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Part 8
"Excuse me, sir?" The young guard that was on duty stood from his desk to approach the incoming visitor. "May I see some form of identification?"
"Oh yeah- sure," the guest's voice replied, sounding deeper than his usual tone, as he reaches a hand into his jacket. "Just a minute." As the guard was glancing about, a balled up fist came flying at his face. Surprised to find himself on the floor, he stares up to see the stranger nearing him, the bottom folds of his leather jacket swaying in beat with his stealth approach. On instinct, he reaches in his holster for his gun, only to have it quickly knocked aside.
Angel began punching away at the still-shocked guard, finally knocking him out after three solid blows to the head. He backhands some of the young man's splattered blood from his own cheek as he makes his way over to the stairs. He held his purpose clear in his mind, but his intentions were still somewhat unclear to him. Whether his visit to Wolfram & Hart would end in bloodshed or merely a few solid beatings, the only thing he knew for cetain was that Lilah would soon learn the price at which her actions would come.
******
"Listen to what I'm saying to you- I want what I ordered!" Lilah barks into her phone. "This thing that you've sent me is a completely different color than what I ordered. Now I'm bored with talking to you," she pauses, noticing her young page standing in her office doorway. "I'm *bored*- I'll call you back!"
"Problem ma'am?"
"The people I have to deal with just to get things done around here."
"Unsuccessful in getting everything Kamien needs for the ritual?"
"What? Oh no...we've already got everything we need for tomorrow night. That was the company that sells me my hair dye."
"I...didn't know you dyed your hair," he squeaks out in between chuckles.
"I don't- they're highlights. They sent me Strawberry Dawn instead of Summer Rasberry. Any fool knows that it's two shades lighter. She said 'why don't you try a change?' I don't want a change, I want what I ordered!" She puts aside a few of her files as she lets out an exhausted sigh. "What are you doing here anyway? I told you to keep an eye on Kamien upstairs."
"I was...but I can't take anymore of that little brat's crying," he sighs, slumping down on her couch. "If he's supposed to be so powerful, how come he can't come up with some sort of spell to keep her quiet? And why are you worried about me keeping an eye on him? Don't you trust him?"
"I don't trust anybody farther than I can throw them," she retorts, standing from her seat to grab him up by the arm, ushering him back towards her door. "Now get your worthless ass back upstairs and keep a close watch on him. I don't want to see you again until I make my way upstairs tomorrow night for my front row seat to the ritual." She slams the door behind him, rolling her eyes as she turns back to her desk. The sudden knock at her door catches her by surprise and she lets out an angry growl as she spins on her heel to pull open the door.
"Jason, I'm warning you- I am not someone you should piss off-" as she pulls back on the knob, a mixed look of shock and pleasure crosses her face as her eyes take in the sight of Angel. "Well isn't this a surprise?" She moves aside, to let him in, slowly shutting the door behind him. "To what do I owe the honor of this late night visit, hmm?" Relaxing back in her desk chair, a small grin forms at the corner of her mouth as she observes the slayer, leaning against the row of windows behind her desk, arms crossed in a defiant manner.
"I thought it only fitting that I respond to your lovely card immediately," he murmurs.
"How are you and the missus holding up? I can only imagine what it's like to lose a child. Who would do such a horrible thing?" The vindictiveness that she didn't even bother trying to hide in her voice only enraged Angel more, but somehow he managed to keep his anger in check.
"I figured I'd offer you the chance to fix all of this," Angel smiles weakly. "Cause see, if you won't, *I* will, and you do *not* want me to fix this, because if anything happens to my daughter, I am going to beat you so badly that there won't be anything left to identify you with."
He takes a few steps towards her as he lets out a small chuckle. "See Lilah, I don't care how often you and your little lackies try and kill me- in fact, I always enjoy dashing your hopes to finally be rid of me. But the second that you go after Buffy, our child, or anyone else in our family...you know you're going to pay for this." Lilah couldn't contain her laugher at his threat, turning her back to him as she spins back around in her chair to finish up her paperwork.
"Not likely. I think the eventual grief that you'll be experiencing after tomorrow night will be enough to keep you occupied and prevent you from attempting anything rash. You still don't get it, do you Angel? Ya see, there are these things called morals and ethics which you and Buffy seem to have a lot of. Thank god I've been blessed without them-"
In an instant, Lilah's head was pressed against her glass desk, Angel's hand firmly planted behind the base of her neck as he leans over her helpless form to speak into her ear. "You're about to see my ethics and morals disappear because I swear to you...I am going to tear this entire building apart until I find my daughter. And once I find her, my suggestion to you would be to run, hide, and pray," he emphasizes his last word by slamming her head straight through the crystal clear glass of her desk, eliciting a sharp cry from her as she was sent reeling to the floor.
"Funny you should mention praying, Angel." Surprised that the impact hadn't knocked her out, Angel glances down to see Lilah pulling herself to her feet, holding a shaky hand over the large gash above her eye. "Do you think prayers are gonna help poor Buffy downstairs?" she points to the security monitor resting on one of her shelves as the image of an assortment of vamps and demons surrounding Buffy down in the lobby comes flashing across the screen. "Decisions, decisions...what're you gonna do, Angel? Beat up on me some more to find out where Quinn is, or save your precious little Buffy?"
Walking over to her closet, she pulls out a small medical kit, already knowing what his choice would be, and begins tending to her wounds as Angel races out of her office back downstairs.
******
"Wes, hand me that pair of pliers, will ya?" Beads of sweat began to form above Fred's brow as she was carefully assembling the few parts she had at the Hyperion to create another dimensional reader. Another hour had passed without a word from Buffy or Angel. Fred was too deep in concentration that she barely even noticed, however the others were nervously pacing, still skimming through whatever materials they could find about the Lhasa ritual or Kamien.
"Aren't you finished yet?" Xander's grip around Anya's waist tightened in anticipation as his eyes shifted between Fred and Wesley, both working on what looked to be their only solution for getting rid of Kamien.
"Almost. Be patient," Wes snaps back.
"And once we finish up with these few things," Fred lifts her head to fully face them, "we're still missing a lot of parts. Someone's going to have to-"
"Just tell me what you need," Cordelia stands from her seat, a determined look gleaming in her eyes as she approaches them. Nodding softly, Wes scribbles down a few things on a piece of paper, including an address. "Go here and ask for Gavin- tell him that I sent you and that we're in a hurry." Without a moment's hesitation, Cordy leaves, intent on gathering everything needed to be rid of the evil that had stolen her precious niece.
