blood, yes! Angel had lost so much blood, pouring his very life into that thrice-damned book to close the portal. He needed blood.

She hoisted his limp body up until his face rested against the crook of her neck, desperately trying to get some kind of reaction out of him. She slapped his cheeks, yelled into his ear, but nothing worked. Was he too far gone already?

Buffy saw a knife lying on the floor close by. It was one of the Tarakan knives, with wooden inlays so it would kill a Vampire. The blade was stained with blood and before she consciously realized what she was doing she had picked it up and held it to her own neck.

"I just pray this works." She mumbled to herself and made a shallow cut, causing blood to well to the surface.

It didn't take a second until she heard a growl and felt a sharp pain enter the side of her neck.

27  -  I Would Give My Life For Yours

#

Spike was busy cursing all the way, trying to find a way through the crumbling mansion. He had a running bet against himself that the building would collapse on him before he found Buffy and it looked like he would win.

"Stupid bloody idiot bitch!" He mumbled under his breath. "Just has to go and risk her bloody, scrawny neck to save that idiot poof who just needs to put his fucking ass on the line to save the goddamned world. And here comes Spike, William the soon to be Dusty, chasing after them just because he bloody promised the big poof he would save his idiot girlfriend. I've had it up to here with all that crap!"

He reached the room where all this had started and skidded to a halt, his jaw dropping. There was no sign of Akathler, no sign of the portal, except that the part of the room where it had been was simply gone without a trace. He could see the Necronomicon lying on the floor, seeming to smile at him with a mockingly innocent expression.

Just two steps away from the book Buffy was kneeling on the floor, cradling Angel to her side. Spike blinked. The scenery didn't change. He blinked again. Still no change. Angel was drinking her. What the hell was he doing?

Spike was by their side and all set to pull Angel off Buffy when she noticed him and opened her mouth in a silent scream.

#

The sensations overwhelmed her within seconds. The pain vanished and was replaced by sensations she had never dreamed existed. Her entire body seemed to be singing, humming along with every sucking motion she could feel against her skin. Her blood was thundering through the twin wounds like white-hot quicksilver and filled every cell of her body with song.

Angel's cold hands were holding her now, instinct making them grab her to prevent her escaping him. Like she would have wanted to. One of her hands was still tangled in his spiky hair and pressed his head into the side of her neck with desperate strength, urging him to continue, to fill his cold flesh with her warmth.

Something made her open her eyes, even though she couldn't remember closing them. Her Slayer sense was screaming at her to pay attention and suddenly she saw a Vampire sitting in front of her, staring at her in disbelief.

Spike? What was Spike doing here? Shouldn't he be somewhere else? Her thoughts were flying away from her like frightened birds, slipping from her grasp like water. She could see Spike's blue eyes staring at her. Why did he look so surprised, she wondered. One would think he knew what a Vampire feeding looked like.

She could see his hands moving toward them and suddenly she knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to separate them, wanted to take Angel away from her. No, she would never allow that! Angel had promised he would never leave and somehow she knew that they mustn't be separated. It would kill him. He needed her, needed her strength.

Buffy tried to move her arms, but they refused. Every muscle in her body felt like jelly, the sensations of Angel drinking from her neck had reduced her to little more than a smile and fuzzy feelings. She had to stop Spike, though. He mustn't take Angel away!

Somehow she had to tell him.

#

Spike paused and looked into her eyes, seeing the pleading look inside them.

She had made him do it, he realized. She made him drink her blood to heal him. He now saw Angel's face and saw that his Sire was completely out of it, looking like death warmed over thrice, sucking the blood by sheer animal instinct.

It was the hardest thing he had ever done, but Spike waited. He waited while the building groaned around them, reminding Spike of the running bet he had with himself. He didn't take his eyes off the two people in front of him for even a second. He saw Buffy's eyes roll back as the blood loss took its toll on her, but still she kept Angel's head pressed to her neck. He saw Angel's paleness begin to vanish as his dead flesh filled with stolen warmth.

He forced himself to wait until his senses told him that Angel would make it, then he grabbed his Sire's head, wrenching him away from the Slayer. Buffy was completely out of it, pale from loss of blood, but he could see her hands blindly searching for Angel, wanting to have him near again. Spike knew only too well the addicting effect being drained by a Vampire could have on humans. There were quite a few Vampires out there who earned their money that way.

"Wake the hell up, Peaches!" He slapped Angel in the face. "I can't bloody carry both of you out of here!"

