Spike stood shakily, adrenalin blocking out the pain he knew he’d feel later. His first thought was of Fred, still trapped beneath him, and he offered her a hand up, checking her for any damage. “You okay, pet?” he asked urgently.

Fred managed a short nod. “I think so,” she replied, putting one hand over her stomach protectively, fearfully. “Yes, I’m okay,” she reassured him in response to his intense look.

“Ty,” Spike said suddenly. Buffy was his next thought, but she was a Slayer, and much more likely to survive pretty much anything. Besides, he had a feeling that he would know if something had happened to her, and he was almost certain she was fine.

He might have headed out right then, but Fred put a restraining hand on his arm, her dark eyes glancing around the room at the debris. “What about the rest of them?”

With a sinking feeling, Spike realized that they had been among the few lucky ones there. Operating by instinct, he’d managed to get them both to shelter behind a heavy metal table, and fortunately they had been farther away from the blast than some of the others. There were bodies among the rubble, and not all of them were in one piece.

He was torn; Spike wanted to be selfish, to go look for his family, but his sense of duty prevented him. He choked on his worry, and then bent to help Fred with the survivors. There wasn’t much they could do, but it didn’t matter. An emergency crew was there within minutes. As soon as Spike was certain that someone had the situation under control, he grabbed one of the paramedics. “Have you heard about my son? Ty Smith?”

The man shook his head. “We just got told to come down here, sir,” he replied. “Best thing you can do now is get out of the way and wait for news.”

‘Yeah, right,’ Spike thought. As if that was going to happen. He took Fred’s arm solicitously, and then helped her out the door, trying to remember where Ty was supposed to be this time of day and who he would be with. It was probably weapons, and he thought—

“Fred, you know who had Ty for weapons today?”

“Gunn,” she said shortly, trying to concentrate on where she was putting her feet. “Oh, God,” she said suddenly. “Wes. He would have been in his office. I need to find him, William.”

Spike needed to find a number of people with a physical intensity that would not dim. “We’ll get you situated, and then I’ll see what I can do ‘bout locating everyone.” Ty was with Gunn, he reminded himself. And Gunn was more than capable of taking care of the both of them.

~~~~~

Wesley’s head shot up at the sound of the first explosion. There had been a time in the past when he probably would have hidden underneath his desk, but those days were long past. Instead of hiding, he quickly gathered up the notes and the translation, knowing what would be lost if something happened to it. Once he had his notes, he dashed out into the lobby and into chaos. There were employees streaming out the doors and paramedics and firefighters streaming in. He made it halfway across the expanse when a belated explosion echoed behind him, the concussion sending him sprawling.

Wes swallowed hard as he realized that if he’d delayed a few more seconds, there was no way he would have survived it. A paramedic came over to help him up and make sure he was intact. “Are you all right, sir?”

“I’m fine.” Wes grabbed the man’s arm before he could leave. “Can you tell me if you’ve heard anything about my girlfriend? She would have been down in the science labs most likely. Winifred Burkle?”

The paramedic certainly had other places to be and other things to do, but he radioed the other units in the building. “Gries? You down in the lab area?” There was a crackle, and then an affirmative. “You know anything about a woman? Winifred Burkle.”

Another burst of static, and Wesley could just make out the words. “Yeah. Head of the lab, right? She’s on her way up with some other guy, some VP is what they’re telling me.”

Wes heaved a sigh of relief, and patted the man on the shoulder in thanks. But his relief was short-lived as he realized that with what he knew about the prophecy, things could get very ugly unless both Ty and the other referred to in the text had survived. Since he wasn’t entirely sure about the other mentioned, he needed to find William’s son and make sure he was okay, otherwise they would lose the war before they’d fought the first battle.

~~~~~

Ty woke slowly, blinking away the dust that had gotten into his eyes. There was something heavy lying on top of him, and he was having a hard time moving. Whatever had happened had killed the lights, and the room was entirely dark. “Uncle Gunn?” he called out softly.

There was no reply, and it was then that Ty realized that the thing lying on top of him wasn’t hard, as you’d expect of debris from the building, but soft and yielding. A body. The boy let out a muffled yelp, and then bit it back, summoning the small light his Uncle Wes had taught him to make.

Gunn’s face was almost gray in the dim light, one side covered in blood. Ty looked around and banished the light with a word, concentrating on pulling himself out from under his uncle’s body. He could feel that the man was still breathing, but he knew that if he didn’t get help soon, it might end up being too late.

~~~~~

Wesley wove his way through the crush of people trying to get out, through the people going down the stairs, even as he tried to go up. Gunn and Ty would have been in the training room, and from what he could see, there were at least three bombs that had been set off, all localized. Later, perhaps, he would be able to analyze the pattern and the placement to give them a better idea of who or what had done this, but right now he just wanted to find Ty.

The hallway was empty, lit by the emergency lighting, with signs of devastation here as well. It seemed there was no escaping it, and he greatly feared that whatever blast had hit this particular floor might have killed the boy.

Gunn almost always used the third room on the right, and while the knob turned easily enough under his hand, the door itself was shut tight and would not budge. Wesley tried forcing it with his shoulder, ramming against the door as hard as he could, but it was no use. Obviously, some debris had blocked it from inside the room. “Ty! Gunn! Can you hear me?” He waited for an answer, and thought he might have heard something, but it was impossible to tell. The walls in this building were made to last, and to block sounds, for very good reasons.

His next option was the fireman’s axe that he’d seen in the glass case at the other end of the hall, and he ran to retrieve it. The blade bit deeply into the wood on his first swing, and he swung again, hacking through the door. He wished that Angel or William were close by to lend a little of their strength. Wesley wouldn’t have minded a Slayer either.

When he’d made a hole, he called through again. “Ty! Are you alright?”

“Uncle Wes?” The boy’s voice was incredulous. “Is that really you?”

“I’m right here,” the man assured him. “Where’s Gunn?”

He heard a muffled sob. “I don’t think he’s doing too good. I’m stuck under him, and he won’t wake up.”

“Hang in there, Titus.” Wes thought frantically. He needed equipment and more men, though he was loathe to leave the boy. “I have to get more help. Can you hang in there for a little while longer?”

There was a pause, and then a frightened, “Uh huh. Please hurry.”

Wesley ran.

~~~~~

Emmie studied the tops of her boots as she walked beside Buffy back towards the office. “What do you want to do?” the older Slayer asked softly.

“I don’t know,” she admitted, in an equally low voice. “I don’t want to end it, but I need some time away.”

Buffy nodded and looked around. “Why don’t you come and stay with us for a few days?” she suggested. “Spike won’t mind, and we have the extra bedroom.” They had replaced William’s apartment with a townhome only a year before, thinking the extra room would come in handy for guests, especially around the holidays.

“Are you sure you don’t mind?” Emmie asked gratefully. “I don’t want to impose.”

“Spike won’t care,” Buffy said decidedly. “You know he’d do anything for you. And I don’t mind. I know what it’s like to need to get away for a while. At least this will give you some distance and time to work things out. Or not,” she added.

The younger woman nodded and then frowned as she heard the sirens. “Those seem really close to Wolfram & Hart.”

Buffy watched as two firetrucks sped past them to join the crews already there or on their way. Whatever it was, it was big, and it was more than close to the office building. It was the office building. “Spike,” she whispered, and then took off running, Emmie close at her heels. There were other people in there that she cared for, of course. Most of the people she considered family were there; but Spike was the one she thought of first. They had gone through too much for her not to fear losing him again.

The building itself was surrounded by rescue workers, cops and paramedics. Buffy and Emmie both managed to force their way through the growing crowds, but were stopped at the police line. “I’m sorry, but you can’t go in there,” the policeman said apologetically.

Buffy resisted the urge to punch him out and move past the body. It wouldn’t do anybody any good to get herself thrown in jail. “My family is in there. I need to get inside,” she insisted, knowing it was pointless to bring up the fact that she was a Slayer and nearly indestructable.

“I’m sorry,” he repeated, a little more firmly and with a touch of annoyance. “That’s impossible.”

Buffy might have gone with her first impulse and knocked him out, helped, of course, by Emmie, but a voice stopped her. “Buffy!”

She turned to see Dawn making her way towards her, followed closely by Connor. “Dawn, you’re okay.” She hugged her sister, and looked from one to the other. “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” Dawn said. “Spike told me to get Connor out of the office for a while because of some stuff that was going on. We just now got back.”

“Would this ‘stuff’ have anything to do with the fact that Connor happens to be Angel’s son?” Buffy asked, with a touch of wry humor, in spite of the situation.

“How did you know?” Connor asked.

