| Have a Little Faith, Chapter 52 | |
Angel was on the hill overlooking Sunnydale. The lights twinkled in the darkness, but he knew most people had gone to bed. People in this town knew there was true darkness at nightfall not some kind of hysterical evil brought on by newspapers.
He managed to find out the time was 2am. Sunrise would be in a few hours and he planned to stay on the top of this hill until that happened.
He remembered everything. Killing Jenny, tormenting Buffy, his time in hell, Trying to kill Alex, laughing while Penn drained and turned Alonna, sending Penn, Alonna and Lee to turn Wesley, even killing that Wolfram and Hart lawyer. The biggest thing that hurt was drinking from Cordelia. He had known her. They had been friends and he killed her to get back at Lindsey.
It was best to destroy himself so Angelus would never be freed again.
“Hey,” Angel turned around. It was the paddy—the seer Doyle. He looked a little apprehensive.
“What do you want?” Angel snapped. “If your here to taunt, don’t worry—“ he paused and when Doyle didn’t say anything, Angel said. “Leave me alone.”
“I need your help.”
“I’m worthless,” Angel said.
“No,” Doyle said, moving closer. “You’re not.” He looked over the hill. “Beautiful town, hard to believe they are so close to Hell.”
“I’m not listening.” Angel said, turning away from him. “Save your metaphors for someone else.”
“How about a story then,” Doyle said and smiled. “Once upon a time there was a vampire with a soul. He did a lot of bad things, twice in fact. But still the powers that be thought he was a savior and their warrior.”
“I’m not a savior, I’m evil,” Angel retorted. “Please go away, let me end my miseries.”
“Where do you think ya gonna go?” Doyle said. “You have a lot more to do before you won’t go to that hot place. It isn’t really hot, is it?”
Angel did not reply.
“If ya die now, Angel, you’ll go straight back to hell. You have been chosen—“
“Shut up,” Angel said, angry. Doyle was glad. At least it got him out of his melancholy. “Why did you do it? You could have saved Wesley and Cordelia,” he snapped. “You should have staked me.” He said, touching his chest. “And then they would still be alive. I deserve to go back to hell.”
“There are times we wanted to. Even I wanted to do it when you killed Cordelia but I was sent by the powers to defend you. Angel, you have been chosen. You are the champion. There will be an apocalypse--”
“I don’t care.”
“You will save the world from it.”
“I don’t care. I’m staying on this hill until the sunrise, there is nothing you can do or say to stop me. You’ll do fine without me. You don’t ever want to risk me being Angelus again.”
Doyle frowned. Finally he thought of something. Something that he knew would get Angel off his hill.
“If you die, Buffy will die too.”
This got Angel’s attention.
“What?”
“Faith will die too. I’m sure so will I, Lindsey and Alex too. You were sent to save them, us, the human race. They won’t be able to do it without you.”
“Buffy—“
“You will save the world, Angel. If you die now, Cordelia and Wesley's death would have been in vain.”
“But how can I face all the people I’ve hurt.”
“You have to try,” he explained. “Eventually they have to come around—or they’ll just hate you.”
“That’s supposed to make me feel better?”
“I don’t know, I just know you have to get
off this hill and start doing good in the world. My visions—my visions
have always been for you.”
“You think Doyle went to Angel,” Buffy said. After a hefty explanation with Synder with Lindsey giving him some legal mumbo jumbo, the gang moved to Giles house. They had planned to split up and search for Angel. Gunn was also missing until Willow explained that he had come back, gotten his stuff and told her he was heading back to LA.
Faith sighed when Willow told her. She guessed Gunn could not take the pressure of killing his sister twice.
Willow was lying down on the couch. Apparently doing the spell had taken a lot from her.
“Yeah,” Faith replied. “Doyle’s job is to set Angel on his path.” She looked down. “I guess that means the visions are for Angel—and he’s gotta work for Angel.” She didn’t want to think about it. Even though she loved Lindsey, she missed those short months before Cordelia died. They were all happy then. Now, no one seemed to care they had found the curse.
“We should split up and look for him,” Buffy said with some uneasiness in her voice. “I’ll take the mansion.”
“We can check out the Bronze,” Willow said trying to get up, but fell to the couch again.
“I can take the Bronze,” Tara said. “Just tell me how he looks like.”
“We’ve forgotten one thing,” Xander commented. His voice became higher. “Who cares?”
“What?” Buffy said, shocked.
“All those people Angel killed—“
“It was Angelus.”
“I will never hear Cordy make fun of me again,” he snapped. “I’ll never see Cordy again. We did what the powers asked for; we gave him back his crappy soul. There’s nothing else we have to do for him.”
“Jenny’s last wish was for Angel to get back his soul,” Giles explained. “We should respect that. Angel is in turmoil. We have to get him bac—“
“Miss Calendar is dead, Wesley is dead, Cordelia is fucking dead. How many more people have to be dead for him? Let’s just let him go. He has his soul back, we have no reason to further help him.”
“Xander—“ Buffy started.
“Buffy, you have a good guy here,” he said, looking at Riley. “Don’t need to run back to the guy who caused you so much pain.”
“I was not running back,” she said, defensively. “I want to help him.”
“Let’s find him, first,” Giles said. “Before we decide what to do. A lot of lives have been lost to save him. We shouldn’t lose him now.”
“So, I’ll check the mansion,” Buffy explained. “Tara, the Bronze. The rest of you wait here.”
“Buffy,” Riley said. “Let me come with you.”
“It’s best that he see a familiar face,” she said. “I may be the only one he’ll reach out to.”
“I still say we forget him,” Xander said still angry.
While they were all arguing. No one
noticed that Faith and Lindsey had quietly slipped out the door.
Neither of them were keen on getting into the discussion.
Faith and Lindsey went back to the cemetery. They figured it was the only place that was quiet.
“Do you think they’ll find him?” Lindsey asked.
She sat down next to him because there was obviously no vampires to slay. She was sure the word was spread about Angelus’ failure.
“I don’t know—I don’t even know if this is our concern anymore. Let them fight over it. We did our job.”
Lindsey nodded. He put his arm around her and held her tight. He wanted to squeeze the numbness out of his body, but yet it still would not go away.
“I don’t want to see him,” she explained. “I don’t care if he’s good now. All I can think of is staking Wesley.”
“I don’t want to see him either. All I can think about is Cordelia dying.”
“You know what I wanna do now—“ she asked.
“What?”
“I wanna go home—“
“Where’s home?” he asked.
“Los Angeles,” she explained. “My home with you. It’s the only one I’ve ever had.”
Lindsey smiled. It would be a very long time before he ever got over Cordelia’s death, but having Faith in his life might make things go easier. At least he thought it would. There was a numb feeling that had started the day Cordelia died and had been growing ever since. Maybe with Faith, it would go away.
She kissed him gently on the lips. She snuggled against his chest. It felt warm and safe.
Fin
Continue to Simple Act of Faith