Destiny

By PSUBrat

Disruptions

Their trip to the Magic Box had been uneventful and for that, William was relieved. Despite the fact that he knew Buffy loved him, the idea of leaving her alone with Angel didn't sit well. He wasn't sure if that was jealousy talking or if he just had a bad feeling about it, more than likely it was jealousy. It was something he was going to have to learn to control, especially when it came to the ponce. He then turned his attention to the Bit and watched quietly as she and Lorne interacted. They seemed comfortable with one another, which was good, this way he wouldn't have to worry about keeping her occupied while they waited for Buffy. He was sure that Dawn had a million questions to ask him, especially after she had seen the way he had kissed Buffy back at the cemetery, and he just didn't want to answer them yet, not without Buffy by his side.

"Do you want me to call Xander or do you want to do it?" Dawn asked as soon as they entered the shop. He had been quieter than usual on the walk over and she had noticed the distraction in his eyes. Hesitantly she reached out to him and touched his arm. "Don't worry Spike, it's going to be okay."

William nodded, trying desperately to cover up his fragile ego when it came to her sister. "I'll call him," he stated quietly as he walked over to the phone.

"Is he always this serious?" Lorne questioned in a hushed tone.

"No," Dawn replied with a frown. "I think he's just really uptight about leaving Angel and Buffy alone together."

Lorne nodded. "I don't think he has much to worry about."

Dawn agreed but how was she going to put William's mind at ease? Suddenly she squealed with delight. "You should have him sing for you!"

"Think you could get him to do that?"

"Definitely," she said with a knowing smile.

***

"You have something else to tell me about Cordelia?" Buffy asked, sensing that it was something important. "Are you going to tell me that she's dating some supernatural being?"

Angel's eyes widened. "I guess you could say that…"

"Hold that thought," Buffy said quickly as the phone began to ring. She sprinted towards the phone and answered it. "Hello?"

"Buffy thank goodness I was able to reach you."

"Giles?"

"Yes Buffy, it's me."

"Giles isn't it like the middle of the night or tomorrow over there right now?"

"Something like that," he sighed. "Listen, it's most urgent. Willow, Tara and I have been doing some research here on the prophecy. I'm not going to lie to you, it's very bad."

"How bad? Like 'apocalyptical' bad or just 'Buffy's going to die again' bad?"

"Both."

"I was afraid you were going to say that."

"We need your help."

"What can I do?"

"It's more like what Dawn can do. I need you to have her open a portal here. There's no time for us to arrive by conventional means and we can't afford to drain Willow and Tara's powers right now, we're going to need them."

"I'm not sure she can do it Giles…"

"What do you mean not sure?"

"She's already opened a portal today and she's not sure she can do it more than once a day."

"Buffy we need that portal, now."

"Okay. They're at the Magic Box. Angel and I will head there now…"

"Angel?"

"Yeah. Long story. I'll tell you all about it when you get here."

"Very well. Call me when you get to the shop."

"I will. Bye." After hanging up the phone, Buffy looked at Angel. "Did you get all that?"

"Yeah," he replied, his tone serious.

"Let's go."

***

In Los Angeles, the senior partners of Wolfram and Hart summoned Linwood to their offices on "Mahogany Row". Nervously, he sat in the outer room waiting to be beckoned into the large conference room. In all his years of employment at the firm, this was the first time that he had been requested to attend any type of meeting with them. What did they want? Was he going to be fired? He couldn't imagine why they wanted him to attend such a top-level meeting, and he certainly didn't know of anything he'd done that could possibly get him dismissed, or killed for that matter.

All this guessing was bringing on a headache. He made several attempts to make himself comfortable in the chair the secretary had pointed him to when he first arrived, but he just couldn't stop fidgeting. The secretary looked at him over her glasses, giving him the sympathetic look that a secretary saves for a child who is waiting for punishment outside of the principal's office. His nervous energy was getting the best of him so he began to pace, still trying to figure out why they wanted to meet with him. Finally, he sat down in one of the chairs and buried his face in his hands, trying to compose himself. Just then, an office door opened on his right and a woman in her late twenties approached him.