"You won't have to!" Spike almost jumped when Faith suddenly appeared by his side.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"I saw you and Buffy double back, so I thought, what the hell! You wanna make something of it or do we get the fuck out of here?"

Spike swallowed his anger and motioned for Faith to grab Buffy, hoisting up Angel on his shoulders. For a moment his eyes rested on the Necronomicon and he was about to pick it up and take it along when he had a better idea.

#

Angel awoke shortly after they had made their escape from the building and ran toward a field close by where the plane would be able to land and pick them up. He slid from Spike's shoulders after a moment of confusion, being pulled along by his childe without any time for explanations.

What had happened here? The last thing he remembered was falling to the floor after completing the incantation. Had it even worked? Was the portal closed?

A side glance showed him Faith, who carried a limp form over her shoulders and all thoughts of hell and the Necronomicon fled from him.

"Buffy!" He darted over to Faith and wrenched Buffy's body from her shoulders, cradling it in his own arms. Faith didn't protest, but continued to pull him along toward the waiting plane even as Angel checked Buffy for injuries. What had happened to her?

He found the still-bleeding bite mark on her neck and suddenly he remembered. He still had her taste on his lips.

"Oh God no!" He whispered.

"She made you do it, mate!" Spike was by his side. "She saved your life, so don't bloody zonk out on me now, okay?"

"But I ... if I hurt her ... I would never ..."

"She isn't hurt, mate!" Spike told him. "I was there and pulled you away the second you had enough. She is out of it and maybe she'll need a transfusion, but the girl is tough. She'll be up and about again in no time flat!"

Angel didn't say anymore, just stared at the closed eyes of the girl in his arms and cursed his own existence. He never even noticed them boarding the plane or taking off.

Some minutes after take-off Buffy opened her eyes, smiling weakly at him.

"Hi, Angel!" She whispered, managing to raise her arm and put her hand on his cheek.

"Rest beloved!" He told her, his joy at seeing that she was awake again overcome by the guilt. He gently removed her hand from his face, the touch of her too much to bare at that moment. He couldn't even look at her.

"I love you, Angel!" She whispered, her eyes starting to fall shut again. "Please don't blame yourself!"

Before he could reply anything she had fallen asleep again.

#

Half an hour later, with all people safely evacuated, the retreat of the late Master Nicolai Alexandre Grigori, along with a certain book, was consumed by a nuclear fireball.

28  -  Cordy's Big Day

#

"We are not living in a Dracula novel." Cordelia continued her speech. "This is the real world. With real people in it. People who just happen to live in dead bodies, but are no less alive because of it. People that deserve to be treated the same way as anyone else."

Quentin Travis watched the speech on the television of the prison common room and had to control himself not to sneer with disgust. That young girl sure knew how to wrap things up in nice and fluffy words. As he listened to her he knew that the Vampire Legalization Act would be approved. These idiot Americans were eating out of Chase's hands.

It wouldn't make a difference, he reminded himself. Let these Americans invite their own doom by giving the monsters civil rights. The important thing was that the lovely Ms. Chase would be dead within the hour and would never again spew her venom out into the world.

He smiled as he thought about his assassin. What a wonderful way to end this little chapter of the good fight. It didn't hurt matters that it would probably break Buffy Summers into little pieces in the process. Might make her sloppy. Might mean a new Slayer would be called very soon.

"Hey, Travis!" One of the guards yelled at him. "Visitors for you! Get your snotty British ass over here!"

Travis sighed, regretting that he would miss the final part of the speech, but resigned himself. After all, he knew how it would end. He had given the assassin explicit instructions and knew they would be obeyed to the letter. Cordelia Chase would die, whether he watched or not.

The guard led him into the visitor's room and he sat down at the table, waiting for whomever wanted to visit him. Maybe it was that idiot Marshall Lockley again, trying to threaten him into cooperation once more. He had almost come to enjoy her visits, they gave him something to laugh about.

"Glad to see you are in a good mood, Quentin!" A voice said from the open door and Travis' heart skipped a beat as he saw who had just entered.

#

"At this moment these people are living in a nation where they have no rights, no protection. Some might argue that they don't need any protection, or that they don't deserve it, but ..."

Buffy watched Cordelia deliver her speech from the entrance of the Congress chamber, standing in the corner she and the other bodyguards had been banished to by Congress security. Angel was standing close by, having managed to get inside by flashing his PID badge and calling in a lot of favors owed.