"I hope she hurries," Fred sighs. "I'd like to try this thing out before we have to actually use it. I mean, this technology is so unstable. If we were to-"
"Spare us the warnings, will ya?" Spike growls back at her. "Just get the bloody thing together!" Surprised by his own outburst, Spike recollects himself, hopping up onto the counter. "Any word from Peaches or blondie?"
"Buffy called a few minutes ago from Wolfram and Hart," Gunn answers him.
"Now who would've guessed that our dear friends were somehow involved in this?" Wes smirks, turning his attentions back to the device. "I just hope she and Angel aren't already in over their heads."
******
"Okay...maybe I'm in a little over my head here." Buffy takes her stance, wooden stake in hand as the swarm of demons and vamps begin their attack on her. Managing to hold the first three off, she's knocked to the ground by another behind her. Flipping back to her feet, she plunges her stake through the closest one, turning to attack the others.
Caught off guard after dusting another two, Buffy is kicked from behind to the marble floor. She groans and falls back as the demon picks her up by her short, golden-blonde hair. He kicks her in the stomach twice, leaving the slayer in the middle of the lobby, hunched over, grabbing her stomach.
The snarling creature chokes Buffy on the floor with his boot. Stunned for only a moment, Buffy grabs her throat and tries to breathe as the demon grits his teeth and digs in with his foot even harder. Finally, a huge gasp escapes from Buffy's mouth as the creature is hurled backwards by Angel.
The angered demon goes to strike Angel in the face, but the slayer counters and nails him with his own right hand, surprising the creature with his quick comeback. He continues to counter his blows with his own punches, finally getting the better of him as he withdraws one of his favored daggers for beheading, slicing the demon's head to the floor.
"What are you doing here?" His eyes alone convey his anger at seeing that Buffy had followed him as he helps her to her feet.
"Where did you think I'd be?" she yells back as she dusts herself off, surprised by his question.
"You shouldn't have followed me here, Buffy. It's too dangerous. Just look at what happened now!"
"Excuse me, but you're not the only one who does the ass-kicking in this family! I can handle myself, dammit! Now come on!" She turns to head up the stairway but soon finds that her arm is caught in Angel's firm grip.
"Go back to the Hyperion until you get the reader working!" As her glare turns from worried to angered, she pulls back her arm, pushing him slightly away as she begins scaling the steps. "Either we both go or you can stay here and argue with yourself, but I'm not leaving here without Quinn!"
"Buffy, listen to me!" he grabs her around the waist, spinning her around to face him. "If something happens to the both of us, then what? Then what??" he shakes her suddenly, seeing the same unshed tears that were in his eyes beginning to well up in her own. "I can handle things here, but I can't..." His head lowers and for the first time since watching his daughter being snatched away right in front of him, he allows his tears to flow. "I can't lose the both of you...I can't."
Buffy's face lowered into his hair as her arms close tighter around him. The two are shrouded in silence until Angel finally speaks again. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"
"Don't..." she whispers softly, grabbing his hand tightly in one hand as she brushes away her own tears with the other. "Let's get Quinn..." Wordlessly he begins to follow her up the stairway, only to find another swarm of creatures that Lilah had summoned waiting for them on the next floor.
"Here are our visitors," one of them smirks. "Let's welcome them properly."
"Actually, we'd rather skip the tour," Buffy smiles as she and Angel, seeing that they were clearly outnumbered, took off in the opposite direction down the massive corridor.
"Do you know where you're going?" she asks him as they turn a corner.
"Pretty sure."
"Just how far have you traveled in this building?"
"Not sure. Maybe about half-way."
"Already I'm loving our odds of getting out of here alive," she lets out a small laugh as Angel pulls them to a halt, glancing down their two possible paths of escape.
"Which way?" Buffy tosses out a glance herself down the two stretches of hallway, looking helplessly to Angel for his input.
"I'm thinking, I'm thinking." As he was deliberating, Buffy glances over her shoulder to see the group of demons quickly catching up with them.
"Could you possibly do that a bit more quickly?" Seeing the sources of her impatience, Angel pulls her along down the side hall, finally reaching one of the few sealed off passages he knew to be in the building. As they enter the vicinity, Angel reaches for the lever to shut the metal doors behind them, leaving the pack of creatures on the other side.
"Great," Buffy breathes out, pausing for a moment to steady herself after all their running. "So now where are we?"
"No clue," Angel sighs. "Looks like some sort of lab."
"Angel, look." Buffy's arm stretches out as she notices a faint bluish hue illuminating the back wall.
"It's worth checking," he responds, carefully walking with her towards it. Without warning, a steel frame comes crashing down from the ceiling, trapping the two slayers against the wall. Both frustrated and angered at their carelessness, Buffy throws her arms in the air. "Okay- so we're gonna be a little late getting home."
"You don't know the half of it." A raspy voice emerges from the shadows, as its owner slowly materializes in front of the slayers. As the figure's full appearance comes into clear view, the couple takes notice of the small sleeping bundle he held firmly in his arms. Buffy reaches out to steady herself on Angel's arm as she lets out a startled gasp.
"Oh god...Quinn..."
******
Part 9
"Amazing what advances have been made in technology, huh?" Kamien takes a step towards the steel bars, smiling as he sees the looks of fear streak across the two slayers' faces. For several moments, Angel and Buffy were in the grip of a panic so complete that they were literally unable to function in any way. It was amazing that either was able to still breathe. There in the arms of the feared assassin was their daughter, sleeping quietly as she was being carried over to them, just out of arm's reach.
"Shhh...she's sleeping so peacefully. I couldn't disturb her." Taking a few steps backwards, he places the infant ontop of the lab table, turning his attentions back to his captives. "Did you really think I'd pass up an opportunity to have the two of you bear witness to my success? What kind of a fool do you take me for?"
"Personally, I'd never call you a fool," Buffy finally regains her speech, her eyes still locked on the sight of her daughter, safe and sound for the time being. "That would be an insult to fools everywhere." She begins assisting Angel in trying to free themselves from the makeshift cage, only to hear Kamien's maniacal laughter bouncing off of the walls.
"You two can try as hard as you like to get out of their. Actually, I'd prefer you to both keep up your attempts...that blue glow coming from the wall behind you is an energy draining beam of my own device."
"Don't expect applause," Angel snaps back, still pushing against the steel.
"The harder you try, the more fun it is for me to watch you both reduced to weaklings. Though I'm sorry to say, I won't be sticking around for long. I've got a kid to kill." He paces over to the doorway, pushing the button for the intercom. "Lilah dear, how'd you like to babysit our guests?"
