Title: Come To Play
Author: Starla
Email: starla@buffymail.com
Disclaimer: These Characters belong to Joss Whedon, except Gorlock, Alana, Adrian Townsend, and anyone else you don't recognize.
Distribution: Take it, but let me know. If you have any of my other fics, go ahead.
Author's Notes: It *will* be B/A I promise. I realise this part is a little depressing. Sorry. Season 4 did happen, Fish Boy did date Buffy, Angel went to LA, etc.
Spoilers: I dunno. Anything is possible, be warned.
Summary: 150 years after the Scooby Gang die, they return to Earth to help out the current Slayer and her Slayerettes.

Part 4


Alana watched Angel closely as they sat in the Great Hall of the mansion, his face solemn and serious.

"Repeat that for me?" She said, bewildered.

He sighed and sat down. "I spent several hundred years in hell."

She gaped at him. "How?" She whispered, her heart wrenching at the thought of Angel- her Angel- in hell.

He looked away. "It's not her fault." He murmured, not meeting her eyes.

Alana frowned in confusion.. "Not who's fault?"

Angel didn't reply.

Adrian was skimming through Giles' old watcher diaries, something he'd never done before, as Angel had had them locked up in the mansion's safe. He froze suddenly, raising his eyes and staring at Angel. "Buffy." Adrian whispered. "Buffy sent you."

Alana felt her blood run cold, and then red hot with anger. "What?" She asked furiously.

Angel blinked and slowly raised her eyes to meet Alana's intense gaze. "It's not her fault." He repeated, his voice lowered.

"What? She just fell and *accidentally* pushed you into *hell*?"Alana sneered sarcastically.

Angel stood up, walking over to the fire, staring into it with his back to her.

"Buffy and I have a long and complicated history." He said, not turning around.

Alana waited for him to continue, although she was seriously considering hunting Buffy down in the bedroom she was occupying and beating the hell out of her. Of Course, she'd been considering that scenario *before* she found out about the hell issue, so she knew it could wait.

"In 1996 I was living in New York as a homeless person, feeding off rats and hiding in alleys during the daytime to survive." He knelt down in front of the fire, picking up a log and placing it carefully in the flames. He turned around to face them, though he was not really looking at him. "It was there that the Whistler found me."

"The Whistler?" Alana asked, screwing up her nose in confusion.

"Annoying little pimp demon." Cordelia said, startling them all as she walked through the doorway, settling on the rug in front of the fire.

They all stared at her for a moment. After a few moments she noticed their attention. "What?" She asked, annoyed. "I know the story. I lived through it, remember?"

Angel shrugged and continued with the story. "He made me an offer. Be someone, or be no-one." He leaned against the wall, crossing his arms. "He directed me to LA, where I saw Buffy. 16 years old and unaware of the darkness that was about to invade her life." He smiled sadly. "She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Innocent and open, smiling in the sunshine."

Cordelia lifted a finger and pointed at Angel's face. "See that? It's commonly termed as Buffy face."

Alana glared at her, suddenly terrified by an expression she had seen on Angel's face a million times.

"Anyway, I saw her called. I followed her around in LA for a few months, then she was expelled from school-"

"Why?" Alana asked. "Why was she expelled from school?"

"Ooh! I know this one!" Cordelia cried. "She burnt down the school gym."

Angel went on, explaining how they had met, their first kiss, the prophecy that predicted her death, and then described the timid beginnings of their relationship.

"On her 17th birthday, I lost my soul." He said. There was a long pause.

"How?" Adrian asked, not having read that volume of Giles' diaries.

"Happiness clause." Cordelia said, munching on a carrot stick. "Buffy and Angel go pelvic, Angel goes homicidal."

"Is that true?" Alana asked Angel.

He nodded. "As Angelus....I'm a monster. Cruel and Cold, vicious, sadistic." He looked down guiltily. "The morning after we...you know....I was horrible. She didn't know I wasn't me.... I taunted her, made her think that she wasn't...good...you know, in bed. Made her think I didn't love her..." He turned away from them again.

"It went on for months. I'd follow her around, threaten her and her friends. I'd sneak into her room at night, leaving sketches of her. Angelus' emotions... they're mine, just...perverted. She was my obsession. I wanted to break her before I turned her, but it proved a challenge. I killed her schoolmates, snapped Giles' girlfriends neck and left her in his bed.... but she survived. "

Alana watched the sorrow on Cordelia's face as Angel told his story, and found herself feeling, for the first time, sorry for the group of people who had been shoved into her life. To have your friend turn on you like that... it was a horrible thought.

"She couldn't kill him." Cordelia said quietly. "She tried, God, she tried, but at the last minute, she always faltered. Always looked into his eyes and for a moment, remembered Angel as he should've been, the loving, gentle, boyfriend who spent his time protecting her instead of destroying her."

"One day, the sarcophagus of Acathla was unearthed." Angel started speaking again. "We- Spike, Drusilla and I- stole the sarcophagus, planning to awaken Acathla." He shook his head. "The world would've been sucked into hell."

"Around this time, Buffy found the disk containing Angel's cure." Cordelia said. "Jenny had translated the curse, but never got the chance to tell anyone cos Angelus got a little snap-happy." She paused and turned to Angel. "She says hello by the way." She waved a perfectly manicured hand in the air. "Anyway, Willow decided she'd do it. The first time, she was sorta interrupted by Angel's vampire cronies, who kidnapped Giles. Willow ended up in hospital, and Buffy went to kill Angel." She grew solemn. "Willow decided to try the spell again."

"Buffy showed up at the Mansion just as I was about to complete the ritual to awaken Acathla. She was working with Spike, and apparently her mother had found out about Buffy being the Slayer." He paused. "She didn't react too well." He shook his head. "Anyway, Spike and Buffy were fighting off my minions, and didn't see me pull the sword from Acathla's chest. They finished with the minions, and Buffy came after me. She was about to stab me, when Willow completed the spell. My soul was returned."

"But it was too late..." Adrian whispered, catching on to where this was leading.

Angel nodded. "The porthole to hell had already been opened. My blood was sacrificed to open it, and my blood needed to be sacrificed to close it."

They sat in silence, Angel collecting his thoughts before continuing.

"I didn't know what was going on. I noticed she was hurt, and that's all that mattered. So I hugged her, and she kissed me, and told me she loved me, asked me to close my eyes.... and killed me."

Alana blinked back her tears. "So what did she do?"

Cordelia answered. "Her mother had told her not to come back if she left the house...Of course, Buffy had to leave the house, or the world would have gone to hell." She said , rolling her eyes. "You know, I never did like her Mom..." She said, drifting away for a moment before returning her concentration to the conversation. "Buffy disappeared for months. When she got back... we weren't all that understanding." Cordelia admitted. "We didn't know...."

They spent the next several hours telling their tale, needing for Alana to ease up on Buffy, just a little, if only for Angel's peace of mind.




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