Shooting Stars

Part 4

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Buffy glanced to her watch again. It was almost four in the morning. The sun was scheduled to rise around five-thirty. If Angel didn't wake up soon, he'd have to spend the day sitting in Willow's bathroom.
Kind of a funny thought, she thought, as she looked across the room to him. It was really hard to tell if he was even alive. Well, as alive as a vampire could be, since they were technically already dead. They didn't breathe, and they had no pulse, so there was really no sure way to tell. Especially when none of the usual tactics - crosses, holy water, sunlight - would help because said vampire was very much unconscious.
She sighed, amazed that she had been able to stay awake this long. After the long day running from Giles since two or so the previous morning, then getting arrested and coming back to Sunnydale where she had to explain everything to her mother. She figured that it was probably because she'd been thinking a lot.
Maybe she was thinking too much. She was beginning to wonder what Angel had been through down in Hell. And what he'd say when he woke up, if that ever happened. What she would say. So, whatever had happened to him, it was partially her fault.
Suddenly, his arm moved. Just slightly, but her Slayer reflexes caught the movement in the corner of her eye. She snapped back to attention, getting quickly to her feet. He was trying to push himself up off the floor. She stayed back near the wall, watching as he slowly got up.
"Angel?" she asked quietly, cautiously taking a step forward. He looked to her, but it was like it wasn't really him. She could tell that something was wrong. It was like he could almost see her clearly, but couldn't identify her. There was a kind of cloudy un-recognition in his eyes. Then, he growled, springing to attack. She reacted quickly, spin-kicking him sharply in the side of the head. He fell to the ground again, unconscious.
"Great. Now I have to wait for another hour before you wake up," she muttered to herself, going to the stairs and yelling down to Giles. They might have to try something just a little bit differently…
* * *
It was getting light outside, and Xander was 'talking' to Cordelia in the kitchen hallway. It was after five in the morning. Willow, Oz, and Amy were sitting at the table in the kitchen. Buffy had told them what had happened when Angel finally came to, and they'd taken one of Willow's chairs up into the bathroom and would keep him tied to it until he regained his senses. They'd also reattached the door while they were up there.
"All I'm saying is that you're taking this whole jealousy thing a little far! I mean, okay, you've had a crush on her for, like, ever, but she's so totally not interested, so just get over it!" Cordelia was saying. Xander had commented on how glad he was that Angel was tied to the chair, and that had spawned a whole new argument. He and Cordelia had been going pretty steadily, and Giles had left the room to avoid all the noise.
"And all I'm saying is that there are thousands of other guys in the universe, and it makes me a little mad she had to pick the freak vampire for a boyfriend!" Xander replied.
"Yeah, and like you have really good taste!" Cordelia shot back.
"And what exactly is that supposed to mean? Besides an insult to you?"
"Well, first you get a crush on Buffy, of all people. And then the praying mantis teacher lady, and then the mummy chick. What's with that? Are you like, attracted to freaks or evil things or something?"
"First off all, Buffy has saved your life more times than I can count. Secondly, the praying mantis lady seemed nice, and was the first woman ever to find me attractive. And, Ampata was just a confused-"
"Psycho?"
"No! Hey, her village sacrificed her at 16, mummified her, and then sent her to Sunnydale, okay? She had a right to be a little pissed off at people in general, okay?"
"Will they ever stop fighting?" Amy asked Willow. They were listening to the argument in the hallway, since it was too loud for them to carry on a separate conversation half the time.
"Probably not," Willow replied with a sigh, resting her head on Oz's shoulder.
"Well, as fun as this is, I should head home. If my dad wakes up to find me missing, he won't be too awfully happy," Amy said, standing. "I'll tell him I was messing with my candles and one of them fell over and burned me last night when he was out with Teresa." At Willow's confused look, she elaborated on the subject. "Teresa's his new girlfriend." Willow nodded, and Amy said goodbye, leaving through the kitchen door.
"Amy has a very legitimate point. Bye, Xander," Cordelia said, leaving right behind the witch.
"Well, there goes my ride. Willow? Question," Xander said, looking to the redhead. "Can I just hang here?"