"I'm a little busy at the moment," her voice comes back over the speaker. "Ontop of patching myself up after Angel's rude outburst, we've got other company to deal with downstairs." Kamien flips on the switch to the monitor in his lab to see just who she was talking about. Finally picking up on the image being projected from outside the back entrance to the building, he smiles wickedly to himself in eagerness to dispose of the three individuals who dared to try interfering with his plans.
"I'll deal with our friends myself," Kamien informs Lilah back over the intercom. "These two up here aren't going anywhere soon." Stepping back towards where he'd laid Quinn down, he goes to pick her up but after a moment, he decides against it. "You know, I don't think I've made you two suffer enough. So why don't we let the happy little family share a few final moments together?" He turns, grabbing a few of the weapons he'd carried over with him from Mekon, and prepares to greet the three new intruders. "Not that any of you will live long enough to appreciate your time together."
Buffy and Angel were left in their cell, encased in shock so deep it felt like ice as they had to stand idly back, powerless to get to their daughter, just inches out of their reach, and get her to safety. "Oh my god," Angel says in a trembling, watery voice. He had suddenly never been so terrified in his life.
"Oh my god," Buffy repeated in a voice that was filled with horror and terrible wonder. In all of the different scenarios that had played out in her mind going into this, she had never anticipated such an irony befalling them. Quinn layed silent before them, and for a brief moment, Buffy's fears shifted from whether her daughter was hurt to whether or not she was wearing enough to protect her from the bitter coldness of the sterile lab.
She stares down at her hands, completely worthless in their current situation, as breaking down the steel bars proved as difficult a task as Kamien had mentioned. Both she and Angel were nearly drained, yet still they fought in vain to break free of their restraint.
******
The sound that was produced from the impact of the lead-lined door crashing to the ground was immense. After several attempts, the warrior had succeeded in busting down the obstacle, gaining entrance into the building.
"Subtlety's not your strong point, is it Spike?" Dawn asks him, as she, Gunn, and the blonde vamp quickly enter into the offices of Wolfram & Hart in search of their slayers.
"Hell, I can't even spell the word," he smiles back, taking an axe from Gunn as the three began their ascent up the stairway.
"I still think we should've all just stayed together and waited for Fred to finish building the reader," Gunn murmurs, not particularly fond of the idea of splitting up their group.
"While your lil' hick girlfriend is busy playing tinkertoys with some machine, Peaches and blondie could already be dead." Receiving a sudden hard slap from Dawn, Spike retracts his last few remarks. "I mean, they're probably not, but still- don't you feel better coming to try and help them?"
"You know when I'll feel better?" Gunn shoots back as they reach the second floor. "When I'm feeding Quinn some strained bananas, now come on." As they proceed down the long hallway in search of Lilah's office, they come across a small robust man wandering around, briefcase in hand. Trying a gentle approach, Dawn calls him over to them, turning on her best smile, the smile that always worked on Buffy and Angel, and tried getting some information out of him. "Do you know where we can find Lilah Morgan?" Receiving only a sly smile for an answer, Dawn steps aside to let Spike try his own approach.
"I'm tired of being diplomatic, old man," he growls, changing into his game face as he lifts the man up by the throat, slamming him against the wall. "Now tell us where the big mean bitch is, okay?"
"Fourth floor," he chokes out against Spike's grip. "Right by the elevators- room 437."
"Now was that so hard?" Hastily tossing him aside, Spike leads Dawn and Gunn down the hall towards the elevators, hoping that Angel had saved at least a little of Lilah's broken body for him to play with. "We don't have time for these games," he yells back at the fallen party, but he halts in his tracks as he hears a new voice in response.
"Good," the old man stands to his feet as his face begins to shift. "Cause I'm not playing any." His features twisted and contorted until his true form was fully revealed to them.
"Oooo goody," Spike lifts his axe over his head as he prepares to charge. "I get first strike at the bastard!" Easily dodging the vamp's attempt to harm him, Kamien reappears behind Gunn and Dawn, grabbing the young girl and tossing her into a nearby office. Gunn however was not so easily moved, actually managing to make contact with the demon's face with a solid punch.
Stunned only briefly by the blow, Kamien teleports again, this time emerging from behind Spike. Grabbing hold of him around the waist, the creature ports, disappearing for only a second before returning to the hallway without his passenger.
"You two kiddies should've stayed home," Kamien smiles, racing towards both Dawn and Gunn. After a brief struggle with the stronger of the two, Kamien overpowers Gunn, wrapping an arm around his neck from behind. "Now should I just break your neck, or actually pull it off? Which would you prefer?" Seeing Dawn staring on in terror, he makes her an offer. "Of course, your friend here can keep his head right where it belongs. And to think, all you have to do..." he stretches out his free arm to her, "...is take my hand." Silently she complied, grasping his cold hand as he takes the two of them along with him for his final port.
Startled and shaken by the exhausting experience of porting between dimensions, Dawn and Gunn take a minute to observe their new surroundings. The walls were a blinding silver, a thin glare spilling from the corners of the immense area. The only thing that stood out besides all of the equipment and machinery was a softly glowing blue light emanating from right behind them. Standing to their feet, their eyes finally fall upon their fellow cellmates.
"Lo and behold our saviors," Buffy mutters, her head still leaned against the steel frame she'd been trying to bust open.
"Just how did you two get caught?" Spike asks his sire as he begins trying his own hand at freeing them all from their cage.
"That's what I keep asking myself."
******
"Is it okay?" Cordelia was the first to ask the question that was on everyone's minds as soon as Fred and Wesley had announced that they'd finished building the new dimensional reader. Already well past noon on the following day, they only had a few more hours until the ritual was set to begin, and they'd still received no word from the slayers or the three friends who'd already went out in search of them.
"Who cares?" Xander quickly snatches away the device from the young girl, racing over to Giles' side. "So how does this thing work?"
"Xander-" the ex-watcher tries reasoning with the impulsive young man, "perhaps we should test it before making any attempt to-"
"Look- while we're around here playing Mr. Wizard with all of this junk, our friends could already be dead!" He grabs Anya's hand, not wanting to listen to any arguments regarding the matter. "So let's just grab some gear and get going, alright?!" Both stunned and impressed by Xander's bold behavior, Willow is the first to back him up.
"He's right guys." She stands from her seat, Tara following right behind her as they join the rest of the group. "How does it work?" Fred grabs back the device from Xander, muttering her objections to herself as she turns on the reader. A huge black vortex appears where she projected it's beam, a gentle humming escaping from the dark portal.
"I've already set it's frequency. This should lead us straight to them, but don't blame me if we all wind up in some evil clown dimension." Still without any hesitations, the friends make their way into the vortex's encompassing darkness, a silent prayer being said by each that they would indeed be led to their friends' whereabouts.
