PART 9

When Angel's group arrived at the rendezvous point they found Emma's group waiting for them, it took all of his self-control not to just run into her arms and be comforted. This situation was barely tolerable… where were the damn demons? As he surveyed the other group he noticed something was wrong.

"Where's Spike?" he asked Emma worried about his grand-childe, Spike might be a total pain in the ass but he was a part of his family.

"I thought he went with you… I haven't seen him," Emma answered truthfully.

"What is he up too? He's probably working for the other side," Angel muttered.

"Nice to know what ya think of me, Peaches" a voice called from behind them. They all turned around and saw Spike casually strolling towards them, like he didn't have a care in the world. When he noticed the staring he smirked and replied, "I never agreed to the poofy team plan… I'm me own demon."

"Only because no wants to claim you with that hair" Emma muttered, knowing that Spike could hear her.

"Very funny, Fluffy" Spike said, "At least I didn't shag the poof."

"Emma and the evil vampire" Piper called, "Behave." Piper was glad to be doing something as normal as yelling at her daughter, instead of all this demon hunting; she hated demon hunting and vanquishing.

Emma was about to answer her mother when an over whelming feeling washed over her, she looked at Angel and knew that he'd felt the same thing. Looking around she noticed that everyone including Spike and her family was oblivious to it. She moved closer to Angel and whispered; "I think we're meant to do this on our own."

"I know, but how can we get past them?" Angel replied softly. He didn't want anyone else hurt, he and Emma were the warriors and the others weren't. They might know how to fight but they'd never survive whatever he and Emma was to face.

"I'm a champion at sneaking out… it shouldn't be that hard" Emma said. She turned back and looked at the others, "Let's just slowly move away and then run."

"Real clever" Angel muttered sarcastically.

Emma shot him a dirty looked as she grabbed his hand and backed away slowly, when they got to the edge of the park they ran towards the area where the strange feeling was coming from.

Spike watched as Emma and Angel left the group, the evil part of himself urged him to follow them just be annoying, but the somewhat non-evil part knew that they were leaving for a reason and whatever it was they had to do it alone. However that didn't mean he couldn't tell everyone else that their champions had abandoned them. He walked over to where Fluffy's new parents were talking to Giles and said, "Any of yer seen Fluffy and the poof?"

Emma and Angel had only made it a few blocks when they saw the first of the scourge's soldiers heading towards them and they ducked into an abandoned building. They watched in silence as the army marched past them, heading straight for the park where the others were still. Emma's first reaction was to run and warn her family, but she knew that she couldn't she just had to hope that everyone would be okay until she and Angel did in the big evil that was calling them.

Once the army had past them, they slowly exited the building and continued on towards whatever it was that awaited them. They were almost there when Emma felt the presence of that demon… the one that had attacked her the other night and caused the death of her former self. She turned around and saw it standing about ten meters away with a smug look on its face.

"Slayer… it's time for our rematch and your second death" it shouted to her.

Angel heard it and turned around to help her fight it, but she stopped him.

"This is my fight… go on. I'll be there soon," she told him.

"Promise?" he asked.

"I promise" she told him praying that it was the truth. Angel kissed her quickly and moved on without looking back, Emma turned around and faced her one time killer. "Look butt-head, you may have killed me once but I was out of my head and you surprised me. This time I all here and I'm looking for revenge… meaning you are one ugly, dead demon."

"We'll see" the demon said, just before it lunged at her.

Leaving Emma was the hardest thing he'd ever done, even though he knew it was something she had to do and she had to do it alone, he wanted to turn back and help her. The truth was he didn't think she'd be able to keep her promise, some morbid part of him was already gearing up for her leaving him all over again and he was disgusted with himself. Still he pressed on, he knew that he had to reach the end of this journey and win or all of humanity was doomed.

He blanked his mind of thoughts of his friends and loved ones and concentrated on his mission, walking until the strange feeling was the strongest. Looking around he couldn't see anything extraordinary, and then out of the corner of his eye he saw something move and he slowly moved towards the target. It looked like a typical suburban home, but Angel felt that something other than the typical all-American family dwelled within these walls; he went around the back looking for a way to gain entry.

Angel found an open window and stared at it, he was suspicious because no way would this army make a stupid mistake like that, and it had to be some sort of trap. He knew he had to find some other point of entry and when he checked out the other possibilities he found them all block, lending truth to the theory of a trap being set for him and Emma. He stepped back and decided that since there wasn't any movement at the moment, he'd wait a few minutes and see what happened.

Meanwhile Emma was being thrown about by the demon. After the latest bout of rolling around on the ground trying to swipe at her face and she fending it off, it had retreated as if trying to gain time for something. It was then that she realised why this demon was here, it was to distract her… split her and Angel apart. Two phrases from the prophecy came to mind, ' Together they are strong, apart they shall fall' and 'Joining of the warriors'. She'd totally misunderstood the prophecy, she had thought it meant the demon would bring hell to earth, but it wasn't the demon itself but rather the motive behind it… EVIL.

She knew she had to get rid of this pest quickly and hotfoot it to Angel, because if she was right he was going to be in a whole lot of trouble. The scourge she knew he could handle, but this was something more, something worse… the first evil. The demon didn't seem to be in any hurry, so Emma charged it catching it slightly of guard, but even then it was only a matter of seconds before she was on the ground feeling some sort of sharp pain shudder through her body.

She looked up with anger burning in her deep brown eyes and spotted something over the demon's shoulder, she dropped her gaze so the demon didn't see what she'd been looking at and she stood. She was shaky and in pain, but she had to pretend she wasn't, she had to continue no matter what the cost. She did a spinning judo kick and knock the shocked demon into Leo and the sword he was holding, the look on the demon's face as it died was almost comical as if he couldn't quite believe that he'd been bested by a mere girl.

Leo looked up from the demon and saw his daughter falling and rushed over to her. "Em… Em?" he said worriedly.

"Hey daddy, think you do the healing thing… it's not over yet," Emma told him.

"Sure" Leo replied tending to her wounds. "What do you mean it's not over? Isn't that the demon?"

"Yeah, but not the ultimate baddie" Emma said, "Angel's in big trouble."

"All done" Leo told her a moment later.

Emma got up and was relieved not to be feeling any pain. She turned to her dad and said, "How did you get past that army?"

"We hid. Shouldn't you be rescuing your… boy… Angel" Leo said.

Emma kissed him on the cheek quickly, "Get everyone to safety." And then she was gone, using her power to orb, to reach Angel as quickly as possible.

Leo stared at the place his daughter had just stood and whispered "Good luck."