Armageddon SagaXander entering the room awakened Buffy. She glanced at Angel; while he looked
Chapter Nineteen: Revelations
By the Lady Sirona ladysirona@LadySirona.com
haggard, he appeared to be sleeping. Unfortunately, when a vampire sleeps, he looks
dead. Buffy stroked his face gently, and he turned into the touch slightly. It was enough
to reassure her he was still with her."Giles sent me up to get you." Xander told Buffy softly. "He needs to see you
downstairs. He sent a woman upstairs with me to watch Angel and get you if he needs
anything. He wants us all, says it's really important." Xander waved at one of the women
Buffy remembered seeing in the kitchen.Buffy looked down at Angel; she loathed leaving his side. She had cleaned him up and had
packed his wound, and wanted to stay with him until he aroused on his own. Buffy looked
at Xander carefully. "Important, eh?" He nodded.The woman came over to the bed looking down at the consort of the Slayer. He was very
pale, and looked as if he was already dead, which she knew would be just a matter of
time. Her brother had died this way from a goring by a bull. She had seen it before. Her
heart broke for The Slayer, to lose her lover this way."Just let him sleep. Don't disturb him. If he needs anything you call me!" Buffy hissed at
the woman. Buffy didn't want to go, she kissed Angel gently and felt him move slightly
under her touch, and smiled sadly. She then stood and walked out and went downstairs.Buffy and Xander joined Willow and Giles downstairs in the dining room. Buffy noticed
that many of the Romani Gypsy women were crying, and event the men looked very
upset. "What is going on?" She asked Giles who looked even more tense than usual."Two children were, um, taken from the compound this evening." Giles seemed very
uncomfortable with the information. "The abductor was, ah, recognized as the Vampire
Raphael. He is, um, well known for his 'taste' for children. What is worse is he is, ah, a
child molester, and just doesn't kill them outright.""What?" Buffy was outraged! To feed and kill was one thing. This was entirely another
matter!"He is known, ah, to torture and molest the, ah children before killing them." Giles
continued, while the cries of the women now made more sense to Buffy. "I believe, that
with the destruction of the, ah, Pack, and the killing of his, ah Partner, he has reverted to
his old ways.""I guess we need to step up our attack on the catacombs and get the kids back." Buffy
started to gather her tools. The Gypsies looked at her in shock. She would go into the
catacombs after the children?"No, Not the catacombs." Giles held his hands out in an arresting move. "Angelus had
ruled, ah, he could not do that, especially there. He has to have, um, another place. We
need to find out where it is. Maybe Angel knows.""Angel is in no condition to go after them," Buffy snarled at her Watcher. She continued.
"And you know very well that telling him children are in danger will drive him crazy! I
don't want him to waste energy he needs to heal with useless worrying." Buffy stopped
and stared. The woman that she had left at Angel's side was entering the kitchen!Buffy bolted into the kitchen and verbally assaulted the woman. "What are you doing
down here? I left you with Angel!"Giles and the others followed Buffy into the kitchen to see if they could prevent The
Slayer's well-known temper from harming the woman. She had turned with a patient
smile for the distraught woman. "He asked to use the chamber pot, and asked me to
come make him some tea."Buffy's jaw dropped. "Chamber pot? Tea?" She looked at Giles. Vampires didn't
excrete waste, and he hated tea and never drank it unless he was keeping up
'appearances'. She rounded on the woman "Did you tell him about the children?" She
demanded roughly. The woman only nodded."Oh Shit! ANGEL - NO!" Buffy screamed as she rammed her way through the people
clustered around the kitchen, past Karl and up to the room. Karl and the others followed
behind her. .Karl arrived to find a furious Slayer pacing an empty room. He noticed the window in the
anteroom was open to a two-story drop to the ground below. Karl looked down. It was a
massive drop, nearly 20- 25 feet. He looked back into the Slayer's bedroom, and his eyes
fell on the second container, it laid on its side, its dark red contents seeping out onto the
hard wood floor. Blood."No Buffy." Giles was attempting to calm his distraught Slayer. "You cannot go after
him. You, ah, don’t know where he went. You'll never catch him, he has too far a lead
ahead."She rounded on him with tears in her eyes. "He's hurt Giles! He is seriously injured!