******
The minutes crawled by with painful slowness. After twenty-five of them, Angel began eyeing Spike warily, his brow furrowing slightly as he watches his childe hanging onto the steel bars, banging his entire body against them in a violent attempt to break free. "Stupid! *bang* God-damned! *bang* Bloody hell! *bang bang bang* "
"Spike!" Angel's shout knocks the blonde vamp back to reality. "Conserve your strength! Your body beating up the bars isn't getting us anywhere!"
"Well at least I'm making an effort!" he retorts, pulling himself off of the cage, slumping back down next to the others. "I don't see you doing anything to get us out of here *and*, by the way, save your daughter from being a sacrificial goat!"
Hearing enough, Angel quickly sits up, grabbing Spike by his jacket and slamming him back against the bars. "Get this through that neurotic little head of yours-" Before he can get his threat out, Angel begins panting heavily, pulling away from the vampire as he holds a hand to his head, reeling backwards in exhaustion.
"Angel?" Buffy hurries to his side, grabing him by the arm and leading him back to sit down beside her. "What is it? What's wrong?"
"Tired..." he sighs, holding his head in his hands. "It's getting...harder to breathe..."
"I know," Buffy whimpers, sliding her arms around him. "You're exhausted- we all are."
"Not me," Spike smugly smiles.
"Of course not!" Dawn snaps at him. "You don't have to breathe!"
"Dawn..." Buffy sighs, trying to calm her sister down.
"You won't last much longer," Gunn assures the bleach blonde annoyance. "It's an energy drainer. Doesn't matter if you're among the land of the living or not, so long as you've got energy to lose."
Ignoring their bickering for a moment, Angel pulled himself back up against the bars to observe Quinn. His eyes bulged at the sight of her, all bundled up in some sort of basket, beginning to faintly cry. What sent such anguish through him was just how close she was to them, but still unreachable.
Quinn's whimpers finally reached Buffy's ears, drawing her over beside Angel. Inside she was screaming, lifting her face and staring with a determined fierceness at the sight of her captive daughter.
"Take a good long look, slayer..." Kamien laughs as he enters the lab, "and know that it will be your last." Buffy blinked at him, then shifted her gaze to scan Lilah standing behind him. She dismissed her and returned her gaze to Kamien once more.
"Kamien!" Buffy's desperate cry caught the creature by surprise as he began to lift Quinn back into his arms. "I am begging you..." Her eyes widened before she allowed herself to continue. In all her life, in all her battles, she'd never spoken so fervently and with such despair. "Don't do this-"
"Oh spare me the sob story!" The demon seemed amused by her desperate attempt to appeal to his emotions. Unfeeling, uncaring, disregarding the idea of such a thing as sensitivity, he straightens with the infant in his arms, cracking a small smile, tight and cold. "Nothing can interfere with my plans."
"Looks like we caught you with your plans down!" Before he can even glance over his shoulder, the shocked demon is knocked to the ground by a kick from Xander, staring down at his prone form as the others emerge from the vortex. Xander's heart is thumping so hard that he felt the pulse, high and fast, in his throat, surprised that he'd managed to make contact with the creature. As he lifts an arm to strike him again, he finds it caught in the air from behind by Lilah.
"A little out of your league, aren't you boy?" She pulls back a hand to slap him but is suddenly spun around by Cordelia who delivers her own devastating punch straight to Lilah's jaw.
"Do you know how long I've waited to do that?!" the brunette shouts as she looks down with a proud smile at the young woman's prone form.
"Taught 'er everything I know!" Spike yells from the cage, beginning in his attempts again to break free and get in on all the action.
"Then explain how you got caught, oh wise master," Cordy smirks, racing over to her friends along with Wesley.
"Never mind us!" Buffy yells. "Get Quinn!" As the two turn to help the others, they find their teammates all laid out on the tiled floor of the lab, slumped over in pain from what they assumed to be a rather quick beating from Kamien.
"Looks like me and the little lady here should be going," Kamien laughs, preparing to port once again. He passes one final look to Lilah as she tries getting up from the floor. "Too bad you won't be able to see the show, but I don't seem to be in any further need of your services." He grabs her by the hair, bending her head back until she was staring at the ceiling, shrieking in response, as he knocks her fully unconscious with a hard blow the the back of her head.
Lifting himself up from where he'd been knocked only seconds ago, Xander's eyes focus on the sight of the creature, positioning himself into the familiar stance he had seen him take just before he would teleport. As she glimpes her ex beginning to make an attempt to charge after Kamien, Cordy races over to him, helping him steady himself on his feet. Sharing a determined look, their initial shared impulse was so strong that it overrode everything, including the sure knowledge that by doing what they were about to do, they would be risking both of their lives. Without thinking, they each make a leap forward and grab hold of Kamien just as the demon teleports himself, Quinn, and the two daring young fighters.
"No!!!" ‘What did they do?’ Angel cried to himself, now beginning to mourn the sudden loss of both his daughter and his two friends. "Get us out of here! Now!" he shouts, instructing the others as they gathered around the steel bars, still in shock by what they'd seen done.
"Be careful of the light," Gunn warns them, panting for air as he does. "It's an energy drainer...don't get too close."
Despite the group's efforts, they had little success in breaking the barred frame. After a few more exasperating attempts, Dawn's meek voice finally spoke up over all of the clamoring with her sudden idea. "If this light is absorbing all of our energy, if the five of us were to just let it drain us while the rest of you kept trying on the outside-"
"Their would be a sudden surge of energy," Anya finishes for her, picking up on the young teen's keen insight. "Maybe it would be enough to break this open." Willing to try anything, Angel was the first to reach back and touch the circular rheostat projecting the light from the wall. When he touched it, blue electric fire squirted out between his fingers, so thick it was more like jelly than light. Following his lead, the other captives rush the light as their saviors on the outside made a solid attempt to break down the steel.
The rheostat's center began to turn black, blowing off of the wall and zipping across the cage like a bolt of lightning. It's surge broke the bars, the steel shattering, showering the others with assorted fragments as its inhabitants collapsed forward, their energy levels almost totally drained.
"Are you all alright?" Giles asks them, helping the slayers to their feet.
"Where did..." Buffy stumbles, lifting a hand to the side of her head at the sudden onrush of pain. "Kamien...where did he take them?"
"Don't worry, Buffy," Fred assures her. "We've got the reader working. That's how we found you. We can trace wherever Kamien took them." The young girl fell silent for a moment as she began fiddling with the device's controls, cursing under her breath as her efforts produce nothing.
"What's wrong?" Dawn asks. "Why isn't it working?"