"Excuse me, Linwood? The senior partners have decided that they don't need to meet with you after all but that I should deliver this message instead."

Linwood stared at the woman in shock. Were they just dismissing him like that? With a note?

She walked over to him and handed him the folded paper. As she made her way back into the office, she stopped and turned. "I'd advise you to take care of that as soon as possible."

His head snapped up to look at her but she had already closed the door behind her. He turned his attention back to the note in his hands.

Linwood,

Please be advised that we are aware of the present situation in Sunnydale so no need for an update at this time, hence the cancellation of our little get together. It has also come to our attention that we have a traitor in our midst but we're sure that you were already aware of this and have been diligently working towards a solution to the matter. Continue to keep us abreast of any further major developments.

Best regards.

P.S. Please accept our deepest sympathy for your employee, Gavin Park.

He stared at the note in silence. Lilah had managed to get a message through to him while the Sunnydale office was under attack. She had informed him that Gavin had been carried off to whereabouts unknown. Such a shame. He would miss the man. Sighing, he walked back to the elevator and pushed his floor number. Time to make a phone call.

***

Lilah and Connor had slowly helped Wesley to his feet and then to his car. The ride back to Wesley's place was made in silence. He supposed that the other two had been reflecting on the night's occurrences. He was sure that they were no longer in danger. The Master's minions had come for one thing and one thing only, Gavin Park. How else could they explain the fact that Gavin had been taken alive and that he had been attacked and almost killed? He shuddered at the thought of what Gavin was going through right now.

Connor silently sat on the couch across from Wesley while Lilah was in the shower. He wanted to tell Wesley that Angel was here but first he wanted to make sure that the man would be all right.

"Connor I assure you that I'm perfectly fine," Wesley stated as he noticed the teen's doubtful expression. "I'm just a little tired and that will pass. Now, are you going to tell me what's troubling you?"

"Angel is here."

Wesley sat up straight and looked the boy in the eyes. "Are you quite certain?"

"He was with Buffy and Dawn," he said quietly, leaving out the fact that Dawn had opened a portal and brought the monster through with her.

"Interesting." The thoughts started swirling in his mind. Everything was coming together. "Connor I want you to promise me something," he demanded, continuing only after the boy nodded in agreement. "I want you to promise that you won't speak a word of this to anyone but me. It will be just between us, understood?"

Connor frowned. He didn't pretend to understand, but when Wesley turned to make sure that Lilah hadn't finished her shower, realization of Wesley's words sank in. "Understood."

"Good," he stated as he got up to answer the phone that had just started ringing.

Connor sat back on the couch and closed his eyes; thoughts of Angel began to consume him. Maybe Wesley could help him figure out how Angel was still alive or maybe he should call Justine to let her know they had failed?

"Very well," Wesley stated into the phone. "Consider it done."

"Who was that?" Lilah asked as she came into the living room looking refreshed.

Wesley hung up the phone and looked at her defiantly.

***

"Whatever you do," Lorne cautioned Dawn. "Don't sing. Last time you sang, I thought my head was going to explode. Just get him to do it and if you can't get him to sing, try to get him to hum.

Dawn nodded at her co-conspirator. "Spike?" She asked as he came out of the training room carrying the bigger weapons they kept hidden. It seemed as if he was trying to busy himself to keep his mind off what might be happening back on Revello Drive.

"Yeah Bit?"

"I was just telling Lorne about our visit from Sweet last year. Do you remember how that last song went? Wasn't it something like, 'walking alone in fear'?"

William frowned, trying to recall the words to the last song they had sung together as a group, right before he had kissed Buffy in the alley. His memory failing him, he began humming the tune to the song. Why in the world did Dawn need to know this now?