“I found out by accident earlier today. Buffy and I left so I could calm down and resist the urge to stake him,” Emmie explained. At that point, everyone seemed to realize that they had a more than awkward situation on their hands, as Connor was actually older than his father’s girlfriend. It was a little strange, to say the least.

“We don’t have time for this now,” Buffy finally stated. “We need to get inside the building, and that stupid cop won’t let us by.”

Connor smiled. “Then it’s probably a good thing you’re with the director of Internal Security,” he pointed out. “I know a way in that wouldn’t even occur to them.”

“Someone should probably stay here in case the rest of them come outside,” Emmie stated.

Dawn sighed. “As the only non-Slayer, non-superhuman here, that should probably be me. I’ll let the rest of them know where you are if I see them before you do.”

Buffy smiled at her younger sister and gave her another brief hug. “We’ll be back as soon as we have some information,” she promised, and then she followed Connor and Emmie through the crowd and around the back, a little surprised when the young man led them to a manhole cover that wasn’t being watched.

He grinned when he saw her face. “Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing.”

Somehow Buffy didn’t have any trouble believing him.

~~~~~

They could see that Wesley’s office had sustained a tremendous amount of damage as they moved past it and into the lobby. Fred let out a muffled whimper, and Spike grabbed her by both arms. “Listen to me, Fred,” he demanded. “I’m sure Wes is fine, and I promise that I’m going to find him, but I need you to head outside and see if you can’t find Dawn and Connor. Because he’s going to bloody well kill me if anythin’ happens to you.”

Spike was grateful that Fred wasn’t nearly as stubborn as Buffy. She had no problem accepting advice. It might have also helped that she wasn’t just thinking about herself, but also of their child. But once she was safely on her way, he could head up the stairs to where he knew his son would most likely be found. But if not, Spike would find him.

He ran into Wesley on his way up the stairs, and he could tell from the other man’s wild eyes that there was something terribly wrong. “Ty?” he demanded urgently.

“He’s fine, William,” Wes reassured him. “But he’s trapped right now with Gunn. He seems to think that Charles is badly hurt. Is Fred—”

“Outside, and in one piece. Get the paramedics up here; I’ll do what I can to get them out.”

Spike had the door off its hinges in mere seconds. It took him a little longer to extricate Ty from under Gunn’s unconscious form. He didn’t want to hurt either of them, but Ty was patient, confident that his dad would manage to get them both out of there in one piece. By the time Wesley returned with the paramedics in tow, Spike had not only gotten his son out of the room and into the hallway, but he’d also moved most of the debris.

The paramedics wasted no time in getting Gunn onto a backboard, and then out onto a gurney. “Will he be alright?” Wesley demanded worriedly.

“It’s hard to say right now, sir,” one of the rescue workers said. “We need to get him to the hospital right away.”

“Which one?” Spike demanded.

“County General.” But the paramedics were already on their way to the stairs, wasting no time answering their questions in favor of getting the injured party the necessary medical attention. Wes and Spike followed at a slightly slower pace, Spike keeping a firm grip on Ty the entire way.

They ran into Connor, Buffy and Emmie out in the lobby, and it was there that they realized no one had seen Angel. “Damn him,” Emmie hissed, when Spike told her that he hadn’t seen the big vampire all day.

“Emmie.” Buffy voice had a warning note, though she knew that most of the younger woman’s anger was from worry.

“Someone should check his office,” Wesley stated. “But if he’s not there we won’t have time to search the building.”

“Well, it’s not going to be Spike,” Buffy stated. “You are going to the hospital. Someone is going to need to look at your back.”

Spike winced. Now that the adrenalin was wearing off, and she had called his attention to his injuries, he could feel the pain from the lacerations. “Yeah, and we can check on Gunn while we’re there.” He thought quickly, hating to split everyone up even as someone seemed to be out to get them. “Connor, you and Emmie go look for Angel. Watch each other’s backs. Wesley’s right, if he’s not there in his office, get yourselves out of the building and head over to my place. We’ll have everybody meet up there. Wesley, you’d better take Dawn and Fred with you. Get what you need research-wise from your place first. Buffy and I will meet you as soon as we get done at the hospital.”

“What if we don’t find Angel?” Connor asked.

“Call his cell phone,” Wesley suggested. “I believe Angel has gotten the hang of using his voice mail at this point. Besides, if he is alright, he’ll probably call one of us as soon as he can. I’m sure he’ll find us.”

“Can I go with you, Dad?” Ty asked quietly, his face pale with strain and smudged with dirt.

Spike sighed. He didn’t want to let the boy out of his sight, but the hospital wasn’t any place for his son. “I’m sorry, luv, but I don’t think that’s a good idea. I want you to go with your Uncle Wes, alright?”

Ty nodded, disappointed, and Spike groaned as he remembered that Lorne was out of town, and probably had no idea what was going on. “Bloody hell. Wes, you’d better call Lorne as soon as you get a chance. If he sees this on the news before one of us reaches him, he’ll probably flip.”

Wesley nodded. “We’ll see you in a bit, William.” He put a comforting hand on Ty’s shoulder as he led him out of the building, followed closely by Buffy and Spike. Meanwhile Connor and Emmie headed off in search of their vampire boss.

~~~~~

Twenty two stitches later, Spike had a very sore back and a very short temper. “Bloody hell,” he grumbled, as they made their way towards the ICU to check on Gunn’s status. “There are times I definitely miss bein’ a vampire.”

Buffy reached out and twined her fingers with his, giving him a sympathetic smile. “Well, look at the bright side. You’re going to be taking sponge baths for a week since you can’t get those stitches wet.”

“And how is that the bright side?” he demanded. And then the light dawned as he saw the lascivious look she gave him. “Never mind, that is the bright side,” he agreed. “Assumin’ we even find the time for that,” Spike added, a little more quietly.

“We’re going to make it,” Buffy said fiercely. Watching the doctor put the stitches in the two long furrows the flying glass had made reminded her of how fragile he was, how quickly it could all end. They hadn’t had a close call in a very long time; the reduced slaying had lulled her into a false sense of security, making her believe that they might yet live forever. Today’s little explosion had been a wake-up call. She suddenly knew that if they did get out of this next apocalypse in one piece, she wanted to take Spike up on his offer of marriage and a couple of kids of their own. They did not have all the time in the world, regardless of what she would like to believe.

He gave her a reassuring smile, thinking about the same thing she was. They might indeed have little time left. Remembering the small box hidden away in one of his drawers. “That we will.” But when they asked the ICU nurse on duty about Gunn’s status, they realized that he very well might not.

“There was a lot of internal bleeding,” the nurse explained apologetically. “And his head injury was a serious one. He might still wake up, but…” She trailed off, and both Buffy and Spike knew what she was not saying. Gunn might wake up, and then again, he might not.

“What are his chances?” Spike asked hoarsely.

“About 50/50,” the nurse replied. “But if he doesn’t wake up in the next couple days, the chances of recovery are much slimmer. You should both go home and get some rest. We’ll call you if anything changes.”

Buffy and Spike both nodded. Someone should stay with him, but they had an apocalypse to worry about, along with a missing vampire. They needed to figure out what was going on, who was behind the attack, and that couldn’t be done by staying at Gunn’s bedside, as satisfying as that might be emotionally.

They walked back to the car slowly, still holding hands, neither of them willing to let go.

“What are we going to do next?” Buffy asked him, suddenly looking anxious. It had been ten years since her last major apocalypse, and she felt as though she was out of practice.

Spike smiled at her, trying to project a sense of strength that he didn’t feel. “What we always do, Buffy-luv. We’re going to save the world.”

Angel drifted through the tunnels like a wraith, making no sound. He felt like a ghost in his own life now, as though none of it belonged to him anymore. He had made another life for himself, a life in which he had never had a child, where he had a wonderful girlfriend, a purpose, a family. He had something resembling a son in Ty that his errant childe, William, had shared with him.

But to do that, in order to go on with his life, he’d had to pack away all memories of Connor, of the baby he had been, of the young man he had become. And now, ten years after he’d gained—and lost—his son, after he had given him up, Connor had returned. It seemed both dream come true, and nightmare.

Angel had left the office soon after Emmie had stormed out. He rarely used the tunnels anymore; there was no need when you had magic glass in cars and windows. But he found that they helped him to think, to remember who he had been before he had become the head of the L.A. branch of Wolfram & Hart. Who he had been before Connor. Because that year and a half had broken him more surely than any trip to hell ever could.

