Willow felt herself twist inside as she was pulled through the portal. Time and matter became one and her sensation for the boundaries melded. Her stomach flipped, and she dropped to her knees. She found herself suddenly arrived at her destination, a dark castle where the walls couldn't easily bee seen, and looked up to find herself face to face withprobably the most handsome man she had ever seen.
His eyes were deep, a dark brown to almost black, and they matched his hair. His skin was a soft skinned and a light coffee cream brown, almost a café latte. He was of medium build, and he looked to be about 25 to 26, but had a feeling of age about him that she only felt around The Lady Tirla. His clothes were ageless in a sort of Arabic flowing silk sort of thing. But the feelings she got off him however, were very negative, something about him made her skin crawl. No matter how much this man wanted her trust him.... he was not getting anything!
He smiled. Here was a prize. "Well, look what I found. A Slayerette to the Slayer Prime - come here little one. You will do something for me." he intoned in an odd lilting voice. Willow tried to fight but she found her mind was swabbed in cotton, and she got up and walked toward him unquestioning. She stared into his eyes and lost track of her personal surroundings.
Buffy stared in shock. Angel just drained and killed a Slayer! No fight, no remorse, no problem. He just walked up and drained her, and then snapped her neck like a twig! She understood the snapping of the neck prevented any necromancy with the bodies... but to watch Angel do it! She saw that Angelus was out in full force and he was merciless.
She couldn't believe how easily he killed the Brazilian Slayer...then she watched in building horror as he crossed over to Slayer Arabia and took Chandra into his lethal embrace and repeated the process. Chandra actively reached up for his embrace! A smile on her face as she died. Buffy stared at the dead slayers in shock. Could he do that to her? If she had fallen would he have killed her?
Slayer Proust was looking down at her abdomen with sword through her and back up to the others, realization of her impending death in her eyes. Angel came up behind her, sleek and silent, but she heard him. He gently bared her neck and lowered his fangs into her neck. "Helmut, I love you" came from her lips into the headset to be heard by her Lover and Watcher, as the life light went out of her eyes. He snapped her neck after she died.
The remaining slayers watched Angel, at his task as the Angel of Death, knowing that next time it could be them in his embrace. Buffy shivered. Would he be able to do it to her? Angel she knew couldn't... but Angelus? He could.
Back at Tirla's Castle Giles and Xander listened to Willow's voice in horror. Now they knew where the vortex had taken Willow. She had been taken to the Demon Lord's castle and they had orders to kill any and all! "No." Xander cried out hearing Willow's voice in the battle zone through Angel's com-link.
"I'm sorry. He'll kill her. He has potentially been turned by the Demon Lord." A Watcher told him. Xander didn't even process which one. "No please, not Willow!" Xander begged any deity that would listen as he listened to the monitors.
"Willow, why are you here?" Angel asked, his voice low. The voice Giles and Xander recognized as Angelus' voice.
"I was pulled through a portal. I don't know why I am here." She was scared. He scared her. This was not the usual Angel she knew. She remembered belatedly the blending ofAngel and Angelus. She didn't face Angel know... she faced Angelus!
"She is not a slayer. She needs to be killed." the Irish Slayer snapped quickly. "Shecould have been turned or influenced."
Angel stared at Willow. The one who always trusted him... Who always gave him the gift of friendship. The one who always was at Buffy's side no matter what. The one whom Xander loved with all his heart... the one he knew was being groomed to be a watcher... He had Tirla's orders to kill any and all not of the original battle plan....
"Willow come here." Angelus spoke in a low hypnotic voice. She walked up to Angel trustingly. The watchers had to lean forward to the monitor to hear his words. Giles and Xander leaned forward with fear and hope intermingled. "You may have been turned. You are a danger to our mission and me. I have orders for the Lady Tirla to kill you. " He looked into her eyes as the reality of his words sank into her. Fear blossomed as tears filled her eyes..
