Fallen AngelsBy Kristi
The Trials
@--Angel--@
“Well, well, well. What have we here, Soul Boy?”
It can’t be. This has only happened in my nightmares. “Angelus. I’m not used to seeing you up and about.” I respond.
He chuckles in a way that is very like me, but not at all. “Get used to it. This little ‘trial’ is going to set me free and destroy you. See, we’re supposed to run around and try to kill each other. Who ever wins walks out of here.” I see him looking beyond the room. “First thing I’m going to do when I get out, get me a little piece that blond slayer action. I’ve gotta say, Soul Boy or not, you’ve got good taste.”
“Leave her alone. This is between you and me. It always has been.” I grit my teeth and clench my fists.
“It is between you and me, but I figure share, share alike. It’s all good. When I suck down Blondie I’ll go after Cordelia. Now that’s a woman with some physical attributes. I never saw why you picked stick figure Barbie when you could have had the real deal.” Angelus says.
He walks in a circle around me, slapping a pair of gloves into his open palm. The room flickers again. The walls around me are covered in crosses. There are wooden crosses, iron crosses, and silver crosses of all shapes and sizes. The stone floor I’m standing barefoot on has tiles with crosses on them scattered randomly through out it.
“Not really playing fair are you, Angelus, but then you would have to cheat to beat me.” I watch him pace the room. He is wearing black leather pants, heavy black boots and a leather jacket. He has a pair of black leather gloves in his hand.
“See, Soul Boy, that’s the difference between you and me. You care about words like fair and cheating and honor. I don’t give a damn. I just want to win. Of course it’s more fun if you step up to play but if you lay there and let me kill you, well that works for me too. You do seem a little, under equipped for this fight though.” He says looking pointedly at my bare chest and feet.
“You want to hand me a wooden stake, I’m not going to complain.” I can see nothing in this room I can use against him that he won’t have more of an advantage against me.
“You know, Soul Boy, one of your problems always has been that you want to talk things out, get down to the feelings. I’m more a man of action myself.” Angelus says.
I glance toward the invisible barrier, where I can see Buffy standing, her hands pressed against it, tears running down her face. I never see the side kick to my gut, which sends me flying across the room. I hit the cross covered wall and slump down on the ground. I shake my head to clear it and stand up.
“Come on, Soul Boy, gotta stay on your toes if you’re ever going to get back to Buffy the vampire layer.”
“Don’t. Say. Her. Name. You’re not good enough” I charge him, catching a shoulder in his gut and ram him back against a wall. I don’t give him a moment’s reprieve. I attack with a series of punches to his face. He catches me with a knee in the groin. I had forgotten Angelus can fight so dirty.
I fall to my knees and catch myself with my right hand, right on a cross covered tile. I jerk my hand back with a hiss. Angelus catches me in the ribs with another kick. I slide across the floor, landing against the wall. The crosses burn into my skin. I roll to my feet just in time to dodge another kick from Angelus. I grab his ankle and twist, sending him flying through the air. He lands with a bone jarring crunch. He gets up a bit slowly and wipes blood from his nose. He licks the blood off his hand.
“I’m not good enough?.” He cackles. “That’s a good one. I am you. All those things I did, you were right there. Admit it you miss the massacres, the torture and most of all the human blood. You wanted to rip her throat out last night. All that warm, rich, seductive Slayer blood everywhere was driving you crazy.”
“No, you’re the darkness in me that I keep chained up. It must drive you crazy helping people, drinking pigs’ blood, saving puppies.” I taunt right back. Mind games are half the battle with Angelus.
“I have to admit, you have a point there, Soul Boy. That won’t be a problem once I’m free. And that soul of yours, did I mention if I win it gets destroyed. Your little red headed bitch can’t put it back in.” He attacks with a roundhouse punch. I block it easily.
“I think a few years in chains have taken your edge off, Angelus. Not quite the fighter you were when you were loose in Sunnydale, of course Buffy kicked your ass all the way back to hell.” I catch him with a punch to the kidneys. He doubles over. I grab a handful of his hair and slam his face into my knee. I grab him by the collar and throw him against the wall.