Here, in the tunnels, however, he had come to the conclusion that William had been right. He should have been honest with Emmie from the beginning, whatever the personal cost to himself at the time. He should have opened up to Wesley when the prophecy had first come up and it looked as though Connor would play a role in this new apocalypse. Instead, he had withdrawn, and now he had jeapordized everything.

Sliding off the manhole cover in the parking garage, he noticed the heavy smell of smoke. Angel frowned; it wasn’t cigarette smoke, but the kind that came after an explosion, laced with dust. He hurried to the building’s entrance and almost immediately ran into a policeman in Kevlar. “Freeze!” the man called, reaching for his gun.

Angel’s hands went up into the air immediately. “Hold on there,” he cautioned. The bullets wouldn’t exactly kill him, but getting shot hurt like hell. “My name is Angel. I’m the CEO of this company.”

The cop looked uncertain. “You got some ID?”

Carefully, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a wallet. It had taken him a long time to get used to carrying identification; as a member of the undead, it wasn’t necessary, strictly speaking. But it came in handy when you were trying to pass as human, and during times when police officers had their guns pointed directly at you. He watched as the officer checked out his driver’s license, and then breathed a sigh of relief as the man relaxed and handed it back to him.

“You gave me quite a scare, sir,” he admitted frankly. “We thought we had cleared out this building a couple hours ago.”

“I came in through the parking garage. What happened here?”

The officer shrugged. “It looks like someone set off a series of explosions. We’re still trying to determine if more bombs were set and haven’t gone off yet.”

“Was anyone killed?” Angel asked anxiously. He had no idea who was supposed to be here today. Lorne, of course, had been out of the office on business, but the others—

The cop looked sympathetic. “Eleven dead, five critically wounded. Dozens more hurt. I think most of the critical cases got taken to County.”

“Do you have a list?”

“The commander downstairs does. I’ll take you to him.”

Angel followed the man through the debris. He hadn’t wanted to be disturbed, so he’d left his cell phone in his office. William was always telling him that he should carry it at all times in case of an emergency; apparently he’d been right about that too. It was a trend that was becoming just a bit galling. “Commander? This is Mr. Angel. He wanted to see the list.”

It took some persuasion, since many of the family members hadn’t been notified yet, but Angel could be quite persuasive when he wanted to be. The commander assured him that he’d been lucky; a lot more people could have been killed. Angel wasn’t sure eleven dead could ever conceivably be called lucky.

But he was relieved as he looked over the list of fatalities. Most he hadn’t known, or he was only able to recognize their names, without being able to recall their faces. It was the name at the top of the critical list that stunned him though, and sent him flying through the front doors.

~~~~~

“Hey.” Angel stood next to the bed that held Gunn’s still form. “It looks like we’ve got

something big on the way.” There was no answer, not that he expected one. “I wish you were going to be fighting with us. I don’t think there’s anyone else I trust to watch my back like you.”

There was Wesley and Spike, he knew. And Connor. But he and Gunn had always fought well together, something about Gunn’s unshakeable loyalty once given. “I know we haven’t seen a lot of each other lately. Sometimes I miss the old days, when it was just us in the Hyperion and we knew Wolfram & Hart was evil.” He missed the days when things were simple, before Connor, before Wesley’s betrayal, before Cordy’s death.

“Hang in there, Charles,” he murmured.

“You can’t be in here.”

Angel turned to face the nurse. “Excuse me?”

“Only family are allowed in here, and only during visiting hours.” She glared at him sternly.

“I am family,” he protested. At her skeptical look, he insisted. “Look in the chart. My name is Angel. I should be listed as one of his next of kin.”

She unbent enough to look sympathetic. “Even so, Mr. Angel, it’s past visiting hours. You really should come back tomorrow.”

“Yeah. Tomorrow.” Angel turned to go, and then looked back at her again. “How—Is he going to be okay?”

“The doctor thinks he has a chance at a full recovery. Tonight is the most critical time, but if he makes it, and if he wakes up in the next few days, there’s a possibility.”

Angel left then and went to find a pay phone, depositing a couple of quarters and dialing the familiar number. “’lo.”

“It’s me,” he said.

“Where are you?”

“At the hospital. I had to see Gunn as soon as I found out.”

Spike sighed on the other end. “He saved Ty, kept him from bein’ crushed by the fallin’ debris. You okay?”

“I was in the tunnels. I needed to think.”

Spike gave a little growl. “Figures. Your office got hit too. Windows were busted out. When Emmie and Connor couldn’t find you, well, we were hoping for the best.”

“I’m fine. I’ll be there as soon as I can get cleaned up,” Angel said, leaning his forehead against the wall.

“We’ve still got a change of clothes over here for you,” Spike replied. “You can get cleaned up here. Wes’s been workin’ on that prophecy non-stop, and it looks like we’re finally getting somewhere.”

“Does everyone know?” Angel asked quietly, fearing the answer.

There was a pause, and then Spike said, “They know. And no one’s ready to stake you on sight yet. We’ll see you in a bit.”

~~~~~

Angel didn’t bother knocking when he came in, knowing he was expected. He wasn’t surprised at the reception he got; there was complete silence as he entered the living room, where everyone was sitting. Connor wouldn’t look at him, the others shifted uncomfortably, and glanced from him to Connor and back again. Wesley stood and walked out of the room.

Emmie stood up from where she’d been sitting on the couch and stalked over to him, slapping him on the chest. Considering Slayer strength, it was not an inconsiderable blow. “Ow.”

She glared at him. “We were worried. You couldn’t have called earlier?”

“I left my cell phone in my office,” he explained, a trifle sheepishly.

Emmie looked at him for a long moment, and he could see both anger and forgiveness in her eyes. Forgiveness for which he had been prepared to plead. “I love you,” she said quietly. “But I’m still pissed off.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I was stupid, and I should have told you a long time ago,” he admitted.

Her expression softened. “As long as you’ve figured that out. Now, go get cleaned up. You need it.” She smiled at him then, and he looked over at Spike who was motioning him to follow.

Angel went back into the master bedroom with him, and watched as Spike pulled out some clothes he’d left the last time he’d needed to crash there. It didn’t happen very often, but occasionally he and Spike would go out hunting and he’d need to clean up before heading to the office. The younger man handed him the clothing and a towel. “We’ve got blood in the fridge for when you get out,” he said quietly. “Waitin’ on the delivery boy right now. Chinese tonight. Looks like we’ll be pullin’ an all-nighter, so we’ve got the coffee goin’ too.”

“Is he alright?”

“Who?”

“Connor.” Angel’s voice was flat.

Spike nodded slowly. “You’ll have to talk to him yourself. Sent him out with Dawn earlier today, which was why he wasn’t in the building. I think she helped.”

“And Wesley?”

The ex-vampire shook his head. “Don’t know, Angelus. He’s takin’ the whole thing pretty hard, blamin’ himself, hardly able to believe that he took Connor. I think Wes’s worried that he’s goin’ to screw this prophecy up too, an’ he was worried ‘bout that before.” Spike sighed and then looked at his boss. “I’m goin’ to say this once, and once only, Angel. Things are getting hot, an’ we need everybody on board. I told you before to tell everyone, and you didn’t, an’ look where we are now. You want to make this come out right, you’re gonna have to talk to them, all of them.” Spike raised an eyebrow and gave him a sardonic smile. “They may have forgotten it a bit in the middle of all this, but you’re still their leader, Angel. You’re the boss. Your job to take the reins now.”

Angel shook his head. “You or Wesley do a better job leading than I do sometimes, William,” he confessed.