"Because no one gave me a chance to test it," Fred sighs. "I told you I didn't know how stable it would be. Just give me a minute- maybe I can fix it." As her brow furrows in deep concentration, Angel, slayer healing starting to kick in, takes command.
"Did you guys find anything else about how to fight this thing?"
"Well we've got the reader," Anya says with an unconscious arrogance to her voice. "What else is there? We grab him and send him through the vortex."
"And how do you propose we do that since the bugger won't stay still long enough for us to grab him?" Spike snaps at her. "I suppose we could just go up to him, hand him the reader and say, 'Here- hold this while we suck you into it' !"
"That's enough!" Buffy shouts, turning to her former watcher for any added guidence. "Giles?"
"If we could just manage to get him to teleport into a solid object. I mean, even if it was only half-way through it, that would be enough to hold him- maybe even kill him before he's sent back."
"Well we'd need to get him to teleport into someplace he's never been or seen," Buffy reminds him, taking notice of her best friend, standing alongside her with eyes that seemed to be struck with a startling notion. "Will?"
"The roof," she mumbles, trying to gather her thoughts before continuing with her proposed plan. "If we could lead him up to the roof, maybe we could get him to teleport through the ledge or something."
"I think our man's a little too smart to just go teleporting through a ledge," Spike says.
"A spell," Tara adds to her lover's idea. "We could do a glamour spell to make the roof appear longer than what it is, that way when he teleported, he wouldn't be able to tell where the ledge was and just go right through it."
"You sure magic is going to work on him?" Angel worries.
"No better time to find out," Willow passes him a weak smile. As the others began pondering, realizing that the idea seemed to make sense, and was so far there only one, Fred gleefully starts cheering as she finally picks up a signal on Kamien and his fellow teleporters. "They're right outside- Quinn too." A huge sigh was shared among the group as Angel and Buffy formulate their plan of attack.
"Giles," the blonde turns to face him, "take Will and Tara up the back hall and head up onto the roof. The rest of us will try and get him up there."
"And what about her?" Wes points to a still-unconscious Lilah, lying helplessly on the cold floor.
"Dawn-" Angel addresses the girl he'd come to cherish and love more than his own recently demised sister, "you and Anya tie her up- bring her back to the hotel and stay there." He pauses to take in the sight of her, his lips quivering into a small snarl that only Buffy and Spike's hearing picked up on. He'd momentarily considered sending her to Mekon with Kamien, but ultimately decided against it, wishing to deal with her himself once they'd finished with the demon.
"Angel, come on-" Dawn tries arguing with him, but upon seeing his resolute face, simply nods and wishes them luck before she and Anya went in search of whatever rope they could find in the lab.
Deciding to conserve the reader's energy, the others split up and race out of the lab, down the back stairway. The emotions playing across their faces made their eyes look almost confused, bewildered, and somewhat dazed. Even after all they'd done, all their battles, they'd never had a dealier enemy to deal with or a deadlier price to pay.
"If this is going to work, we can't be a millimeter off," Gunn warns as they reach the back of the Wolfram and Hart offices.
"This *will* work," Buffy silences him, spotting Kamien out of the corner of her eye and preparing to take her position.
"How can you be so sure?" Spike questions her confidence, though knowing full well the lengths they would all be willing to go to to stop Kamien. One look at Angel's face, along with his accompanying remark, was enough of an answer for him.
"Because it has to..."
******
Part 10
Cordelia and Xander collapsed to the ground as Kamien landed, reappearing in the back of the building. There was a moment of silence while the two brave friends carefully observed the demon looking around in shock, his energy levels also drained by the strain of teleporting such a huge mass along with him. "You fools!" he screams at last. "Do you know how long its going to take me to replenish my energy?" He leans over, grabbing Xander by the neck with his free hand, letting out a soft laugh. "No matter...I was going to start by taking Quinn out of the picture, but now...I think I'll start with you."
"I don't think so." A swiftly approaching Angel grabs Kamien from behind, picking him up and sending him flying into the metal fence. As the surprised creature bounces off the chain links, Buffy makes a fast grab for her daughter, extracting the infant from his arms.
Dazed momentarily, Kamien realizes the change of weight in his arms, lunging forward to recollect Quinn but lands right into Buffy's quick kick, his head slamming into the sidewalk, hurt by the impact of the slayer's boot. His lip starts to swell as Angel picks him back up and slams Kamien's face directly into the fence. His lip immediately bleeds and Angel rubs his face in the now-broken part of the metal, draining the blood from his swelled lip even more.
Before moving in to assist Angel furhter, Buffy turns to Xander, handing over Quinn as she shouts over her shoulder to the others. "Get back to the Hyperion- now!! Go!!"
"What about you guys?" Cordelia pleads.
"Go!!" Angel reiterates, landing another punch on a weakened Kamien.
"Come on luv," Spike grabs hold of her arm, steering her in the opposire direction. "We'll get the lil' bit home," he nods towards Quinn, saying his own silent prayer that the child had been recovered before the ritual could take place, seemingly unharmed.
Kamien slowly comes around and notices that Angel's back is turned towards Buffy and the others were already out of the slayers' helping distance. He wipes the blood from his lip and crawls over to the corner of the alley, noticing the chain cutter laying thoughtlessly in the clearing.
Buffy sees out of the corner of her eye the glint of the metal instantly and she tries to warn Angel but it's too late. Kamien smashes the tool into the side of Angel's rib cage and he collapses to the ground in immense pain. The assassin grins and continues to ram the tool into his side as the slayer groans from the sudden pain, doubling over as Buffy's face tells it all.
Wanting desperately to rush to the aid of her husband, Buffy resists the urge, remembering their original plan of splitting up and drawing him up to the roof. "Let's take this little tango up top, shall we?" she shouts to Kamien, taking off up the fire escape before he can even begin his pursuit. Still not having enough time to build up his energy, Kamien opts not to teleport and instead revel in a good old fashioned chase.
Managing to stay a good two or three feet ahead of him, Buffy reaches the top of the roof, seeing the two wiccans in deep concentration of maintaining their glamour spell over the outstretched ledge.
"Where's Angel?" Giles yells as he and Fred begin readying the dimensional reader.
"Just get ready," Buffy dismisses their concerns as she stands on guard, hearing the demon's footsteps fast approaching. When Kamien appeared at long last, Buffy was most fearful upon noticing that Angel was not following behind him. Pushing her accompanying idea out of her mind, she quickly goes to swing a punch at Kamien, only to find herself crash as he teleports out of the way.
"Thanks for the warm-up run," Kaminen smiles, reappearing behind her and kicking her onto her back. "Helped me build up just enough energy." Another few kicks leave Buffy rolling in pain, holding a hand to her stomach as she passes up a glare to the attacking demon. "Pity...I was hoping you would've put up more of a challenge than Angel." He lifts his foot to plant another kick to the side of her head, shocked to have it grabbed just before impact as Buffy flips him onto his back.