They stood close, but not too close. Not just because they were out in public. There was still tension between them. Buffy's fingers needed constant supervision or they would crawl up to that itching spot on her neck, where the scar tissue was still tender and raw, which would inevitably produce a fresh dosage of guilt in her quiet lover.

She could feel Angel's eyes upon her and saw the regret in his eyes. She knew that he felt incredibly guilty for having drunk from her, though she had told him time and time again that he had been all but unconscious at that time and that she had forced him to do it, so he had nothing to blame himself for.

If there was a reason for her to be mad at him it was because he had knocked her out before that. She understood why he had done it, of course, she just didn't like it.

"Stop beating yourself up!" She whispered to him.

"Hm?" He looked up from her neck.

"I can hear the smacking all the way over here, you know? Stop beating yourself up!"

He looked away and Buffy sighed, moving closer to him.

"It's been weeks, Angel! We are all safe, all the Vampires still have their souls, and that stupid book was incinerated in a nuclear blast. You have nothing to be sorry for. Except for that knockout blow you gave me and I promise you I will get even for that before too long."

The last comment actually managed to produce one of his patented half-smiles that made her want to melt into her socks. The first few days after they had returned to LA had been very difficult, a lot of awkward tension between them.

Angel had been on the verge of leaving her, so wrecked with guilt and pain had he been. It hadn't helped that, in the days before they had rescued him, he had been hit with every bit of nightmare and guilt he had stored up in 150 years of being a demon, thanks to the sorcerer's spell.

They were getting past that now, slowly but surely. It would still take a lot of effort, Buffy knew that, but she was determined to make it work once more and Angel had found himself helpless before that determination.

"Think positive!" She told him. "Cordy is blowing them away as we speak. And unless I'm very much mistaken a certain Watcher is getting his ass handed to him right now."

That again produced a smile from Angel.

#

"This isn't possible." Quentin Travis sat as he looked at the man who, at this moment, should be on the other side of the continent. He should have been in Washington right now, preparing to kill Cordelia Chase, not sitting on the other side of the table and looking at him with rage shining in his eyes.

"You of little minds." Darla said, coming into the room to stand behind Giles.

"How ...?" Travis began before his words died away.

"How did we find out about the little hypnotic suggestion you left in Rupert's mind?" Darla asked, her face icy and her voice cold enough to freeze the air in the room. "The one that should have turned him into an assassin in order to kill Cordelia?"

The blonde Vampire leaned on the table and her human face changed, demon eyes staring at Travis from less than a hair's breath away.

"Not that difficult for a Vampire Master, I assure you."

Travis flinched back, which put him face to face with a very angry looking Rupert Giles.

"You tried to turn me into a murderer." Giles growled. "I thought you a despicable bastard before, but now ..."

"It can't have failed." Travis murmured. Every Watcher had certain hypnotic command words implanted during their training, compulsions that would enable the Council leaders to retain control of them should a crisis situation arise. Travis knew that he himself probably had some control words in his mind he didn't know anything about. He didn't like the thought, but he accepted it.

He himself had activated Giles' compulsion when they had last met here in this very room. The words "No Evil Shall Be Spared, Rupert Giles", along with the name of Cordelia Chase should have sufficed to make him kill her. The compulsion had never failed. How could it possibly have failed?

"You should be glad it failed." Darla hissed at him. "Otherwise I would break every bone in your body right here and now."

"And that would be after I got through with you." Giles added.

Travis stared at the monster and the treacherous Watcher, unable to so much as utter a word.

"Thankfully," Giles said, rising from the table, "it did fail. Just so you know, Darla has removed all the command words from my mind. She did the same for Windham-Pryce. Cordelia is alive and well and, in case you are interested, she will be interviewed by a few reporters later today for an article in the London Times and several other European newspapers."

A cruel smile played across Giles' lips.

"So I guess she will 'spew her venom' into the Old World after all, old friend."

"This can't be happening!" Travis whispered.

"Oh, it is." Darla said with a grim smile on her face. "You better pray they never let you out of here, Watcher! Because the moment you do, you will answer to another kind of justice. Not nearly so lenient."

#

Giles sighed when they walked out of the prison into the warm night of California. Three time zones away Cordelia was holding her final speech before the Congress. Giles shuddered, thinking about what might have happened at this moment if not for Darla.