This Raphael is what? 170- 180 years old? He's going to get killed!" Buffy stormed
around the room.Xander picked up the two empty containers. "I'm going for more, in case we need it." He
left quickly, seeking out the driver. Karl looked at the retreating back of Xander,
carrying empty blood containers and then back at The Watcher. "We need to talk.
NOW!"Giles looked into Karl's face and with a sinking feeling he knew that he knew Angel's
true nature, if not "who" he was. Giles nodded. Giles walked over to Karl who was in the
corner of the anteroom. "What the hell is Angel?" Karl snarled. "He took an obviously
lethal wound, which should have killed him. But you do not seem worried he would die.
We thought it was friends denying the truth. But now, I think it is something else!" Karl
paced around the room The reality of what he thought terrified him. "He obviously
drank a large quantity of blood, and then jumps out a second story window. A man asking
for tea and to use a chamber pot alarms HER? WHAT the hell is he?""Angel is the, ah, consort of The Slayer WITH The Lady Tirla's blessing, um, I might
add. Angel is also an, ah, ensouled vampire who serves The Lady Tirla, um, and The
Slayer." Giles spoke quietly to the distraught man. Karl's fear was almost palpable."VAMPYRE!" Karl was frantic. He had a vampire invited into and staying in his home?
He had read stories to the children? He slept in his home?"Yes, an ENSOULED vampire, by the Lady Tirla. Or should I say re-ensouled. The first
time the curser changed her ritual and wrote his own damned version, and didn't use the
Lady's." Buffy snarled at the man."ANGELUS! Angel is short for Angelus!" Karl was red faced and hysterical. The bane
of his tribe, the killer of his people in his home? "You brought that monster..." <SLAP>
Karl's world spun and he found himself on the floor against the wall facing an enraged
Slayer."You prissy, no good, sanctimonious, son of a bitch!" She lifted him off the floor easily
with one hand, and hung him by his neck against the wall. All too late, Karl remembered
the Slayer was a supernatural being, as much as the vampires and demons she slayed."Buffy NO!" Giles put his hands on her shoulders to restrain his raging Slayer who was
in full Slayer mode. Karl looked into her eyes and saw the eyes of The Slayer. She was
fully capable of killing him right then. He knew that, and obviously Karl knew it too. Karl
prayed that The Watcher would be able to control his Slayer."Buffy, NO! STOP!" Giles dropped to a quiet voice that she had to stretch to hear, and
she paid more and more attention to her Watcher. "Karl is not the one who changed The
Lady's ritual. It wasn't his fault! He is just a father who is afraid for his family and tribe
in a world where Angelus was a real bogeyman in the stories told to children. Please
Buffy, he really doesn't mean any harm, he is just scared. Let him go!" Karl hit the
ground with a thud. She obviously listened to her mentor. Thank God."Angel isn't that Monster any more!" She told Karl as he kneeled on the floor trying to
breathe. "He has his soul. He feels, he cries... he has his soul, damn you! " Buffy took a
deep breath. "Right now he has gone to face a monster to save your children. Children I
might add, of the Gypsies that cursed him and added to the to the Lady's curse and added
that fucking clause that caused him to loose his soul when he felt a moment of complete
happiness with me!" Karl looked into the pained eyes of The Slayer in pain. Her agony
from the time when Angel lost his soul showed in her eyes, plain to see. "That resulted in
Angelus coming back in full demon form, you son of a bitch, which caused a lot of deaths,
one which was Giles’s girlfriend!" Buffy stormed around the room hissing her anger.
"Now we are here, killing your vampires, and saving your ass!"She pushed Karl into the wall and got close to his face. "You owe me you bastard! Your
tribe fucked with the ensoulment spell and because of it, my friends died, and I lost the
man I loved, and I almost never got him back! So Damn You! Don’t give me your
'Angelus was a Monster!' crap. I saw Angelus the Demon up close and real personal and
there is no way in hell he is Angel in anyway! Now get out of my sight, and pray for your
sake that Angel comes back with your children!" Buffy threw herself on the bed.Karl and Giles knew the better part of valor at this point... and retreated.