“Well, long as you remember that you’re not indispensable, we’ll be alright.” Spike gave him a cheeky grin and left the vampire to his shower.

~~~~~

Fred wandered out to the back porch to find Wesley. Sometimes he could brood just as well as

Angel; it was really pretty impressive. She sat down next to him on the edge of the small patio. “Hey.”

He didn’t respond, and she put a gentle hand on his shoulder. “It was a long time ago, Wesley.”

“Perhaps.” There was a self-deprecating smile on his face. “It’s no wonder Angel began brooding when he discovered I was to have a child. It must be like rubbing salt in a wound.” He fingered the scar on his neck reflexively.

“In a way, it does explain a lot,” Fred murmured. “The scar, and other things.” There were things that were unexplained, that they had never questioned before. Wesley’s scar was one thing, and they all remembered that there had been a falling out, but no one could remember the cause of either. They knew that Cordy had died, or as good as, but the details were sketchy. The surprise, or the biggest one, was that now they knew the explanation, they could see where things got a little fuzzy, but no one had ever noticed it before.

“Other things, yes,” Wesley said. “Like fearing I would bollocks this prophecy up as well. I don’t understand how William can trust me, how Angel can trust me with this, knowing what I’ve done. I would never have believed that I would betray him.”

“You didn’t betray him.” Spike’s voice came from behind them. He’d decided to take matters into his own hands. Angel wasn’t always very perceptive when it came to things like this, and he could very easily screw it up. This was going to take a more gentle touch.

Wesley turned to look at him. “How can you say that?”

“You’re the one to make the hard decisions, Wes,” Spike replied. “Tell me. If you knew Ty was in danger staying with me, and I couldn’t give him up, what would you do?”

“William—” Wesley protested.

“I mean it,” Spike insisted. “If you knew Ty’s survival depended on him leaving, and I couldn’t make the decision, what would you do?” Wesley’s prolonged silence was enough of an answer. “That’s why we trust you, Wesley. Because you care enough to do the hard thing and make the right decision.”

“It’s not that simple,” Wesley said.

“Yes, it is.” Angel stepped out onto the patio. “I didn’t understand then, but I do now. We trust you because we know you’ll do the right thing, even if it means sacrifice for yourself. You took Connor to save him, knowing I wouldn’t understand. But I get it now.”

Fred slipped her hand into Wesley’s. “It’s gonna be okay, Wes. You’ll translate the prophecy and we’ll fix it, just like we always do.”

Angel looked into Wes’s eyes, and said as firmly as he could, “I trust you, Wes. I’m happy for you and Fred. You both deserve it.”

Fred smiled at the big vampire. “Thanks, Angel.”

Wesley almost managed a smile, and nodded a silent thanks. He was uncertain that he did indeed deserve it.

~~~~~

They were all gathered in the living room, eating Chinese take-out and listening while Wesley explained the prophecy. There had been no time for Angel to speak with Connor alone, and he couldn’t help casting continuous glances at his son. It was still unbelievable that Connor was here, with him.

“The prophecy is quite specific, and distantly related to the Shanshu,” Wesley said. “It mentions four individuals, all male. Two are brothers and two are their sons.”

“You’re thinkin’ that means Angel and me for the brothers then, mate.” Spike speared a shrimp on the end of his chopstick and frowned thoughtfully. “We’re not exactly brothers though.”

“No, you’re not,” Wes admitted. “But brothers in this case refers not to blood, but to a certain similarity of circumstance. The translation suggests connection by history, a camaraderie, not necessarily by the traditional family ties. You both are, or were, souled vampires. Besides, the names they give are the Phoenix and the Champion. The meanings are obvious.”

Spike huffed a little. “Hate to think of it that way, but you’re right. There’s over a hundred years of history between the two of us.” He shot Angel an ironic look and quoted, “’We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.’”

A small smile tilted Angel’s lips as he finished the line “’For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother, be he ne’er so lowly.’”

“Watch who you’re callin’ ‘lowly,’ mate,” Spike warned him with a smile.

“What about their sons?” Connor asked. “What is it supposed to say about me?”

Wesley shot the younger man a deceptively mild look. “If you’ll all let me continue, I was getting to that.” Connor gave him a mumbled apology. “Both sons are mentioned multiple times, under multiple names. The son of the Phoenix is called, alternately, the Seer and the Chosen. The son of the Champion is called both Champion of the Chosen and the Destroyer. It is said that the two together will bring great destruction on the forces of evil, thus tipping the balance in favor of good.”

Buffy raised a hesitant hand. “But isn’t balance supposed to be a good thing?” she asked. “I thought things weren’t supposed to be unbalance-y.”

Wesley frowned. “Yes, usually one would think that would be the case, but typically one side or the other is winning. Not by much, grant you, but there seems to be a continuum to the balance. Fall too far at one end or the other, and someone comes along to change it.”

“Wouldn’t all the extra Slayers have tipped the balance though?” Dawn asked thoughtfully. “When we activated all the Slayers ten years ago, it was supposed to help keep something like this from happening again, prevent another apocalypse.”

“In this dimension,” Wesley agreed. “Look at it this way. There are multiple dimensions, all in different states of flux. Some are more good than bad, some more bad than good, but overall there is equality. Just because there are more Slayers here does not mean that the balance has been met, and indeed, very few of those girls are actually acting as Slayers. Most are at least attempting to live as normally as possible. A few more demon hunters do not make a lot of difference in the long run, not when Evil has found other places to go. No, what the prophecy proposes is that Ty and Connor are destined to defeat a larger evil, one that crosses dimensional boundaries” He hesitated, and then continued less confidantly. “I do not know this for certain, but I believe that evil to be connected somehow to Wolfram & Hart, possibly to the Senior Partners.”

“Not the Senior Partners themselves?” Fred asked.

“I don’t know that.”

“How do we know for sure that Ty was the target?” Angel objected. “It might have been aimed at William or me.”

“Not with the dispersion of the bombs,” Connor said quietly. “They were placed specifically, possibly in order to injure as few of their own people as possible. Wesley’s office, the lab, the practice rooms, your office and William’s office are all places frequented by Ty. My office was hit too, but we think I was a secondary target. It’s more important that they get Ty in the long run. My guess is that they were after him all along.”

There was a long silence, and then Emmie suddenly let out a low whistle. “Are you saying this has been their plan from the beginning? That they gave Wolfram & Hart to Angel because they knew eventually they’d need to get their hands on Ty and Connor?”

Wesley smiled a little, wondering that Emmie had come to the conclusion so quickly. He probably shouldn’t be that surprised though. Emmie was quite intelligent, but like Buffy, she came across as more of a “doer” than a “thinker.” “It is possible,” he replied.

“No,” Angel objected. “How could they have any idea? About Ty and William at least?”

“When did they offer the firm to you?” Wesley asked, the ideas that had been rolling around in his head for weeks finally beginning to spill out. “It wasn’t until after William got his soul. Up until that point they had been working very hard to defeat you, or at least turn you to the dark side. But afterwards, it was no longer certain that you were the souled vampire in the prophecy, and they could afford to wait. They knew they’d need Connor, and more than that even, they knew they’d need Ty. William was connected to you; it was a reasonable assumption that you would run into one another again, especially as your connection is foretold. And after that, they needed to be sure. It is possible that your paternity test, proving Titus William’s son by blood, set off the alarm bells they needed. From there, all that was required was putting Connor into play, easily enough done by sending him an anonymous letter detailing the job opening, for which he was eminently qualified.”

“So what you’re saying is the evil Senior Partners arranged for all of this?” Buffy asked, alarm shading her voice.

Wesley shook his head. “I don’t believe so, at least not all of it. Events are coming to a head, perhaps as they should, perhaps earlier than we might have hoped, but I believe the Powers to have something to do with this too.”

“Then we’re caught between a rock and a hard place,” Spike said with a touch of wry humor. He probably would have been pacing, except that Buffy was playing with the hair on the back of his neck, and he was in no mood to move. He stole a glance over at his son, who was sitting, listening wide-eyed to the conversation. Spike should have sent him to bed long before, but he had hesitated. This was partially about Ty, after all. In many ways it would be unfair to cut him out of the conversation. He distinctly remembered a curious young girl who had gone off on her own, only to discover she was the mystical Key in the worst manner possible. Leaving people out of the loop was not always a good idea.

“Something like that,” Wesley admitted. “The Powers will, of course, desire to keep Ty and Connor safe—”

“Fat lot of good that’s done us so far,” Spike grumbled.

“—and the Senior Partners will probably continue to come after us.”

“Unless we go after them ourselves,” Angel rumbled. “Is it possible?”

“I don’t know,” Wesley admitted. “I hadn’t gotten that far in my investigations. There is one other thing I think you should all know, however.”

“What’s that?” Angel asked warily.

“The Shanshu prophecy may not have referred exclusively to William.” There was a dead silence. “From all my reading, the Shanshu refers to the restoration of humanity to a souled vampire who is redeemed by his role in an apocalypse. While we thought that perhaps William was the one referred to, everything I have read indicates that it’s possible to have a dual fulfillment.”

“You mean—” Angel was staring at him in disbelief.

“Yes,” Wesley said gently. “When we first discovered the prophecy, there were no other souled vampires in existance. You were the only one the prophecy could possibly refer to. But once William received his soul, that was no longer the case. I cannot be certain, of course, but it is possible that you might yet get your reward, Angel.”