Angelus gets up slowly, wiping at more blood on his face. “Sunnydale, let’s talk about Sunnydale. That is probably one of my favorite places. You know Buffy looks so cute when she’s hurting. I used to watch her sleep at night, and imagine all the ways I could torture her. Wouldn’t want to kill her because really no one cries like our Buffy.”
I lunge at him, catching a handful of his jacket and dragging him down to the floor. We grapple on the floor, throwing body punches. He rolls me on my back, right on a cross tile. My flesh burns and bubbles as he holds me there.
“Itches don’t it?” Angelus mocks. He has his hand over my throat. I squirm and eventually throw him off of me.
“Not as much as this is going to.” I rip one of the iron crosses off the wall, and swing it, hitting him across the head. He flies across the room and ends up slumped against the wall unconscious. I drop the cross.
“Get me the hell out of here!” I scream to the ceiling.
A wave of dizziness sweeps over me. I nearly fall to my knees.
“Careful what you wish for, Soul Boy.” Angelus’ voice mocks me.
*
When I wake up I am in manacles. The chain is run through a ring bolted to the wall. Angelus is sitting in the corner near a blazing fireplace.
“I thought you were never going to wake up.” He says standing and walking over to me. “I know, not a fair fight. It’s not your rules we’re playing by here, is it.”
“What? I made you nervous kicking your ass out there?” I snarl at him.
“You wanted to get out of there. Sorry, you don’t’ get to specify where you end up. Now this is where we’re going to have fun. There are so many new inventions since I tortured someone. It will be exciting to use them all and since I can’t really kill you accidentally, I’ll have plenty of time.”
@--Buffy--@
I turn with wide eyes to Doyle. “Get him out there. He’ll kill him.”
“Sorry, Darlin, I don’t have any say in this. I’m just the messenger.”
I grab him by the throat and slam him against the wall. “Then give someone who can get him out of there this message. I want him out now. If I don’t get him out now, I’ll kill every single being until he is out of there, alive.”
Doyle coughs and gasps. I let him turn purple before I release him and let him fall to the ground He gets up coughing. “Okay, okay, I’ll see what I can do. Sit tight.”
The room flickers and he is gone. I turn my attention back to what is going on in the room beyond the invisible barrier. Blood runs down my wrist. I reopened the wound on my hand choking Doyle. I can feel blood begin to soak through the bandage on my stomach.
@--Angel--@
“Now we’re going to start with something close to your heart, although not literally. That part will come later.” Angelus says uncovering a silver serving tray. There is a bottle of holy water and a syringe and needle sitting on it.
“Let’s talk about the things our girl Buffy has been doing in my absence. She’s looking a little worn around the edges you know. Life without her Romeo hasn’t treated her well. She’s been whoring and doing drugs and drinking. I thought I was the only one with a flare for pain and torture but I’ve got to say you did a remarkable job of inflicting pain and torture on her, even without my help. In fact, you almost broke her when I couldn’t. I’ll have to think about that when I get out of here.”
“Let’s leave Buffy out of the conversation.” I growl.
“Oh, but the expression on your face is just priceless when I say her name.” He chuckles as he pulls a red hot branding iron from the fireplace. He advances toward me. The handle on the iron is long. He pushes the hot iron into my skin without ever getting close enough for me to grab him. I grit my teeth to keep from screaming in agony. The branding iron is tipped with a red hot cross. The agony doesn’t end when he pulls the iron away. It keeps burning.
“Oh, good, you’re going to make me work for those screams. I was afraid the days of being the slayer’s lap dog had left you soft.”
I can not respond because he claps the iron down on my shoulder again and it takes all my willpower not to scream.
*
He thinks he’s worn me down and in truth he has. The only part of me left fighting is the part that stood on that snow covered hill listening to a beautiful blond tell me “Strong is fighting, it’s hard and it’s everyday and we can do it together.” But that’s enough.
I hang limply in the chains, waiting for my moment. My torso is covered in branding iron crosses. They still smoke around the edges. Angelus takes his time drawing up a syringe full of holy water.
“Now, back to our girl Buffy, you know she used to shoot heroin up between her toes. I would think that would be a bit prickly. I want you to tell me. Just for fun, I’m going to use holy water. Don’t worry, I’ll be careful. I wouldn’t want to get any into your blood stream.” Angelus says coming closer to me.