"You will walk next to me and you will not do as you have been programmed. Listen to me." Angel turned her to look deep in his eyes. She fell under the spell of the hypnotism of a vampire of incredible strength. "You betray me or our mission, I will not only kill you, I will torture and kill slowly the man you love. His death will be painful and last for weeks. Before he dies, he will curse your name, your love, and any association he had with you before I am through. As you love him, block the controls and influences The Demon Lord placed on you!" He saw as the implanted thought sank into her mind. "Now walk." He pulled her next to him and they continued their trek.
Bridgett, the Irish Slayer obviously did not feel this was appropriate, and attempted to tell him so... but a dark look form Angelus she stopped, who was she to argue with the Cucularaine?
Willow walked in fear... *he'll kill Xander! * Her only thought... enough to drown out whatever the demon lord had thought to have her do...
The Demon Lord looked at Tirla, "Ah Tirla... I see you have arrived." The Demon Lord taunted her from the center of his army. He had the upper hand and he knew it. "Tell me Tirla... How well do your Slayers kill innocents? Eh, Tirla? Are they capable to wade through these innocents and the vampires to Slay my demons and me?" Seeingthe horrified expression on The Slayers faces he realized he had been correct about the major flaw in the Slayers, their inability to kill innocents.... and The Demon Lord laughed...
"These are not innocents but bewitched spouses of your vampires." The Lady Tirla called back to him... " We will destroy you Echrich Kahn. Women step away, for all that stand with Echrich Kahn tonight shall die!" Tirla stepped forward but the Slayers hesitated...*Kill Innocents? *
The Slayers watched in horror as the Demon Lord in a quick movement struck out Slayer Prime from behind his wall of innocent humanity. This was impossible! They couldn't attack him through the women and children, and he could strike them down with a gesture! It was hopeless!
Screams filled the room as blood and body parts flew everywhere. The floor was slick with blood and the screams filled the air. The human wall wavered and then shattered under his demonic assault. They had been told they would not be attacked... that the slayers couldn't attack innocents... This thing killed them as if they were nothing!
The Demon lord stared in shock... the thralls of Tirla's shouldn't be able to do this! They should be unable to kill innocents... She always had such goody goodie's on her team!
Angelus didn't stop, but continued to hack through the women, and the children. When they fell or ran from the fearsome visage of death bearing down on them and their children, he attacked the vampires that were behind them rendering them into clouds of dust as he went. He screamed as he sliced, and it was always a variation of "MINE" either in English or Gaelic.
"Mine." was his battle cry repeated as wave after wave of vampires and innocent fell to his bloodlust. The rest of the Slayers quickly joined the battle as the women and children ran from Angelus' onslaught, leaving the vampires open to the Slayer's attack. They attacked the vampires, sliding in the blood of the innocents that the Demon Lord hadattempted to hide behind.
The Demon Lord reeled in shock, None of Tirla's soldiers should have been able to cut through the innocents! They should have been stopped cold! What had happened?
Finally, it was just the four demons and the Demon Lord standing before the Hell-gate that he planned to open when the time was right. They needed to keep the Bitch off his back until he could open the gate....
The four demons were frightful to behold, but Angelus didn't care. One was nearly seven feet tall his hair a mass of Flames, his body read looking like a contained mass of fire.
Another was blue and dark and gave the look of sheen water in a tall mass. Not nearly as tall as his counter part, he made up in mass being twice as thick. Next to him was a demon appearing to be made of dirt and stone... again height was not his gift but mass was beyond even the blue one.
The last Demon was gray and faint on places, like clouds. He was the tallest, reaching nearly eight feet, always changing under his skin. Their faces changed with whomever looked at them, to give them their most fear provoking images... Angelus was beyond fear... hated boiled in him for the killers of his woman and child, and to him their faces were blank.
Angelus stood off to the side, not impressed
by the Demons in any way. He was trying to figure how to get
past the Demons to get the Demon Lord. He wanted that creature’s life!
*He wants hell? Well, I will redefine hell for this son of a Bitch! * He
thought to himself with a deep growing pleasure.
Tirla walked up to Angelus and laid a hand on him. "Stay your hand... when I am ready he will be yours" The compulsion spell held his blood lust in check as in his mind he raged to bury his grief and sorrow in the bleeding organs of the Demon Lord!