Angel’s eyes were alight with hope for a few short moments, and then he shook his head as though clearing it. “No,” he said firmly. “I was never counting on the Shanshu, at least not for long. There’s no reason to start now. We’ll keep going like we were, like we’ve always done. But now we have to decide on our next move. If something within Wolfram & Hart is after us, we can’t go back there, not until we get some kind of a handle on things. Any ideas, people?”

~~~~~

Spike looked over at his son, who was trying desperately to follow the discussion and stay awake. It was definitely a losing battle. It was after midnight, and the poor kid had already been through a lot. He touched Buffy’s knee. “I should get Ty to bed, luv,” he murmured.

Buffy looked over at him and gave the boy a fond smile. “I’ll take care of it. You’re better at this kind of thing than I am anyway. You know me. Point me in the direction of what needs killing and I’ll do it.”

“You’re a bit more than that, pet,” he replied, but he let her rise and go to his son. She was right about one thing; he didn’t want to miss a moment of this discussion, not when Ty’s life could depend on it.

Buffy, for her part, was slightly surprised at Ty’s willing acquiescence. He could be as stubborn as his father at times. “I wish I could go to bed too,” she confided, as she followed him up the stairs to his bedroom.

“I’m a little tired,” he admitted. Buffy was quiet as he washed his face and brushed his teeth, and then got into his pajamas. She more than half-suspected that he didn’t really want anyone to tuck him in at night, and only humored them because he knew it made his father feel better. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Shoot,” she replied, sitting down on the edge of his bed and smoothing back his hair. He was so much like Spike it was scary sometimes. There were pieces that she suspected were very much his mother, but his blue eyes and charming grin were all from his father’s side of the gene pool.

“Are you and Dad gonna get married?”

Buffy blinked. Her first reaction was to tell him not to worry about it, but she knew that wouldn’t suffice. Ty was not only intelligent, he was also very mature for his age, and he wouldn’t like that answer. “We’ve talked about it,” she admitted. “I think we probably will someday, but I can’t tell you when. Why?”

“I was just wondering,” he said. “It’s just—do you think my mom would be mad if I called you mom? It’s just that you kind of are, and I don’t remember her so good, ‘cause I was just a kid when she died. If you and Dad were married, then I could, but—”

Buffy was taken aback, but honored beyond words. This was not something she had ever expected from him. “Ty, I’m honored,” she replied, choosing her words carefully. “I didn’t know your mom, so I can’t tell you for sure if she would mind or not. But if I were her, what I would want most would be for you to be happy. And if it makes you happy to call me mom, then that would be more than fine.”

“You’ll stick around?” he whispered.

“Forever, if I can manage it,” she whispered back. “And I am really good at managing things.”

His wiry boy’s arms twined themselves around her neck. “Love you.”

“Oh, Ty,” she murmured. “I love you too.”

~~~~~

Everyone was bedded down for the night. Spike thought that Angel would probably try to talk to Connor alone, as he should, but that was not his concern for now. For now, all he was thinking about was Buffy and savoring every second he could get with her. That was the problem with having gone through as many apocalypses as they had. They knew the stakes better than anyone, better than a green Slayer facing her first vampire, for sure. They had both watched the other die, and had no desire to see a repeat.

Wesley and Fred had gotten the guest room, while the others were spread out on the floors and couch. Tomorrow night they would have to find a better solution, but they had all thought it best to stick together for the present. Besides, tomorrow would come all too soon.

Spike glanced up as Buffy came into their bedroom from the bathroom. “Hey,” she said softly, brushing her long hair behind her ears. “Whatcha thinking?”

“Of you,” he replied, smiling. How he loved to watch her move.

She smiled in return and then glanced away. “Ty asked me when we were going to get married tonight.”

He pursed his lips. “Yeah? And what did you say?”

“I told him we probably would and that we’d talked about it. He wanted to know because he wanted to be able to call me ‘mom.’” Buffy fiddled with her hands nervously. “I told him I didn’t mind, and that I didn’t think Erin would have either.”

Spike smiled reflectively. “She wouldn’t have,” he assured her. “’Bout the most generous woman I’ve ever known, really. Told me before she died not to hold back from fallin’ in love again, that she wanted me to be happy. She’d have wanted the same for Ty, too.”

“That’s what I said,” she replied.

It was his turn to stand, a little nervous. It was bad timing; he knew that. He should wait until they weren’t looking at another apocalypse on the horizon. But he didn’t want to wait, he couldn’t. “Buffy, luv, I know this isn’t the best time, but we’ve talked about it, so I know you won’t think it’s just because we’re runnin’ into imminent danger or anything.” Spike dug through his drawer and found the box just where he’d left it. “I’ve been waitin’ to find the right moment, but things just keep comin’ up, an’ I wanted you to hear this before, you know?”

Buffy wasn’t quite sure she did, but she nodded anyway.

“Anyway, if you don’t want to, that’s fine, but—”

“Spike, spit it out,” she ordered gently, thinking she knew where this was going.

He hesitated, and then held out the black velvet box. “Buffy, will you marry me?”

Buffy looked from the ring, a large diamond solitaire, back to her lover, who was staring at her with just a touch of apprehension. Her eyes started to twinkle. “Oh, Spike, it’s just so sudden. I don’t know what to say.”

Comprehension dawned as he remembered the last proposal he’d made to her. “Say yes, and make me the happiest man on earth.”

And then, while there was still a great deal of humor in her eyes, it gentled into a deep, glowing love. “Spike, of course it’s yes.”

“You mean it, Buffy?” His voice was hoarse with anticipation.

She reached out and touched his cheek and then let him slip the ring on her finger. “Always, William. I’m always yours.”

Neither of them got much sleep that night.

Ty sat cross-legged with the sheets tented over him, a flashlight in hand. He was peering intently at the thick tome in front of him, one he’d made certain to grab while everyone was eating and listening to Wesley talk about the prophecy.

He wasn’t stupid. Ty knew very well what his father’s decision would be. The adults had talked long and hard before he went to bed about the merits of fighting vs. running. If Ty knew his dad, they would run. Not that William was a coward, far from it. But when it came to his son, the ex-vampire was unwilling to allow any harm to come to him, and in this case it would involve a retreat.

Hence, the book.

One person had already been badly hurt, possibly even killed to protect him, and Ty didn’t want to see that happen again. When Dawn had asked if there was any way to get in touch with the Powers, and Angel had mentioned the Conduit, Ty thought he had the answer. All he had to do was to find the Conduit himself. After all, he was the one the prophecy talked about, he was the Chosen, so he should be the one to talk to Them. If he could talk to Them, maybe he could prevent anyone else from getting hurt.

Angel had talked about needing to wait for Lorne, and reading the text, Ty could see why. He didn’t have the skills to locate the Conduit, which meant he’d have to convince his dad to let him go in and talk to the Powers on his own, which wasn’t going to happen any time this century. His dad was such an utter worrywart.

He had to try though, Ty decided, flipping off the flashlight and putting the book down beside the bed. His worst fear was that everyone would be so busy protecting him, they’d all get killed themselves. They’d leave, just like his mom had. And he wasn’t going to let that happen.

~~~~~

Angel stepped hesitantly into the dimly lit kitchen. It was about the only room in the house that

didn’t have a body draped over it. Dawn had taken the couch, and Emmie was lying next to her. Angel himself wasn’t tired. It was night, after all, and he was a vampire. And Connor was awake. He couldn’t possibly sleep.

“Hey.”

Connor looked over his shoulder at him from where he stood at the sink, obviously getting a glass of water for himself. “Hi.”

The two men stood in silence, and Angel thought that this “first” meeting, while less violent than their last, was hardly less awkward. “Look, Connor—”

“It’s true? All of it?” Connor asked, cutting him off.

Angel wasn’t sure how to reply. He’d had a hard enough time accepting it when Darla had first showed up pregnant. “Yeah, it’s true. Do you—do you have any questions? I’d like to tell you whatever you want to know.”

The younger man shook his head. “No. I mean, I guess just one.” Connor turned and faced his father fully for the first time since William had told him the truth. “Why? Why did you give me up? Why did you take my memories and give me all these fake ones?”

If Angel were to be completely honest with himself, and everybody else, he would have to admit that he never expected to have to answer those questions. He had believed that he would never see Connor again, that he would keep his secret until he was dust. Angel had never prepared himself to answer for the choices he’d made. “You were broken,” he finally said, and then motioned out to the back patio, not wanting to wake Emmie and Dawn.

Once they were outside, he began again. “A man named Holtz raised you. William told you about that?” At Connor’s nod, he continued. “Holtz wanted revenge for what I’d done to him, and to be fair, he had good reason. But he raised you to hate me, to believe that I was nothing but evil, even after he knew differently. And then he arranged for his own death, knowing you’d believe that I’d killed him. After that, people lied to you and tricked you, one after another, people you’d trusted.”

Angel paused. Telling this tale was harder than he thought it would be. “In the end, you didn’t know what or who to believe. You couldn’t trust me, not after what you’d been told by the man you called your father. Everything else you’d believed in turned out to be an illusion, and it was gone. You were broken, and I couldn’t fix you.”

“So you erased me.” Angel could hear the bitterness in his son’s voice.

“No!” Angel stared at him. “When Wolfram & Hart offered me the L.A. branch, I wasn’t going to take it, but then you—you needed help. I wanted to give you what I hadn’t been able to before. I couldn’t turn back time and prevent the whole thing from happening, but I could give you a fresh start. But to do that, I had to give you up. I didn’t have a choice.”

“You had a choice,” Connor said quietly. “But this is the one you made.”

Angel looked away, but he knew Connor was right. “Yeah. This is the one I made.”

“So now I find out my entire life was a lie. You know, it was funny, but right after I graduated from high school, I started having these abilities. I could hear things, do things, no one else could. I didn’t understand it. I thought I was some kind of freak. Turns out that I was.”

“You’re not a freak, Connor,” Angel said fiercely, grabbing the smaller man by the shoulders and staring him in the eyes. “You’re my son.”

Connor looked at him. “I don’t know you.”

“I know.” Angel was desperate for anything, any hope he might grasp that someday he and Connor could be friends, if not actually father and son. “But you could, if you wanted to. I made my choice, but I made it because I loved you and I didn’t see any other options.”

Connor looked away. “Dawn told me today about finding out she wasn’t really who she thought she was. She said it made her feel like she wasn’t real, but there were people around her that made her memories solid.” He sighed. “I had two real years with my parents before they died, and the people I remember from those two years are the same people I remember growing up. And now I have a chance to find out who I really am. I had questions, and you have answers. I’m in this now, by my choice.”

Angel nodded slowly, and then held out a hand. “I know you might never feel like I’m your father,” he acknowledged. “But I’d like to try to be your friend, if I can.”

Connor stared at the offered hand, and then took it. “I think I’d like that too.”