"Sure. I'm not going to sleep anytime soon. After all, it's only three hours before school starts again. Or so we hope," Willow said, wrinkling her forehead and wondering if school would actually be in session today.
"Thanks. After all, it's not like my parents care where I am," Xander said, sitting down across from Willow and Oz, resting his head on the table.
"So, Buffy and Giles are upstairs?" Oz asked. Willow nodded, glancing briefly at the steps. He'd missed a lot of what had happened because Giles had forgotten to call him.
"Yeah. Apparently, Angel came back a little more… Well, viscous than we expected," she said, looking back to Oz, who just nodded.
"Now there's a big surprise," Xander mumbled. Willow rolled her eyes. He always had a smart comment for every situation. "So, do we have to go to school?"
"Yes. And Oz can stay here and watch Angel so he doesn't try anything, right?" Willow asked Oz, hoping her little plan was okay with him. After all, he had graduated from High School the last year. He was taking a year off before continuing to college, though, so that the whole group could be together.
"Yep. Just as long as your parents aren't planning to show up anytime soon," Oz said.
"Oh, them? They aren't even in town. I think my mom's in Europe, and my dad's in Africa, or something. I see my mom three or four times a year now, and my dad once or twice, if I'm lucky. Right Xander?" She looked to Xander, seeing that he'd fallen asleep.
* * *
Giles glanced into the bathroom a final time after checking the hinges on the door. They'd gotten it back on after the wind tore it off its hinges and threw it into the hallway, but it had taken a little work. Angel was still unconscious, on the far side of the room, while Buffy sat against the closer wall. She'd fallen asleep sitting up against the tile.
He walked quietly into the room, bending down to shake Buffy awake. He'd barely gotten near her when her eyes snapped open, her muscles tightening. When she saw it was only Giles, she relaxed.
"Good morning. We have to get going. Hopefully, school wasn't cancelled again," he said. Buffy kind of smiled at him.
"Um, Giles? I was kicked out of school. If I try to go back on campus now, Snyder will have me kicked out of the state of California," she said with a slight laugh.
"Oh, of course. I remember you mentioning that troll-like man before," Giles said, causing Buffy to laugh. "I'll speak to him this afternoon; see what I can work out. And I'll tell Oz there's no need for him to stay here."
"Okay. So, you're coming back after?" Buffy asked, stretching. Giles imagined that sitting up against a hard tile wall was not the most comfortable way to get some sleep.
"Yes. I suppose we should be here by four at the latest. Will you be alright until then?"
"Should be. As long as I don't fall asleep again, I'll be fine."
"Alright. I'll see you later this afternoon then. Unless of course, something comes up. After all, the Hellmouth does tend to keep us all guessing," Giles said, leaving the room after saying goodbye. Hopefully, Buffy would be all right…
* * *
Buffy yawned sleepily, wondering if she should call her mother and tell her where she was. If she woke up, she'd be wondering where her daughter had disappeared to. And that wouldn't be such a great thing after the Slayer had skipped town for several months. She looked over to Angel, who was still very much unconscious.
And I thought school was a bore, she thought. She looked at her watch, seeing that it was quarter after seven. Her mother would be up by now, and wondering where Buffy was. She'd have to call her and come up with something.
Just as she was planning to go downstairs, another slight movement caught her attention. She looked over to Angel, who was finally coming to.
"What the hell…?" he muttered, blinking several times. He tried to move his arms, apparently surprised that they were tied to a chair.
"Yeah. That's what I'm wondering," Buffy said. He looked up at her, still confused.
"Buffy? What's goin' on?" he asked, looking curiously at the ropes.
"How about you tell me why you attacked me, and I'll tell you what's going on." Buffy replied, somewhat surprised at her tone of voice. Her words were just sort of flying out of her mouth before she could really think about what she was saying to Angel.
"What?"
"Well, you went to Hell, Willow brought you back, and then you tried to kill me."
"Well, if memory serves, you're the one that sent me to Hell in the first place, right? I don't remember attacking you, but I can't honestly say that I blame myself."