She had first noticed something when she had mesmerized that captured Vampire a few weeks ago and accidentally brushed across his surface thoughts as well. His constant spells of distractions after that had gotten her curious and finally he had agreed to let her enter his mind. And thank God that he had allowed it, otherwise ...

The blonde Vampire sensed his distress and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"We defeated him, Rupert!" She said softly. "He will remain in his little cell with only his petty hatreds to keep him company."

She cocked her head to one side. "And I think Marshall Lockley told me something about planting the rumor in prison that Travis shot a child. Which is the truth, more or less. It will not make him any friends in there."

"I know all that." Giles said. "But just the thought ..."

"Don't think about it anymore then!" Darla just said, draping her arm around his waist. "Besides, we have other things to do, remember? We might get back to the Hotel in time to hear the results of the Congressional vote on the VLA."

Giles knew that, despite Darla's relaxed expression, she was as nervous and anticipatory as every other Vampire within the United States at this moment. In an hour or so they might become legal citizens. None expect the really stupid ones expected that to mean that everyone would suddenly accept the presence of Vampires in human society, but it was a huge step forward. Or it would be, if it went through.

"Let's go home then." Giles said as they walked back to his car.

#

Cordelia left the podium to thunderous applause from the Congress and hurried over to where Buffy and Angel stood, needing to see at least a few friendly faces before she would have to face the mob of reporters just waiting beyond the doors.

"How did I do?" She asked them, trying not to sound too anxious. The fate of Angel's people had rested solidly on her shoulders during those agonizing minutes up there. The thought of disappointing the dark Vampire, who had come to mean so much to her, was too ...

Angel gave her a genuine smile and Buffy came over to hug her.

"You were great, Cordy!" Buffy said. "You blew them away! They won't have a chance but to pass the Act now."

Angel had his own turn to hug her and then held her at arms' length. "Thank you!" He just said, which meant more to Cordelia than she could put into words. Damn, she couldn't cry now, it would ruin her makeup.

"I'm afraid the vultures are circling outside." Buffy said, having stolen a peek at the mob of reporters that waited outside the Congress Chamber.

"Let them come!" Cordelia said, putting on her professional smile once more. "What can a hundred reporters do after I have already massacred the Congress tonight?"

Buffy giggled.

"Is my hair okay?" Cordelia asked with a sudden earnest expression.
 

29  -  A Better World
 

#

Angel stood on the roof of the Hyperion Hotel and looked out across the ocean of light that was Los Angeles. He knew that a lot of parties were going on out there right now, as well they should, and one of the biggest was happening inside the building he stood on right now.

They had done it. They had really done it. He still had trouble believing it.

"Hey!"

He turned to see Buffy coming toward him, one of his coats draped around her shoulders against the cold wind up here. He had to smile when he saw her, and not just because she looked completely adorable wearing his clothing.

"I couldn't help but notice you making a stealthy exit down there." She said, standing next to him. "Not in a party mood?"

"I needed some minutes of silence." He answered. "Truth to tell, I'm still having a little trouble believing that it actually happened. That we actually did it."

She snuggled into this side, taking his arm to drape it around her shoulders like a big shawl. For a moment he tensed, seeing the scar on her neck, but she simply refused his moving even an inch away from her and he surrendered, pushing the guilt from his mind.

"I never doubted it for a moment." She told him. "I mean, you're the guy who does the impossible, remember? Turning a race of demons back into people, closing the gates of Hell, making a Vampire Slayer fall in love with you, those aren't small feats."

He smiled down at her.

"I can't really take credit for that last one. It just happened."

"And I'm glad it did."

For a few minutes they just stood on the roof, arm in arm, looking out across the city.

"You realize that this isn't the end, right?" Angel asked her.

"Of course not. We made the law accept Vampires. Now we have to do the same with the people."

"You make it sound easy, beloved." He said, kissing the top of her head.

"I know it won't be." She replied. "But we will make it."

A smile spread across her lips and she added. "Especially if Cordy accepts that offer from the Democrats."

Angel chuckled under his breath, remembering the look on Cordelia's face when a representative of the Democratic party had approached her to run for Congress.

"I bet a few politicians are cursing the day they lowered the age limit of political offices to twenty-one." Angel said, smiling.

"Yeah! Now nothing can keep them safe from Cordy. I bet she becomes president before she hits thirty."

They both laughed, picturing Cordelia sitting in the Oval Office and handing out orders to aged Senators and Generals. The picture was just too funny for words.