~~~~~

Lorne shifted his bags from one hand to the other to knock on the door. Spike answered it dressed in a pair of jeans and nothing else, his platinum hair still wet from the shower. He gave Lorne a relieved smile. “Lorne. Good to see you, mate.”

“You’re telling me, Sweetcheeks,” Lorne replied, following Spike inside. “I can’t tell you how relieved I was to get Wesley’s call yesterday. The thing about the office was all over the media.” The green demon lowered his voice to a whisper. “Any word on Gunn?”

Spike nodded grimly. “I just got off the phone with the hospital. He’s still unconscious, and it isn’t lookin’ good. Somethin’ about more internal bleeding they’re havin’ trouble stopping.”

“And how’s the little nipper?” Lorne asked, referring to Ty. He really did like the kid.

“Holdin’ up,” Spike replied. “He’s been through so much, ‘s not right.”

Lorne put a comforting hand on Spike’s shoulder. “Ty’s strong, William. He’s got your strength.”

Spike shook his head. “He’s got his mum’s strength. Come on. Everybody’s in the kitchen. We’ve been waitin’ for you to make the final plans.”

“Why do I not like the sound of that?” Lorne asked rhetorically.

Everyone was up and moving around, an early start to the day being mandatory when facing an apocalypse. “Lorne,” Angel said, greeting the demon with a smile. “Good to see you.”

“You know, when everyone starts to say that, I start believing you want something from me.” Lorne eyed the people scattered around the kitchen. “I’m not sure I like this, people.”

“Relax, Lorne,” Dawn said, giving him a sweet little smile. “We were just waiting for the whole team.”

“Well, my sweet little Key, pardon me if I get a little suspicious, especially on the eve of catastrophe.” He took the cup of coffee Buffy held out to him. “All right, let’s hear it.”

“We need to find the Conduit,” Angel stated. “The Powers should have something to say about what’s going on. If we’re supposed to fulfill this prophecy, we can’t let Ty or Connor get killed.”

Lorne raised a skeptical eyebrow. “You do remember the last time I went to the Conduit, don’t you? It took weeks for my horn to regrow.”

“There isn’t anyone else that can find the location, Lorne,” Emmie said. “We need you.”

He sighed. “Okay, you need me. I’m all warm and tingly. Let’s hear the rest of it.”

Between Dawn and Wesley, the entire prophecy was easily explained, at least what they knew of it. Wesley had brought his second up to speed earlier that morning, finding Dawn, as always, a quick study. She might have made a brilliant Watcher, if they hadn’t managed to convince her to stay at Wolfram & Hart.

“In any case,” Dawn finished up, “we need to contact the Powers somehow. They may decide to protect Connor and Ty.” Connor cleared his throat and gave her a pointed look, which made the young woman roll her eyes. “Fine. Connor doesn’t need any protection. We might convince them to protect Ty.”

Lorne thought about it for a few minutes, not at all convinced about the brilliance of this particular plan. Sure, it sounded good, but—“You’re all forgetting one important little detail,” the green-skinned demon pointed out. He wished it was late enough in the day for a Seabreeze. Well, he wished that William kept the makings for a Seabreeze around. “Someone has to talk to the Conduit, and that someone could get some serious bodily harm. The Powers don’t talk to just anyone, kiddos.”

They all looked at one another. “I’ve done it,” Angel said. “They weren’t happy to see me, but I didn’t take a lot of damage.”

“We can’t have anyone taking damage,” Buffy pointed out pragmatically. “At this point, we need everybody in one piece.” She was wearing the ring, but no one had really noticed it yet. They had too many other things on their minds.

“I can go.” All heads turned to look at Ty, who was standing in the doorway of the kitchen. He was dressed in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, and looked like any other ten-year-old boy, except for his eyes. His eyes looked ancient.

Spike looked at him and said gently, “Ty, this isn’t a job for you. ‘s too dangerous.”

“No, it’s not,” his son insisted stubbornly. “I’m the one the prophecy talks about. I’m the one that gets the visions. The Conduit will talk to me.”

Spike looked over at Lorne, his eyes pleading. “Tell him, Lorne.”

The demon hesitated, not wanting to have to say it, but needing to anyway. “Actually, he’s right, William. The last time we contacted the Conduit, Cordy was in a coma, and that’s the only reason why we couldn’t send her.”

Spike looked over at Wesley, who was looking similarly apologetic, as was Dawn. He really didn’t like the looks of this. “Niblet?”

Dawn winced, not liking the look Spike was giving her. “Sorry, Spike, but Lorne’s right. From all the research we’ve done on this thing, it’s the Powers’ chosen ones who have the most success at contacting them. It’s not a job for mere mortals. Plus, since he’s a kid, technically he’s more pure. Even if They aren’t happy about him being there, They wouldn’t hurt him.”

Wesley nodded a reluctant agreement, and Spike tried desperately to find some other way. “What if Angel and I do it?” he demanded. “We’re mentioned in there.”

“If you and Angel go in, and either or both of you are harmed, who will protect Ty then?” Wesley asked gently. “Forgive me, but you two, along with Buffy and Emmie are the ones who have the most chance at ensuring Connor and Titus stay alive. We can’t afford to lose you.”

Spike shook his head. “If it’s so dangerous, there’s no way I’m lettin’ Ty do this.”

“It won’t be that dangerous,” Lorne pointed out. “As Their chosen instrument, They’ll probably just nudge him out the door if They decide They don’t want him there.”

“He won’t be alone,” Connor said suddenly. “I can go in with him.”

“Of course,” Wesley said, smiling a little. “As Ty’s Champion, Connor can go anywhere he goes. Ty won’t be unprotected.”

Ty came up to stand in front of his father. “I have to do this, Dad. Uncle Gunn got hurt protecting me. This is the best way.”

“That wasn’t your fault, luv,” Spike said gently, squatting down so that he was eye-level with Ty. “It’s too dangerous.”

“Not for me,” Ty replied. “For everybody else it might be, but not me. Please, Dad.”

Spike suddenly had a flashback to the day his son was born, holding him in the hospital, looking into blue eyes for the first time. He loved Buffy, but Ty was his life. And he was growing up too fast. Suddenly he wanted to go back, wanted to take back coming to L.A. and finding Angel again. He wished that he’d stayed in his sleepy little sea-side town. And yet—

He looked over at Buffy, wordlessly asking what she thought, knowing that he couldn’t regret coming to Los Angeles. Because if he hadn’t come, he might never have seen his Slayer again. Her lips tightened, and he knew she loved Ty as much as he did. “I don’t think we have a choice, William,” she said softly.