"Advanced healing as well," Kamien laughs, porting to another spot on the roof. "I'm impressed."
"We’re not here to impress you." Angel comes leaping straight at him, but finds himself coming up short, instead spearing Fred down knocking the reader out of her hands as he hears Kamien's maniacal laugh echoing as the demon disappears once again.
"Fred," Angel jostles her slightly, trying to rouse her. "Fred!" Sensing a perfect opportunity, Kamien reappears, swooping down to snatch the reader from where it had landed and decides to use it to his own benefit. Taking aim over the side of the ledge, he opens a new vortex, then using his own body for force, dives at Angel and Fred, sending the three of them into the portal, Buffy's scream the only sound to be heard as the swirling black oval closes.
***
Part 11
"Where are they??" Buffy cries, scurrying over to her former watcher. "Giles- where are they??"
"Stuck in the vortex," he replies blankly. "We hadn't set the frequency yet, so they haven't been teleported anywhere. They're just...stuck between dimensions."
"Well unstick them!" she demands, shoving the reader into his hands. "Do it!" As Giles begins fumbling around with the controls, Buffy's ears pick up on an approaching sound. She turns to find Kamien materializing behind them, just inches away from the ledge Willow and Tara were still manipulating with their spell.
"Tricky little machines, aren't they?" he laughs. "You should've let me try to fix that one for you too." He pauses in his mocking to take in Buffy's despairing look upon seeing that only he had teleported back to the roof- Angel and Fred were still nowhere to be seen. "What's wrong, Buffy?" Kamien lets out a maniacal laugh. "No quick comebacks? No clever one-liners?"
"You think this is a game, Kamien?!" Buffy screams, racing towards him in rage. "It's not!" Despite the current onrush of emotions, she manages to maintain a hold on their strategy, making a quick dive for him, knowing that he would only port again. After being sent flying through the air, crashing yet again to the hard surface, she pulls herself to her feet, turning her back to the ledge and only hoped that the demon would indeed try sneak attacking her from behind again.
"As befits an adversary of your caliber," his voice comes as his form begins to materialize behind her, "I'll grant you a demise with dignity." As he goes to lunge for her, he finds his legs trapped within the roof's ledge, Willow and Tara's glamour spell having worked to perfection. "No! What is this?!" he yells in panic, struggling to free himself. A sly smile crosses Buffy's face as she purposely takes her time walking back away from him, eyeing his helpless form with a proud glare.
"Looks like you're a little stuck, buddy," she smiles, turning to see the two witches racing over to her.
"Giles, do you have the reader working?" Tara asks, clutching her lover's hand even tighter as she finally comes to realize just how successful they had been.
"Got it!" A split-second later and a new vortex appears directly in front of Kamien. As Giles increases the reader's frequency, the dark dimensional whirlwind increases, completely engulfing the assassin and his shrieks of anguish. But as his form disappears into the darkness, a sudden zipping noise blasts from the vortex as the electric hurricane begins glowing, winding in the opposite direction. "Something's wrong..."
"Giles, what's going on?" there was more than just a trace of panic in the slayer's voice as she turns to the englishman. "It can't be broken! We still have to get Angel and Fred back!"
"It's created an imbalance between the gravitational pull of this dimension, and the vortex. If it continues to increase...Buffy, we have to close it!"
"So close it! Push a button, end this session, then we start another one to get-"
"I can't close it manually," he turns to face her with a solemn look. "It's not responding. The reader has to be tossed in to shut it. It's the only way!"
"Are you crazy!" she screams, grabbing the reader from him. "Angel and Fred-"
"We can build another one," he assures her, extracting the device from her hands. "It'll just take time-"
"Time I don't want to spend!"
"Buffy!" his desperate cry catches her offguard. "Do you want this whole dimension to get sucked in?! We have to!" Being left with no other choice, she simply nods, a tear rolling down the side of her face as she watches Giles toss the reader into the vortex, the portal quickly whirlwinding to a close.
Each day of the many that had passed since the first time she had sentenced her Angel to a dimensional hell on that fateful day, she'd speculated for hours on end just why she hadn't let the world get sucked into the portal, just so long as she would've gotten sucked in along with him, but most of all- how had he ever been able to forgive her.
Four years later, she now found herself in the same position, most fearful that upon returning this time, Angel would never be able to forgive her exact same decision. The slayer and her best friend glanced at one another, Willow having a good idea as to where her friend's thoughts were upon seeing the ex-vampire's only means of escape closed forever.
"Buffy..." For the first time in a long while, Giles was speechless. He passes her a small glance, feeling somewhat ashamed by the decision he'd forced her to make. Before he can say anything else, Buffy looks up at him, eyes still brimming with unshed tears.
"So what do we do now?"
"We do the hard thing," he answers her. "We wait."
The approaching sunrise was bleeding slowly out of the sky, making its exit above the gathering of clouds that were dispersing to make way for the glowing orb. It was the sky that the four friends were watching and listening to, and the most maddening thing was that there was no sound at all. The only sound that radiated in Buffy's ears was the voice that insisted that she had once again betrayed her soulmate. ‘It's just like last time,’ she thinks to herself. ‘One way or another I will bring you back.’
And as if this thought had caused it to happen, she begins to hear a wind begin to blow- a strange, whirring sound echoing from overhead. She looks up, eyes wide, as the others began hearing the noise as well. "Angel," she tries to say, but her voice fails her. There was a strange clashing noise followed by a blinding shot of light, forcing the onlookers to avert their eyes to the ground.
"I'm getting too old for this. You couldn't have teleported us back to land on something soft?" Angel moans, rubbing his throbbing head with his hand as Buffy races over to him, toppling him back down as she jumps ontop of him.
"Angel!! Oh god- you're alright!!"
"Tell that to my head," he flashes her his trademark half-smile, wrapping her up into a heated kiss.
"Okay- why couldn't I have just stayed unconscious for all of this?" Fred sighs, standing to her feet with a little help from Willow and Tara.
"Giles," Willow turns to him, "what gives? I thought you said they were stuck? How did they get out?"
"I'm assuming that when the imbalance between the gravitational pull of this dimension and the vortex was created, the portal opened so greatly that there was just enough room for Angel and Fred to escape. Tossing the reader into the vortex was probably what caused the reaction to be delayed, hence...hence..." as he turns to finish explaining his theory to the slayers, he finds his efforts to be useless as they were too wrapped up in one another to pay attention to anything else.