"Oh really? Well, maybe you can stay tied up here, then. After all, I'm not going anywhere."
"You really think this chair could hold me?"
"No. But, with the right stuff, we could keep you in this little room for a very long time. Who knows, maybe even long enough to kill you. Except that you're technically already dead."
"What are you doing this for?"
"Doing what?"
"I'm just wondering what I did that pissed you off enough to tie me to a chair and yell at me."
"Maybe the fact that you tried to kill me and all my friends. You nearly killed the ones that you didn't manage to put in a coma or break the necks of, and you tried to suck the whole world into Hell. And, for the record, I'm not even close to yelling yet."
"Well, it's not my fault one of Hell's nastier demons decided to possess my dead body back in the eighteenth century, all right?"
"Yeah, but it woulda helped a lot if you would've at least tried to properly inform me of the details of your little 'curse'."
"If I knew what was going to happen, I would've said something, believe me. It's not the kind of thing someone just comes straight out and tells you."
"Right. It's always easier to push the blame off on someone else, isn't it? Keeps you from having to handle it on your own?"
"Fine. Act like an annoying little brat if you want to, I really don't care."
"Oh, I'm the annoying one now? That's a laugh."
"Hey, it's not like I asked to come back, okay?"
"No kidding! I didn't either! I have to say this was the last thing I needed right now. It would've been a lot easier if you'd just stayed down there!"
"What are you going to do, send me back?"
"Now there's an idea. Maybe I will!"
"How do you plan to open a gateway to Hell, then if you have some great and wonderful plan?"
"Who said I have to? Maybe I'll just kill you the simple way."
"I don't think you could."
"Oh yeah? I did it before, I could do it again."
"I still don't believe you."
"Well, how about I go find a stake and we can find out."
"Go ahead. It's not like I'm in any position to stop you."
"You want me to kill you, don't you?" There was a pause. "Fine. How about I just untie you and you can leave?"
"Fine."
"Well, see, I would," she said, standing and walking to the door. She looked outside, seeing a patch of sunlight on the floor from one of the windows in Willow's room. "But, the sun's up. Unless you wanna become Mister Crispy, I'd stay in here."
"Alright. Can you at least untie me?"
"No."
"Why are we even fighting?"
"I don't know! I'm not the one who started the whole thing."
"If you hadn't made the stupid comments-"
"I made stupid comments. Okay. You made stupid choices."
"I made stupid choices? If you hadn't-"
"If I hadn't what? I didn't do anything!"
"Right. Except send me to Hell."
"Oh, of course. I did do that, didn't I? Well, you came back. Jenny didn't." At this, Angel fell silent. With a sigh, Buffy sat back against the wall, wondering what would happen next…
* * *
"Giles! I found something!" Willow said, waving her book over her head. School had been cancelled, so they were all looking for information on Chaos in the library.
"What?" Giles asked, taking the book from Willow and looking at the paragraph she pointed out. "'A week after the balance of good and evil falters, the Hellmouth will become unstable and the evil shall become incarnated. Chaos will arrive unnoticed until the beginning of the end, when he shall make himself apparent. If he is defeated in the first stage, he will move on, destroying those that have harmed his safety before retreating to the mind's eye.
"'Thrice defeated, thrice been tried, now shall go from Earth to Sky'," Giles read aloud from the book.
"What's all that mean?" Xander asked, looking confused.
"Well, I think it means… He's got three forms. Once we can somehow defeat him three times, he'll… Well, he'll be killed," Giles muttered, flipping pages in the book.
"Okay. The first form is here," Oz said, pointing at his head, "the second is out in the open. Where's the third?"
"Mind, body, spirit," Cordelia muttered, flipping another page in her book.
"What did you just say?" Giles asked, looking up from the book. Cordelia looked up, confused.
"Mind, body, and spirit. It's something my martial arts teacher used to say, like back in second grade." Then, after a pause, "do you think this Chaos guy might work like that?"
"I think that you may be correct, Cordelia. Good thinking," Giles said.
"Wow. Now, that's an achievement," Xander said. Cordelia rolled her eyes, and everyone else ignored Xander's snide remarks to his girlfriend.