Willow stared at the Demons. They looked familiar... then she realized what they were... Elemental demons! She glanced around and saw the elemental pentacle on the wall... that held the essence of earth. She threw it to Angel, "The second demon-fire hair- into chest!" Yelling at him in her rapid willow-speak.
Angel caught the pentacle in mid air and with a quick motion rammed the pentacle intothe fire demons chest nearly cleaving him in two, causing him to explode. The other demons faltered under the onslaught. They stared in disbelief... a vampire destroyed one of them? No Vampire should have been able to claim one of them!
Willow glanced around and saw the magickal sword dropped in the battle. Feeling it's power she realized it was an Athame... and tool of Air! Running and grabbing it she threw it to Angel again "Dirt-chest." Again he responded with quick motion ramming the magical tool through the Earth Demon's chest exploding him into cloud of dust.
While Willow and Angelus battled the demons, Tirla battled the Demon Lord on the Astral Plane, each giving and taking blows that would have killed lesser creatures. The battle happening in the physical was beyond both of them. This was the final battle, and each knew it. She reached out in the Astral plane and in a flash of light ripped his psychic heart out of his chest and crushed it as the last demon fell to Angel and Willow joined attack.
On the physical plane Angel attacked the Demon lord when he fell, and with his claws ripped the heart out of The Demon lord and crushed the heart in his hands as tears flowed down his face. He screamed inarticulately as he had killed the creature whom had killed his woman and child... but it was not solace to his bleeding soul.
Angel was on his knees, the bleeding pulp of the Demon lord in his hand, his manywounds with free flowing blood, the bodies of his victims splayed about. Slayer England fell over dead, a crossbow bolt through her chest. Bridgett, the Irish Slayer, her body was surrounded by a large pile of dust showing she died with a lot of enemy company.
Angel looked around and looked to where She fell. "Buffy?" He asked in heart broken plea. He saw her body sprawled half in and out of a door lightly covered in masonry. He climbed to his legs and staggered over to her. "Oh Buffy, please." He told her still form.
He heard no respirations from her body, and tears flowed from his eyes as he dropped to his knees beside her. He barely registered Willow at his side as he gently picked up her pale still form. "Please Buffy... Please” Reflex caused him to feel for her pulse. In shock he found one. It was rapid and thready, but she wasn't breathing. "OH No, She’s not breathing! No Please!"
Willow came closer, seeing Buffy not breathing, she started mouth to mouth. Angel just held her body realizing there was a chance she would live, but a higher chance she would die..."No no no" was his mantra as he watched Willow breath for her.
Tirla came over. "We need to return to my castle. Keep it up Willow." To the headsets she commanded, "Watchers, call for ambulances." With a flash the portal was open and Tirla, Angel, carrying the non breathing Buffy while Willow did mouth to mouth as Tirla assisted and the remaining Slayer, Kendra, crawl through the Portal.
As soon as they arrived at the castle Angel placed Buffy on the table and Willow continued mouth to mouth. Giles and Xander were right beside them. With a couple of deep breathes, Buffy sputtered and coughed. Willow stopped doing mouth to mouth.
"Angel?" She called softly in confusion, looking for him. "Here baby." Angel hugged her. Relief washed through him... she was Alive!
"I love you Angel," She said softly as she drifted into unconsciousness
They quickly started an IV, hooked her to a cardiac monitor, and carried her out while other crew took Kendra out on a stretcher. Angel realized he didn't even know what injuries Kendra had... and admitted to himself he didn't really care.
Angel watched her go. He was terrified it was the last time he would see her alive. They had refused to allow him to ride in the ambulance with her. Angered, he followed Giles' quiet advice to change, so he ran to his room, taped his wounds with duct tape, changed clothes after washing off the blood and presented himself at the main room demanding to go to the hospital. Willow and Xander joined him and Giles as they were driven to the hospital.
In the car Xander finally worked up the ability to talk to Angel. "Thank you for not killing Willow, I know you disobeyed Tirla's order by letting her live...." He was uncomfortable with barring his soul to Angel... but he felt he needed to.
Angel didn't look at Xander. "Buffy would have died had I done so." Angel said quietly, wondering what would have happened to Buffy if he *had* followed Tirla's command....