"Hence those two are gonna be stuck like that up here all night unless we pry them apart," Willow smiles, reaching over to grab Buffy by her shirt, trying to lift her off of Angel.
"Can't talk," the small blonde pushes her friend away with a free hand. "Angel...busy..." As tight as she can, Buffy wraps her arms around him, pressing her head tightly against his chest. "I thought I lost you again."
"You're not getting rid of me that easily," he chuckles, drawing her in for another kiss before picking the both of them up to their feet. "Quinn? Wh- where's Quinn?"
"She's fine," Buffy calms him. "Xander and the others took her back to the hotel. Kamien's back in the Mekon dimension- everything's okay until the next disaster we have thrown at us," she lets a small laugh escape, her first in the past few days since their nightmare had begun.
******
The returning members of Angel Investigations didn’t like the ominous quiet in the Hyperion. Buffy calls out softly to her friends, hoping they were downstairs. When she receives no reply, she walks across the lobby, making her way into the hotel's kitchen. The sight that her eyes took in was enough to cause her to softly call Angel over to the doorway to catch a glimpse himself.
A smiling Xander was reaching over to hug his wife and then extracted Quinn from her carrier. Holding her up and kissing her, he settles her in his arms and begins gushing over her. "Okay Quinn, here's your first food lesson..." He holds up the yellow, cream-filled puff, first showing it to the infant before taking a bite of it himself. "This is a twinkie- spongy cake goodness. Can you say twinkie?" He tilts the pastry towards the child's mouth, twirling it around a bit before trying to get her to take a taste.
"Xander!" Gunn shouts at him, grabbing his hand and stealing the twinkie away from him. "Don't give her that junk! How's she even supposed to eat it?"
"Well gee- I would give her some milk but I think Buffy's a little more *equipped* for that job than I am!" Xander turns back around in his seat, focusing his attentions back on the infant. "And how is my beautiful little Quinn feeling? The big nasty guy is gone now, huh?"
"Yeah," Spike chimes in, "now she's got the big, nasty, *stupid* guy to deal with." Grabbing his mug of blood from the microwave, he uses his free hand to lift the infant into his arms, sitting down at the table. "Stick with me, kid. You don't wanna be stuck having to hang out with any more freaks than you have to."
"Spike," Cordelia paces over to him, glass of juice in hand, "stop trying to warp my niece. Hasn't she been through enough already?"
"Oh come on- me and the lil' nipper are bonding. Isn't that right, cutie?"
"Please!!" The friends gathered around the table turn at the sound of their latest captive's shout. "If I have to listen to any more of this ridiculous dribble I'll call the cops myself and have them lock me up for life!"
"Sorry pet," Spike stands to approach the tied up and bound Lilah, Quinn still in his arms. "You don't get off that easy. At least not until I get my fifteen minutes alone with ya."
"And what do you plan to do to me with those fifteen minutes you neutered, whining excuse for a vampire- serenade me with some of that *wonderful* poetry you were known for?!"
"Do I need to punch you again?" Cordy snaps at her, sharing an exasperated look with Dawn as they finish their breakfast.
"Save you strength, Cordy." The brunette smiles as she sees Angel leading the others into the kitchen, safe and sound. "I may need you to help me carry out whatever's left of her when I get done having a few words with Ms. Morgan here," he brushes past her, patting her on the head as he wraps Cordelia into a hug.
"Thank god you're all okay," she cheers, making her way over to welcome the others with open arms. "Kamien?"
"Gone for good," Buffy answers, giving Spike a smile as she lifts her daughter out of his arms. "Sweetie..." Quinn gurgles delightedly as her mother lifts her into the air. Buffy lowers Quinn to eye level after one last lift and gurgle, planting a kiss on her small forehead. "Thank god..." she whispers, clutching her daughter tightly against her chest.
"Hey there, sweetheart," Angel smiles at the infant, leaning over to kiss her, thanking whatever powers were listening that his child, his other reason for living, was back in his arms. The little girl raises her head at the sound of her father's voice and smiles again.
"She must've really missed you guys," Cordy smiles up at Angel, searching his eyes for the forgiveness she hoped to find there. Stepping away to leave Buffy with Quinn, he takes hold of the brunette's arm, leading her over to the kitchen counter. "Cordelia...when I said earlier about...about not wanting your help- that you had done enough...I didn't...I was just so upset, and..."
"Angel..." Cordy bows her head, shaking it to the side slightly as she tries making her own apology. "You have nothing to apologize for. I- I was so careless with Quinn-"
"You couldn't have known," he assures her. "None of us could have," he throws a glance to Spike, motioning for him to come over to where they were talking.
"I know that, but it doesn't make it any better. I'm so sorry."
"And I...umm..." the bleach blonde vamp struggles for the right words to make his first apology in over a century. "I'm sorry I didn't keep a better eye on things...namely your daughter," he chuckles, hoping his sire would maintain some sort of sense of humor.
Angel merely shakes his head, turning to walk back over to Lilah. "Will you excuse us for a moment?" he addresses his friends, grabbing hold of Lilah's chair from behind, beginning to wheel her helpless frame into the lobby. "We need to talk..." He takes his time in rolling her into the spacious clearing, a wry smile across his lips as he spins her around in the chair to face him.
"So how're you holding up, Lilah? You thirsty? Hungry?" A snarl-like sound escapes her lips as she looks up to eye him.
"The minute you untie me, this little game starts all over again, Angel. I don't know why you're even wasting your time."
"Oh, I'm not. See..." he begins to circle around her as he continues, "who said I'm even going to untie you? Or better yet..." he pauses to remove a handgun from his belt behind his back, "who says I'm even going to let you out of here alive? I seriously doubt you would be sorely missed."
"Oooo...since when do you need to carry a gun, mister big and bad slayer?" she smiles, trying to hide the trace of panic she was sure her voice was carrying.
"We're a legitimate detective agency here," he replies, clicking back the gun's hammer. "I think it's only fitting."
"No need to be angry, Angel. You've got your daughter back, don't you? So what do you say we just forget about this whole past week, and maybe start things up again in another few days. Thursday's good for me, but you let me know what day you have free in your schedule and we'll set a date-"
"No need to be angry, huh? What makes you think I'm angry?" With a steady hand, he lifts the gun, pointing it directly at her. "Lilah, you've really offended me here. I'm not angry. No, no...see if I was angry..." he takes a step closer to her, pressing the weapon against her forehead, "...I would just ask you whether you wanted to end our little feud now, or whether you wanted to see if you can breathe through your fucking forehead!!"