"Yes. He starts in the mind, then, h-he's a physical being, and then…" Giles' voice trailed off.
"A ghost?" Willow asked. Giles removed his glasses, shaking his head.
"No. I suspect he'll be something more of the metaphysical. Um, a-a spiritual being of some sort. Powers that exceed Earthly limitations, but he's still limited to the boundaries of Earth. He can't escape to the nether realms as a ghost could," Giles explained. "As for the part about Earth to Sky… Well, he-he's not all bad."
"You mean he's like… A confused good guy?" Xander questioned. "Like Ampata?" Cordelia shot a glare at him.
"Something like that, yes. As I recall from the Codex, he can only be reasoned with when in his spirit form, or his most powerful embodiment. So unless we are able to get that far into the battle and then reason with him, we will all be destroyed," Giles said.
"So if he doesn't like what we say to him in his last form…" Willow's voice dropped off.
"He kills us?" Cordelia asked.
"Probably," Xander said, looking to Giles. "I mean, if I was a super-powerful demon on a power trip, I wouldn't really like being told I'm some dead good guy that has to give up all his fancy demon powers to go to heaven or whatever."
"As odd as that analogy seems, Xander's correct," Giles stated, replacing his glasses on his face. "According to the Codex, Chaos does not really like to be spoken to, especially by humans, or anything 'mortal', for that matter."
"Figures," Cordelia said with a sigh.
"Okay. I'm a big ugly demon on a power trip that doesn't like to be talked to and is already in a bad mood. I have to get someone to convince me that I'm a dead good guy so I can go away and stop trying to kill stuff for the sheer joy of it," Oz said in his ever-monotone voice, thinking aloud. "Who do I listen to?"
"Someone that knows what it's like to have all this evil power and not be able to use it?" Willow asked with a shrug. "Or maybe doesn't want to?"
"Right. Who do we know like that?" Xander asked, biting his lip.
"Well, I can think of someone," Oz said. The others looked to him one by one. "Angel."
* * *
Xander hurried up the stairs to tell Buffy what was going on, surprised that the bathroom door was closed. He freaked out about the picture for a second, but then noticed Buffy sitting on the floor, leaning against the closed door.
"Okay… What's going on?" Xander asked, a confused look on his face. Buffy looked up to him. He could see that she had the crossbow in her lap, and some holy water sitting by her foot on the floor.
"Well, as long as we're in the same room, we're just dying to rip each others heads off. Possibly literally, so I came out here. This is in case he tries anything stupid," Buffy explained, gesturing to the crossbow.
"Well, that's interesting. Usually it's me and Cordy doing the fighting. What were you guys fighting about?" Xander asked.
"Life in general."
"Ah. Well, we found some more info on Chaos," Xander said, taking a seat and proceeding to tell her all the new stuff they'd discovered.
* * *
Angel had finally managed to untie himself quietly, and was now standing in the middle of the dark bathroom. Buffy had turned the light off when she left the room several hours earlier. He could still see well enough to move around without running into anything.
He looked around, silently wondering what time it was. What was even stranger - if it was possible for things to be even stranger - was that his watch had disappeared shortly before he'd gone unconscious the first time. It had just vanished off of his wrist. He could tell the sun was up, but he didn't know how much longer it would be up. He didn't even know if he could make it back to the mansion. After his trip to Hell and back, he was still a little weak.
Quietly, he moved to the door, hearing voices outside. He could identify them as Buffy and Xander.
"I just don't see why we have to rely on him. He's been… I don't know. A little weird, I guess," Buffy was saying. Apparently, she was still mad at him. After the continuing argument, she'd stormed out of the bathroom.
"I think he's always been a few fries short of a Happy Meal, but that's just me," Xander replied. "He's like the poster child for weird."
"You're just jealous," Buffy said. The whole issue with Xander and Angel's 'competition' over Buffy had been going on since the two men met each other. Xander's jealousy was totally obvious to everyone but himself.
"Of him? Puh-lease! He's a demon! D-e-m-o-n. You know, evil freak of nature?" Xander replied. Buffy laughed.