He closed his eyes for a brief moment, feeling the pang of letting go just a little more, and then nodded. “All right. You and Connor can go in.” And then he wrapped his son up in a rough hug and left the room abruptly.

Ty stood and watched his father go, and then looked over at Buffy, who smiled at him. “Why don’t we get you some breakfast?” she suggested. The boy watched as she shared a look with Angel, who went to follow Spike. Buffy put a hand on Ty’s shoulder and gave him a little hug. “It’s going to be fine, sweetie,” she whispered. But Ty wasn’t sure if she was trying to convince him, or herself.

~~~~~

“William.” Angel stood in the doorway of the master bedroom and watched as Spike pulled a

long sleeved black t-shirt over his head.

“Save it, Peaches,” Spike growled in reply. He grabbed his scuffed black Docs from under the bed and started to shove them on his feet, every movement speaking volumes of frustration and fear.

Angel stepped inside and shut the door behind him, waiting. His patience was rewarded minutes later when Spike finally stopped moving. “I can’t lose him again.”

The vampire sighed, knowing the other man was referring to the scene in the warehouse two years ago when they had come so close to losing the boy. “You won’t.”

“You don’t know that,” Spike replied, sounding infinitely tired. “When this is done, when we find out what the bloody hell the Powers were doin’, I’m takin’ him out of here. I’m not gonna stick around to be a sitting duck.”

Angel blinked. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Yeah, and why not?” Spike put his head in his hands. “Better than stayin’ here and waitin’ for them, whoever they are, to kill us. We don’t know what we’re up against, Angel.”

Angel gingerly sat down next to his once-Childe. “So you go off, take Buffy and Ty with you, if Buffy will even go.”

“She’ll go,” Spike said evenly.

Angel continued. “And do what?”

“Run, hide, make sure no one can find us, the usual.”

“I’ve never known you to run before, Spike.” Angel looked over at him, and saw raw fear.

“That’s because I’ve never run from you, you great pillock,” Spike muttered.

Angel bit back a sigh. “And what happens when they catch up with you?” he asked reasonably. “Because they will, you know. So they find you, and overwhelm you with superior numbers, and suddenly Ty, or Buffy and Ty are alone. What then?”

Spike suggested something that wasn’t anatomically possible. Angel said nothing, and waited for his anger to cool. “So what’s your big plan, then?” he finally asked with more than a hint of nastiness.

“My plan is that we find the Conduit, ask our questions, and make a plan after that,” Angel said steadily. “You’re Ty’s father, but I’m the boss. Not to mention his uncle. Do you really think I want something to happen to him? Do you really think I want to fail again?”

Their eyes met then, and for the first time in well over a hundred years, a curious thing happened. For a brief, beautiful fleeting moment, when William had first risen, he and Angelus had been brothers. They had been comrades, until Angelus had shown him that to be a vampire was to take what you wanted, and he had taken Drusilla from him because William had wanted her. But now, they loved the same things. They loved their girlfriends, and a good fight, and a nice stiff drink. And they loved a small boy. One might even say, without going too far, they had grown to love one another. In something over a century, they had come full circle, and now they found themselves brothers again.

“No,” Spike said quietly, in response to Angel’s question. “I would trust you with his life.”

Angel’s face softened. “You know, William—”

“Don’t be goin’ soft on me now, Angelus,” Spike warned. But his eyes told a different story, and Angel nodded in response.

“I’ll get him out of this,” Angel promised.

“I know.”

~~~~~

Finding the Conduit wasn’t nearly as hard as it should have been, Spike thought grimly, holding Buffy’s hand absently, his thumb fiddling with her new ring. It had been the other women who noticed it first, of course. When Fred had seen it, she’d squealed a little, and then Buffy had been surrounded by the three other women, all of them wanting details as to his proposal. There hadn’t been time for a real celebration, and there wouldn’t be until this mess had been cleared up, but it had lightened everyone’s spirits considerably.

But now, as he looked over at his son who was staring absently out the window, he couldn’t help but feel a shiver of forboding. The way his life usually went, something really bad was about to happen, and he feared to lose it all.

Buffy gave his hand a squeeze and gave him a reassuring smile. “It’s going to be fine, hon,” she whispered. “Remember how many times we’ve done this?”

“Too many,” he replied. “You sure you don’t want to find an island somewhere?”

Her smile broadened. “Ask me again when all this is over. But if you’re talking vacation, I think it’s time we both had one. Maybe a long honeymoon,” she suggested. “We can leave Ty with Angel and Emmie. Just think, the two of us, no kids, no work.”

Spike smiled in response, feeling better. He couldn’t remember making plans for after an apocalypse before. There had always just been the fight and the unspoken acknowledgement that they might not all make it. Of course, this was the first apocalypse that he and Buffy were facing “together,” with his ring on her finger. They had to make it out of this mess. He raised her hand to his mouth and pressed his lips to her knuckles, his eyes never leaving hers. To his surprise, she blushed, pleased, and he gave her a self-satisfied smirk in return.

And then the car stopped, and Wesley and Dawn got out of the front seats, and Spike knew that their time was up. “Love you,” Buffy whispered to him before he could follow Ty out of the car.

“Doesn’t look like much,” Spike said reflectively, looking at the open doorway. But the building definitely had a slightly different feel from all the others around it, and he thought he could feel the energy of the area.

“Oh, this is it,” Lorne said unhappily, not having pleasant memories of this place. “I don’t think I could forget it if I wanted to.” He looked down at Ty. “You all set, kiddo?”

Ty nodded, his face pale under his dark hair. “Yeah.”

Lorne gave his hair a ruffle. “Well, don’t you worry. The Powers aren’t going to touch a hair on that head of yours.”

Wesley looked down at the boy kindly. “Do you know what questions to ask?”

“Uh, huh,” Ty said with a touch of resentment. “I remember.”

“Of course you do,” Wesley said with considerable patience.

Spike knelt down in front of his son. “Okay. You be careful in there, you hear me? If something comes up, I want you to listen to Connor, alright? He’s in charge, whether you like it or not. Okay?”

Ty nodded. “Okay, Dad.”

“And when you’re done, you come straight back out here.” Spike stared into his son’s eyes. “I mean it, Ty. You let us handle anything big.” He waited until the boy nodded, and then he took his son’s face in both hands and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “Love you.”

Ty gave him a tremulous smile. “Love you. I’ll be fine. Promise.”

“Good.” Spike stood, and Buffy came over and gave Ty and hug and a kiss, pausing to whisper something into his ear that made him smile. He looked over and saw Angel giving Connor a restrained handshake.

Connor came over to stand next to Ty, his blue-green eyes steady. “I’ll take care of him, William. We’ll be back in no time.” He looked down at the boy. “You ready?”

And then, without another word, the Chosen and his Champion stepped through the portal to the Conduit. Spike couldn’t help but fear he’d seen both of them for the last time.

The room was dark and somewhat cold when they walked through the portal. Ty looked around curiously and then jumped, startled, as the fire pit in the center of the room flamed up. The voices came from no particular direction. “Welcome, Chosen.”

Ty stiffened. “You know me?”

“We know you. We know your Champion.”

The voices were sexless, seeming to blow around them. “Then you know what’s going on,” Ty demanded. “You know who wants to kill us.”

“Yes.”

“Who?” Ty asked, his voice carrying unusual authority for a boy of ten.

“The Likt’na’e have asked for your lives. There are many who would seek what they offer.”

Connor frowned slightly, even as Ty’s eyes narrowed. “That’s why the demons and vampires have been working together.”

“Even so.”

“Who are the Likt’na’e?” Connor asked, thinking he might already know the answer.

There was a long pause, and then the voices swirled around them again. “Evil. Everywhere. Power.”

“The Senior Partners,” Connor murmured. “We should have known it was them. Do we have a chance against them?”

“The time is not yet.”

“What can we do? Will the Powers help us?” Ty asked.

“It is not time.”

“When will it be time?” Ty shouted. “When?”

“In time.”

“Bloody hell,” Ty swore, causing Connor to look at him. “Show me. Show me what happens if we wait.”

“It is not done.”

Ty scowled, looking very much like his father in that moment. “So what? You show me the future all the time, right? I’m just the vessel for the Powers. Why should it matter if you show me what I want to see for a change?”

There was another long pause, and then Ty was seeing the future. He had enough experience with the visions now to know what was happening even as they came. This time he stood, watching, as his father died trying to protect him. As Buffy was slain trying to save them both. As Fred, and her child, were caught in the crossfire. As Emmie and Angel laid down their lives for him. Until, at the end, only Wesley and Connor were left, and Ty recognized this Wesley from the vision he’d had weeks ago. This Wes was an old, broken man who instructed Ty on taking his revenge from a hospital bed.