Dawn smiled at Lorne in triumph and then turned her attention back to William.

Lorne was glad that she had looked away from him. The more William hummed, the more information he received and the more he received, the more he wanted to hear. "Holy sweet potatoes," he stated under his breath.

"It's all hazy," William finally said after trying unsuccessfully to remember the words. "Can't remember a thing." He was sure his memory lapse was because his mind was on other things at the present moment. That night had been a turning point for him in so many ways and he usually remembered every detail vividly. Shaking his head, he walked over to the counter, tempted to call Buffy.

"That's okay, Spike," Dawn frowned as William started walking away from her. "No big, I guess. Just thought it would be neat to sing for Lorne." Dawn glanced at Lorne and gave him a perplexed look. The demon looked shell-shocked. "You okay?" She asked grabbing his arm.

Lorne looked at her but said nothing.

Dawn frowned. Something wasn't right. Lorne knew something and wasn't going to share it, at least not with Spike standing there. She tried desperately to think of something to get rid of him so that she could talk to the demon in private. "Spike, do you think you could get us a pizza or something? We haven't eaten in forever."

"Come to think of it," William said tilting his head to the side and smiling, oblivious to what had just occurred. "I haven't eaten since lunch myself. That's a great idea. Any topping preferences?"

"Nope. How 'bout you Lorne?"

Lorne silently shook his head. He needed to talk to Angel, immediately. This was not good.

"Okay, two large pizzas coming up."

While William was making the phone call to the pizza place, Dawn leaned over to Lorne. "You alright?"

The demon took a deep breath and then looked at Dawn. "What do you know about the Shanshu prophecy?" He asked, his tone becoming serious.

Dawn furrowed her brow and shook her head. "Never heard of it."

Just as Lorne was about to explain it to her, Xander and Anya walked through the door.

***

Buffy had thrown a couple of stakes Angel's way before they had left the house and now they were walking in silence towards the Magic Box. Out of the blue, it occurred to Buffy that Angel had been in the middle of telling her something about Cordelia when Giles had called. It had seemed pretty important to him at the time so she thought she should try to bring up the conversation again before they arrived at their destination.

"Angel, you were going to tell me something about Cordelia before we got interrupted. You wanna tell me now?"

Angel gazed at her intently. He wanted to tell her that he was in love with Cordelia but just couldn't bring himself to say the words, not while he was looking in her eyes. Those eyes had always looked at him so lovingly and with such longing, but now he didn't see any of that, all he saw was concern and questions. How had things changed so much? Hadn't they always declared that they were soul mates? He quickly looked away from her, hoping that she didn't see the pain in his eyes.

"Buffy," he started, not exactly knowing what he was going to say. "Remember how we promised we'd never love anyone else?"

"Yeah but Angel," she said shaking her head and laughing. "I was a kid then. We said a lot of things that we shouldn't have."

He looked at her in surprise. "What are you saying Buffy, that you never loved me?"

She saw the pained expression on his face and realized that she had said the wrong thing. "No Angel, I'm sorry if it sounded that way. That's not what I meant. I did love you. Then."

"But not anymore?"

"Angel," she said softly, lowering her eyes and smiling sadly. "I loved you then and I love you now, just not in the same way. If you had asked me that yesterday, I would have given you a different answer, but now…"

"What happened yesterday that changed your mind?" He demanded, already knowing the answer and dreading hearing it.

"Yesterday I grew up."

"It's none of my business Buffy but…"

"You're right. It is none of your business but if you have to know, I love him and it goes both ways."

Angel looked down at the ground. It was harder to hear the words than he had anticipated. He now felt like a truck had hit him. If he was so in love with Cordelia, then why did this hurt so much? Was it because he was still in love with Buffy? That had to be it, didn't it? He was still in love with her. Before he could admit that to her, a tall, blonde vampire interrupted them.

"I have a message for the Slayer," Darius stated with a cold smile.

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