"Well, he's probably asleep. We'll just wait until later to tell him his little 'assignment'," Buffy said. Angel stepped back from the door, not paying attention to the rest of their conversation. He was too busy wondering what on Earth Buffy had meant by 'assignment'…
* * *
Cordelia shut the door to Willow's refrigerator with a sigh, turning to face the redhead as she brushed some of her hair back away from her face.
"So, why is the fridge empty?" she asked, going to the table. Willow had her eyes locked on a book, Oz sitting across from her, sort of reading. They'd come back to Willow's house so they could check on Buffy and Angel. Xander had gone up to talk to the Slayer.
"Well, I haven't really had time to shop," Willow replied, her eyes never leaving the book as Cordelia sat beside Oz. She glanced at the book, noting that it was something of Giles's. It wasn't even written in English.
"Figures. So, how long are we here for?" Cordelia asked, letting her eyes wander around the small kitchen. It was strangely clean. That was probably because there was no food in the entire house. So, there wasn't much around to dirty it.
"Until Xander comes down," Willow replied, still absorbed in the book. That much reading cannot be healthy, Cordelia thought. Xander came down into the kitchen.
"Hey guys. You can head if you want to, but I'm staying here for a while," Xander said. Cordelia stood pushing in the chair.
"Well, as much fun as this has been, I have a lot of other things I could be doing. Like going home and having a life," she said, hoping her attempt at an insult would catch someone's attention. Willow just waved absently.
"See ya," she said, glancing to Cordelia a moment before going back to her book. Cordelia rolled her eyes with a sigh, and then left the room.
* * *
Willow continued to scan the thick pages of her book after Cordelia left, thankful for the fact that she wasn't interrupting anymore. She was looking for a little spell that would prove that her bringing Angel back was not only for a good reason, but it wouldn't be such a risk anymore. Oz was looking over at it, reading some things aloud to try and make sense of them. It was all written in Latin, which he didn't know.
"'Is ea is spell ex pro vivificus quas donum ex clementia per quas lamia'?" Oz read aloud in more of a question than a statement. His pronunciation was horrible, but the redhead understood most of what he was saying. Her head snapped up to look at him, her eyes wide.
"What did you just say?" she asked, blinking several times so her eyes didn't dry out from being so wide-open. He looked to her, and then back to the book sitting in front of her on the table.
"It's right there," he said, pointing to the Latin passage he'd just read. Willow looked to it, smiling.
"Ohmigosh! It's in here! Yes!" she said, her smile widening as she scanned the page, finally looking up to Oz. "Thank you so much!"
"What'd I do?" he asked, looking more than a little confused.
"'Ego advoco vobis, deus ex produxi. Ego scisco pro is ea id donum - clementia - insum redeo incresco quas bestia hominis'! Yes, this is it!" She looked up to Oz again. "I-it's another spell," she explained. "A spell to turn a vampire back into a human."
"What?" Now, Willow also had Xander's attention. "Don't tell me you're planning to use that on Angel?"
"Shh! We don't want Buffy to hear! She's already really mad at me!" Willow said, glaring at Xander. She glanced to the stairs, then back to her friend.
"Sorry, but what makes you think that she'd even consider letting you make Angel… Oh," Xander said, finally getting it. Willow had to check it one more time before she told Buffy, wanting to make sure she was right about the spell.
"Yeah 'oh'. Duh!" Willow said. "But, I'm gonna need both of you to help me. Oz, I need you to run to the magick shop," she said, scribbling down some stuff on a sheet of paper. She handed it to him. "Just tell them it's for me and they won't charge you."
"Always ready to help the aspiring little Wicca, huh?" Xander asked. Oz gave Willow a quick kiss, heading out the door. The redhead turned her attention to Xander.
"Xander, I need you to call Amy. Tell her I need her to help me one more time. Her number's right by the phone, and I'll find some- Oh no!" Willow said, slapping her forehead. "She lost her powers!"
"Oops. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to forget about this whole wacky plan. I'll catch Oz," Xander said, stepping towards the door. Willow shook her head, stopping him. Xander could see her 'resolve face'. Her resolve face only appeared when she would not tolerate anyone saying 'no' to her.