When the boy finally came back to himself, he knew he didn’t have a choice. If he didn’t go now, if he didn’t find a way to stop the Senior Partners from coming after them now, everyone he loved would die. And he would be alone. It would mean the fulfillment of his greatest fear.

“I can’t wait,” Ty said out loud. “If I wait, there won’t be anyone left. Uncle Gunn’s already dying.”

“It is not time.”

“I don’t care!” Ty cried. “I’m not letting them all die!”

Connor placed a comforting hand on the boy’s shoulder. “If we don’t wait, will we lose? Can we beat them today?”

“Unknown.”

“So if we wait, we’ll be sure to win?” Connor asked.

“Nothing is certain. The future is not fixed.”

“Then it doesn’t matter when,” Connor insisted.

“The Chosen is yet young. He is not ready. His strength is untried.”

Connor’s grip on Ty’s shoulder tightened. “Then I’ll be ready for him.”

“Champion…” There was a new note in the voice, almost one of respect.

Connor quickly followed up. “But I need something first, before I can fight these people. I need to know why. Why I am.”

He had wondered if the Conduit would know what he meant, but he didn’t have to wonder for long. “We will give you what you ask,” the voices replied. “We will undo what has been done and restore what was taken.”

“What was taken?” Ty asked, staring at Connor, but the man did not hear him. He was seeing visions of his own.

~~~~~

Connor stood in an alley, watching, as a dark haired man leaned over a blonde woman. She was gasping with pain, and Connor could just make out her words. He watched as the man and woman clasped hands, and then she staked herself, the dust settling in the rain, revealing a squalling infant. When the man gathered the baby into his arms, Connor could see his face for the first time. It was Angel.

He watched as the memories came more rapidly. At first, they were not all his. He was simply an outside observer, watching as his vampire father held him, sang to him, protected him. Connor watched as Angel, and then Wesley, were betrayed, and he was taken to Quortoth. He witnessed all of it as one removed from the action, until the boy that he had been was about five. After that, the memories were his own.

Connor remembered the love and the brutality that Holtz had shown him. Remembered learning about demons at his father’s feet. Remembered learning to track and hunt and show no mercy. Remembered being called Destroyer for very good reasons. Remembered punching through to another dimension, Angel’s dimension, for a chance to kill the vampire, Angelus.

All these memories came, although they did not displace the implanted memories. Connor could still remember his foster parents, his sisters. He remembered what it had been like to be part of a normal, happy home, and he could compare the two.

There was no comparison.

With Holtz, he had known love, but he had been taught to hate, to kill, without compunction or thought. He had learned that the world was black and white, with no room for shades of gray. There was good and evil, and nothing in between.

The young man Connor now remembered being would never have understood what he knew now. People were good and bad, mixed together. Sometimes doing the right thing was not easy, and the enemy might come in the guise of a friend. Sometimes it is the one who loves you most that hurts you the most. Holtz had loved him, and in the end Holtz had destroyed him.

Reliving all of this, he could begin to appreciate the gift that Angel had bestowed. Connor had a chance to see the almost-tangible love, and later, the very real pain, as Angel’s son hated and betrayed him. Tried to destroy him.

Connor relived his life right up until the moment Angel made his bargain with the devil, literally, and then it all just—stopped.

~~~~~

Spike paced outside the entrance, frustration and worry growing by the second. “This is taking

too long,” he growled.

Buffy put a restraining hand on his arm. “Relax, Spike. It’s only been about ten minutes.”

“Still too long,” he replied, refusing to be comforted. He looked over at Angel and Emmie, who stood talking quietly. Angel was the reason they had waited until just after nightfall to come here. Fred and Dawn had been sent to the hospital to watch over Gunn. All of them had felt badly that no one was sitting with him, and it made the most sense for the two non-superheroes to go, as Dawn pointed out reasonably.

Neither Angel nor Emmie wanted to let the other out of their sight, and they had quite a bit of talking to do to make things right between them again. Spike wasn’t terribly concerned about either, though. There was a great deal of affection and understanding between them. Both had put a lot of work into their relationship, and neither wanted to give up. No, it was Wesley he was concerned about. Wesley, who stood a little apart from the rest of them, shoulders hunched against something no one else could see.

Buffy followed his eyes, and rubbed his shoulder a little. “It’ll be fine,” she promised. “Like you said, we’ve done this before. We can do it again.”

“Feel like I’m getting too old for this,” Spike confessed quietly. Not that he and Buffy were old, exactly, but she wasn’t twenty anymore, and he wasn’t a vampire. Mortality and age definitely made a difference.

The Slayer leaned her head against his chest. “I know. Me too, some days.”

“Will!”

Spike looked over where Emmie was standing with Angel, the look on her face one of alarm. Angel and Wesley were both standing there with blank looks on their faces. Both appeared to be in a trance. Just then, Buffy’s cell phone rang.

She answered it, but only because the caller i.d. showed that it was her sister calling. “What is it, Dawnie?” she asked.

There was a long pause, and then she said in a low voice, “Angel and Wes are doing the same thing. Just watch out for her, and we’ll try and figure out what’s going on, okay?” She ended the call and looked over at Spike. “Fred’s got the same problem. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

Spike could think of several ways to go with a question like that, but the seriousness of the situation prevented it. “Somethin’ to do with that spell Angel had done for Connor,” he said flatly. Emmie was ignoring them in favor of keeping an anxious eye on the slack-jawed vampire.

“Exactly.” Buffy looked at the entrance to the Conduit, torn. “I think we need to wait, Spike,” she said, voicing the thoughts that were racing inside his own mind. “If we go in—”

“Angel and Wes could be vulnerable. Bloody hell,” he muttered, not liking it. Whatever was happening, he had no idea what was going on inside, with his son. On the other hand, if he, Buffy, and Emmie weren’t effected, chances were that Ty wasn’t either, though Connor certainly would be. He thought of several other, more colorful phrases that he could use, and bit them off. Swearing wasn’t going to do them any good right now. He needed to think.

Slowly, both Angel and Wesley blinked, coming back to themselves. “What happened?” Emmie demanded from her spot at the vampire’s side.

Angel just shook his head, but Wesley answered for the both of them. “I remember now.” He looked over at his boss, his eyes accusing. “I remember everything.”

Spike was through waiting. Ty had been in there for long enough, and something was happening. Actions were being taken, and Spike did not like being left out of things. “Angel. Let’s go.”

The vampire looked at him, and nodded abruptly. “Fine.” He touched Emmie once on the cheek in a silent good-bye, and without another word, they went through the portal together.

~~~~~

As Connor gradually came out of his memory-induced daze, he realized that Ty was still talking to the Conduit, arguing over something. “Does it matter if I die?” he was asking. “As long as I take them with me?” Connor began to be a little alarmed at this line of questioning, and he really didn’t like the answer.

“Their deaths preserve the balance.”

“Then send me there. I want this over with.” Ty’s chin was set stubbornly, his blue eyes absolutely fierce.

“It is not done.”

“That doesn’t mean you can’t do it,” Ty said, his voice growing just a little louder. “You want these guys dead? Then you get me there, and you get me there now. Otherwise, I’m going to make sure they stay alive. I’ll join the dark side if I have to, but I’m not going let anybody else die.”

The funny thing was, Ty meant it. Like his father, when it came to the people he loved, he could be slightly irrational. And at ten, he could not comprehend the idea of the necessary sacrifice. Ty simply didn’t want to lose anybody else, and he was certain of his own immortality.

The lighting in the room dimmed briefly, and then something shimmered in the air. Connor backed up instinctively, but Ty stood his ground as energy swirled and a portal opened right in front of him.

Connor realized with dismay that the boy meant to go through and that he was too far away to stop him. Sometime during his own vision, and Ty’s request, they had moved away from each other. “Ty, wait. Don’t.”

Ty looked back at him. “I have to go,” he said simply, and jumped through.

Connor’s eyes widened, and then he heard a gasp behind him. Spike and Angel had just stepped through the entrance, and they seemed impossibly far away. They would not be able to make it to the portal in time to get through. Connor might just manage it. And he was Ty’s Champion. He hadn’t understood completely before, but he thought he did now. He had a destiny, and he had power. Something every one of his three fathers had taught him was that with ability comes responsibility. He understood that now.

“I’ve got to go,” he called over his shoulder. “Tell Wesley he was right. It was the Senior Partners. We’re going to the Likt’na’e.” Connor hoped it would be enough to tell them where to go. He hoped he would be enough to protect his charge. The portal was closing, there was no more time.

He leapt.

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