Seeing her eyes tighten closed, her body shivering as beads of nervous perspiration begin to form on her face, Angel unclicks the hammer, quickly pulling the gun back away from her and setting it back into it's holster. "But I don't have to do that with you, do I Lilah, cause we're pals- we're buddies, right?" he gently shakes her shoulders, the confident smile reemerging on his face. As her eyes slowly begin to open, she lets out a heavy sigh of relief as she sees Angel begin to untie her.
"This isn't a threat, this isn't a warning, it's a promise- if you or anyone else from Wolfram and Hart *ever* come after any of us again, I swear to god, I will take great pleasure in slicing you limb from limb and then feeding you to whatever dog would be able to stomach you. And I'll even do a little dance for you as I smile on the way to receive my death penalty for murder. Is any part of this in anyway unclear, Lilah?"
Receiving only a small, frightened nod from her as an answer, he grabs her roughly by the arm, dragging her over to the front doors. "Good...now get the hell off of my property!" With a final shove, he slams the door behind her, tossing off his jacket as he makes his way back into the kitchen to enjoy breakfast with his family.
"Just another fun-filled weekend at Angel Investigations, huh?" Xander speaks up, patting Angel on the back as he passes him by.
"You know Xander-" Angel pulls up a chair, taking a seat beside him, "what you and Cordy did back there, charging after Kamien, that was really impressive. I mean, I've come to accept that sort of 'the hell with reason' logic from Cordelia, but you...thank you." Overwhelmed by the compliment, Xander tries to hide his slight blush as he sits back in his seat.
"Just call me Mr. Action Hero," he smiles sweetly, receiving a quick kiss from Anya in return.
"I'm glad you said that," Angel says, standing from his seat. "How'd you like to become a full-time, more...*active* member of the agency?"
"Uh...great, I guess...but, umm...I'm not really liking how you said 'active' there man. What's up with that?"
By lunchtime Xander was kicking himself for having that third helping of waffles. Through blurred vision he could just about make out the image of Willow, Tara, Cordelia, and Anya following alongside Buffy as the young mother was happily pushing her daughter along in her stroller down their chosen path of travel.
Wiping the sweat that was streaming down into his eyes, he takes notice of Angel, still a ways ahead of him, clad only in a pair of blue shorts and sneaks. The slayer's newly tanned skin was quickly soaking up more of the sun's rays as he jogs up behind his wife, pulling her to a halt as he wraps his arms around her waist. He places a kiss against her neck, eliciting a giggle from her in response.
"Angel! Eww...you're all sweaty and sticky!" Not that she was complaining about the sight. The waistband of his shorts was darkened by the pool of sweat drenching his abs, and his skin was warm and glistening, the streaks of heavy perspiration outlining his muscles even more.
Giving Quinn's tummy a quick tickle before leaning in to give her a kiss as well, he smiles up at Anya. "I think Xander's doing pretty good, don't you?" The ex-demon peers out from underneath her sunglasses back along the street to take a glimpse of her husband. "Oh yeah...at this rate, maybe he'll make it back to the hotel by next week!"
"An...Ang...Angel..." an exhausted Xander finally chokes out, catching up to his extremely more fit friend. "Don't you...think we've done enough...running today?" He leans over, placing his hands on his knees as he breathes in a few more huge gulps of air.
"Are you kidding?" Buffy answers for him. "This isn't half of what we do everyday! Angel's going too easy on you if you ask me."
"Forgive me...for not being...as athletically inclined...as you slayers, okay?"
"Come on, Xander," Angel tries urging him on. "It's not that much further."
"Besides-" Cordy takes the opportunity to chime in, "you could afford to lose some of those excessive chunks." Willow and Tara could only laugh at her observation, as Anya passed him a pitiful glance.
"It's only one more block, Xander," Angel pulls him back up straight, giving him a slight push from behind to get him started running again. "Come on, move it. Let's go."
Back at the Hyperion, Dawn was too busy pestering Spike to notice that her sister and the others had been gone far longer than any walk should've taken. "Come on, Spike. Tell me!"
"No."
"Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me!"
"What part of 'no' don't you get, bit? Sheesh- you're just like your sister."
"Coming from you, I'll take that as a compliment," she giggles. "Come on- you're telling me that you don't know anything about Buffy and Angel throwing a surprise party for my birthday next week?"
"You think they'd tell me?!"
"Hmm...you've got a point there," she pouts, grabbing a pillow from the couch and stretching out on it. "Okay- what about gifts? Have you heard anything about what they're getting me?"
"Nope," the vamp tries to supress his knowing smile, wanting to keep at least one thing a secret from the teen.
"What about what *you're* getting me?"
"And what makes you think I'm even getting you something?"
"Because I know you, you big softy!" she punches him lightly in the arm. "So what're you getting me, huh? What is it?"
"Something I think you'll enjoy, and that's all I'm saying." Before she's given a chance to protest, her eyes shift up to see the others returning from their walk, Angel being more drenched with sweat than a simple walk could've warranted.
"How did Quinn enjoy the walk?" she smiles, standing up to bounce over to them.
"Quinn's fine," Buffy boasts, lifting her daughter into her arms.
"Yeah-" Willow agrees, "it's Xander who had problems with it." A large lump comes plodding through the doors, collapsing with a loud thud onto the floor.
"I'm...okay..." Xander squeaks out between pants before his head slumps onto the cold, tiled surface of the Hyperion's floor.
"Is he okay?" Giles yells over from behind his desk.
"Perhaps you should've gone a bit easier on him, Angel," Wes adds, walking towards the kitchen to fetch the poor young boy some water.
"This *was* going easy on him, Wes," Angel defends, accepting the towel Fred had carried over to him, beginning to wipe himself free of moisture, hearing Buffy's immediate disapproval. He leans over into her neck to whisper in her ear. "We'll take a shower in a little bit, hmm?" Letting out a light giggle before leaning up to kiss him, she turns back around to see Xander's arm reach up to grab the glass of refreshing water Wes had brought over to him.
Dousing his head with the liquid, Xander lets out a low moan. "I can't feel anything below my chin- and even that's starting to get numb..."
"Why don't you just go on upstairs and take a nice, long, hot shower, honey?" Anya offers him, seeing his eyes widen at the mere mention of walking, let alone up any stairs.
"Oh no...I don't think I'll make it up any stairs for a shower..." He pulls out his arms from underneath of him, beginning to crawl towards the back doors leading to the courtyard.
"Look Quinn," Buffy gushes over her daugher. "Uncle Xander learned to crawl! Isn't that great!"
"I think I'll just...go out back...and wash myself down with the hose." Having covered barely five inches in his attempt to reach the door, he pauses to take a quick breather. "Damn...where's a good teleporting do-hickey when you really need one?"
******
THE END
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