"No. I'll just do it on my own," she said, looking up at Xander. He shook his head vigorously.
"Uh-uh, not this again Willow. I'm not letting you mess around with this stuff anymore," Xander said, knowing it was useless. As her long-time friend, though, he felt that he had to try to convince her otherwise.
"Oh no? I think I can do what I want, with or without your consent Alexander LaVelle Harris," Willow said, standing and heading to the stairs. "Now, I am going to go talk to Buffy." With that, she disappeared up the stairs, leaving Xander in shock.
* * *
Buffy looked over as Willow came up the stairs. Before she could say as much as 'hi', the redhead started speaking.
"Now, I know you're probably really mad at me for this whole thing, but I have an idea, and you'll just have to hear me out, okay?" Willow said in a rush, matter-of-factly. Buffy blinked a few times in surprise.
"Okay. What's up? And I'm not mad at you," she replied. Willow nodded, taking a deep breath. She looked a little calmer now, once she realized that her best friend wasn't angry with her.
"Well, that's good. Anyway, I um… I found another spell. It, uh… It'll turn a vampire back into a human," Willow said suddenly, like she couldn't come up with any other way to say it. Buffy was silent for a long time.
"What?" she finally asked, wondering if she had heard Willow right.
"Well, I wasn't gonna say anything. But, then I thought that I should say something so you didn't get mad at me," Willow explained, looking a little apologetic for what she had already done with her magick.
"Willow… Are you serious…?"
"Yes! I have the spell here. It's in the kitchen in the book on the table. A-and Oz is getting the stuff from the store."
"Willow, we can't do this right now."
"Why not? I found the spell, it's only a few lines, a-and it would be really simple! I can do it, I know I can! It's not even all hard or anything like the other one was!"
"I know. Willow, it's not that I think you can't do it. But, we need Angel, you know, the vampire Angel to talk to Chaos when he's in his spirit form. If we don't… We can't do this yet, if at all."
"Well, can we try at least? I mean, after Chaos and everything, can't we just try it and see if it works? Maybe?"
"I don't know," Buffy said after a pause. "I'm not sure if we should be messing with this stuff, Willow."
"But, I-"
"Look, let's just see where this whole thing with Chaos takes us, okay?"
"Okay." Willow looked to the ground, defeated. She turned from her friend and started back towards the stairs to tell Xander that they wouldn't be doing the spell. She didn't want to cause any more trouble than she already had. "I'm sorry…"
* * *
Giles awoke to the dull buzzing of his small alarm clock. He sat up slowly, smacking it off as he did so. It stopped quickly in mid-buzz.
When he saw what time it was, he quickened his pace, getting up off the bed. He had stayed in his clothes, no surprise. It sort of simplified things. He just ran his hands through his hair, grabbed his jacket, and left to go to the school. Snyder had been sort of warning him about the recent lateness.
When he got to the high school, he was no longer in a hurry. It had been cancelled again, due to the two dead students found in the lounge by the bathrooms. More vampire attacks. He'd have to talk to Buffy about picking up patrol again. In the library, the 'Scooby Gang', as Xander called it, was gathered around the table, already looking through the books that were scattered around, digging for more information on Chaos. Buffy was, of course, not with them. He'd have to remember to talk to Snyder later that afternoon about getting her back in school.
"Good morning. Any news?" Giles asked as he went to the study table, draping his jacket over the back of one of the chairs. Willow looked over to Xander with a 'you'd-better-keep-quiet' glare on her face.
"Well, Angel agreed to help us. After Buffy nearly killed him because he was untied and wandering around Willow's bathroom," Xander said, glancing to Willow, who relaxed. Giles dismissed it as unimportant until someone said something about whatever it was.
"But both of them are alright?" Giles asked. Xander nodded.
"Yeah. She and Willow tied him back to the chair and locked the door. Last time I saw Buffy, she was outside with the crossbow and some Holy Water just in case. I mean, honestly? What's the worst that could happen?" Xander explained.
Giles was afraid to know.
* * *

Part 5

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