#

Spike walked past the gym on his way back from the john and heard someone inside. He had thought everyone to be at the party in the lobby and curiosity got the better off him. He looked inside and saw Faith pounding away at the punching bag.

"Now why do I get a sense of déjà vu here?" He asked, walking inside.

Faith looked up, wiping some sweat from her forehead.

"Maybe because we always seem to meet in here?" She asked, smiling at him.

"This Hotel does have other rooms, you know?"

She walked toward him, swinging her hips like he remembered her doing at a certain night several months ago, the same smile on her face that told of the wicked things she was thinking.

"What kind of rooms are you thinking about?" She asked him.

She stopped directly in front of him and Spike found himself smiling as well. Faith had always managed to get a reaction from him. Most of the time it was the desire to spank her black and blue or tear her head off and be done with it, but there were other times, too. Like right now.

"Maybe we should look around a bit." He said. "Until we find one that we like."

Her face grew serious as she looked up at him.

"I like you, Spike." She said. "I didn't see it before, I was too fucking obsessed with my crush on Angel and my mad-on against Buffy, but I like you."

She looked down for a moment, then looked up and Spike could hardly believe the shy smile on her face.

"Do you ... do you like me, too?" She asked, almost a whisper.

Spike looked at this girl that always managed to drive him up the wall so very easily. She reminded him of Drusilla in many ways, yet at the same time she was completely different. He had always known her tough exterior was but a mask to hide her insecurities and fears, but he hadn't suspected the depth of what hid below that. Faith had certainly changed in the months she had been away and he found, much to his own amazement, that he liked the way she had changed.

"Fancy that!" Spike said and leant down to kiss her. He had a certain kind of room in mind right now.

#

Closing the library door almost managed to shut off the noise from the party outside. With just about every Vampire that was in some way connected to the Order of Aurelius present, as well as Gunn's men, members of Cordelia's lobby, and a lot of other people, the lobby was overflowing.

Darla wasn't surprised to find Giles here in the library. He wasn't really the party kind. Instead he sat on the couch in front of the fire place and sipped some tea.

"Rupert!" She greeted him as she sat down on the couch beside him.

"Darla, hello." He sat the tea aside to look at her.

"Getting tired of the party outside?"

"I think I'm a little too old for that kind of music."

"Oh, I don't know." Darla mused. "Figuring the average age of the people present tonight, you are one of the wee ones, I think."

That wrung a smile from his face and Darla found that she loved seeing him smile.

"Darla," he said, his face growing earnest again, "I am not sure about this."

"This?" She asked.

"Us." He said. "If there is such a thing. I ... I have feelings for you, Darla, but I am not sure they are right."

"Why? Because I am a ..."

"It's not because of that, I assure you." Giles interrupted her. "A year ago the thought of feeling for a Vampire would have repulsed me, but all that has changed. How could it not, seeing Buffy and Angel together? It's just ... Darla, I know that you are over four centuries old, but you are still a young woman and will always be one. I, on the other hand, am an old man and will just go on getting older. I don't think ..."

Darla laughed, which made Giles look up with an air of indignation.

"Sorry," Darla sputtered, "but you're just too funny, Rupert. Do you honestly think that I care about your age? After four centuries I'm long past judging a man by his appearance. And even if I weren't, you still are one of the most handsome men around, Rupert."

"Darla, I ..." He began, but this time she interrupted him.

"Shut up when your elders are talking!" She told him. "Rupert, I wouldn't have allowed things to go this far if I didn't want it, you understand? Now the only thing you need to figure out is whether you want it, too."

With that she rose from the couch in a graceful movement.

"Once you do, I'll be upstairs." She told him with a smirk and left the library.

Giles pondered that for about a minute, thinking about age, experience, morals, doing the right thing, and the wonderful way Darla's hair had gleamed in the light of the fire.

"No fool like an old fool!" He muttered, rising from the couch to follow her upstairs.

#

"We will make it, I think." Buffy said, still looking out across the lights of LA.

Angel hugged her closer.

"I believe that."

#

Beneath a landscape fused into glass by nuclear fire there was a book. Buried beneath a million tons of molten rock it waited. The heat of a thousand suns had not touched it, for it was far beyond destruction by any earthly means.

The Necronomicon Nocturnum didn't care about its present circumstances. Sooner or later someone would find it again, someone always did. Maybe someone worthy, someone who would unleash its power upon the world once more.

Beneath a landscape fused into glass the Necronomicon rested and waited. It had all the time in the world.

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