He crouches to grab a hold of my foot. I use every bit of strength I’ve got left and kick him in the face with both feet. He slides across the room. It wasn’t enough to knock him out though. He gets up, brushing himself off.
“Looks like you’ve got some life in you yet, Soul Boy. I didn’t want get out the sledge hammer yet, but you had to go and piss me off.” He heaves a sledge hammer over his shoulder like it is weightless. He walks over to me, staying out of reach of my feet, and readies the hammer like a bat. He takes aim and swings as hard as he can. My first scream is a good one. It echoes off the walls as my knee shatters. Out of the corner of my eye I see Buffy hit the barrier hard. Her screams match mine.
*
He is careful, very careful, to only shoot tiny amounts of holy water into me. He knows to much will kill me. Tiny amounts only feel like I’m burning from the inside. The skin, where he injects the holy water, bubbles and burns all the way down to the muscle.
Angelus drops the syringe. “I think we’re almost done here, Soul Boy. I’ve only got one more surprise left and then I’m going to have to go. So many people to kill, so little time.”
I do not see the heavy piece of pipe he swings at my head. The last thing I hear before everything goes black is Buffy screaming my name. I’m glad that I’m going to hell with her voice being the last thing in my head.
*
Excruciating pain wakes me up. It’s not surprising since Angelus still seems to be up and moving about. He’s crucifying me. I am lying on my back on a cross and the excruciating pain that woke me up is a spike being driven through my wrist. My other wrist and my feet are tied to the cross.
“I’m glad you woke up, Soul Boy. I really didn’t want you to miss this. Besides, I’m going to give Buff a chance to say goodbye and it will be much less touching if you sleep through it.” He hits the spike with one last hammer stroke and then moves to my other wrist. I bite through my lip trying to hold back the screams. I scream anyway. My body is smoking from lying on the cross.
“I wasn’t there of course, but I heard this is what they did to Christ. You’ve got to commend those Romans on their methods of torture. They were really first rate.” He says as he finishes hammering the second spike into my wrist. I notice for the first time that the cross is on some kind of wheeled cart. He pushes me over to the barrier when Buffy is crying, screaming and pounding.
Angelus makes a disapproving cluck in his throat. “Now now, Buff, don’t be like that. I’ll come visit as soon as I’m done here. Why don’t you say your goodbyes now? He won’t be coherent for much longer.”
There is a radiant beam of light a few feet from my cross and an Oracle appears, a real one this time, not Doyle She has shining metallic skin, lavender tattoos and she’s wearing a white toga. She holds her hand up, palm out and Angelus flies across the room. She whispers a word of Latin and he is trapped behind the same sort of barrier that separates Buffy and I.
“Hello, Warrior.” Her mouth does not move but her voice is everywhere.
Buffy starts screaming. “Get him out of there. So help me, get him out of there or I’ll kill everyone here!”
The Oracle turns her eyes to Buffy. “Quiet, lower being, unless you wish me to set Angelus free again.”
Buffy quits screaming. Her lower lip is quivering and tears stream down her face.
“You have passed the trials, Warrior. We give you this option in reward. More assassins are being sent for her. She will die. If you still wish to trade your life for hers, we will protect her.” The Oracle said.
I shake my head. “Last time I traded my humanity, it only bought her 18 months. I want a promise you’ll protect her longer then that.”
The Oracle turns to face Buffy. She regards her silently for a moment. “If you trade your life, your unlife, your physical existence on this plane, we promise to protect her until she is old enough to die of old age.”
I watch Buffy for her reaction. She is already shaking her head. “No, Angel, no. Stay with me, spend whatever time I have left here with me, please.”
I would say I can deny her nothing but if I can give her a long, beautiful life by sacrificing my own, then I must deny her request. “Buffy, listen to me. You are my only light in the darkness that has been my life. I’m ready to go. I’ve walked this earth for 277 years as a human and a monster. I’ll wait for you and I’ll watch over you. I will never ever leave you. Our souls loved each other in heaven before and they will love each other after. Be brave, be strong and live for me. Please, Buffy, smile for me. I want your smile to be the last thing I see.”
I love her and I love her more in that moment then I ever have. She wipes at her tears with the backs of her hands and gives me the most beautiful smile I have ever seen. There is blinding pain and blinding light and then there is nothing but Buffy, smiling at me.