See Part One for Disclaimers
Percy followed Buffy's scary boyfriend through the halls toward the gymnasium. He noted they were taking an oddly indirect route. If he'd been paying more attention, he'd also have noted that the hallways they were taking were, without exception, windowless.
Right now, his attention was almost entirely on the man Xander had called Angel. Percy had met some intimidating people in his life, but this guy was something else. He reminded Percy of no one so much as Willow that one night at the Bronze when she'd beaten him up. Percy also noted, with some irritation, that the British dweeb was along for the ride and currently struggling to keep up with Angel while carrying a large piece of posterboard.
The gym was empty except for a few wrestling mats and a large easel that looked like it had been appropriated from the art room. The dweeb went straight to the easel and set up the posterboard on it.
Percy swore under his breath. From the look on British Guy's face, it was lecture time.
"If you'll all give me your attention," called British Guy. No one paid attention. British Guy cleared his throat. "Excuse me. May I please have your attention?" The team continued to talk amongst itself.
"Quiet!" snapped Angel. The team shut up.
Mr. Irritating Brit looked pleased. "My name is Wesley Wyndham-Pryce, and I'll be explaining our strategy to you today." Percy heard a muttered rude comment from behind him. "If you'll look at this diagram, you'll see the graduation venue here" and he pointed at the map. "The graduates will be here, the Mayor will be at the podium here, and the parents here. Once the Ascension begins�that is, the Mayor turning into a demon�we believe there will be a force set here to keep the students from escaping. That force will be, if the Mayor continues to follow pattern, made up entirely of vampires."
Percy raised his hand. "Graduation's outside. Don't vampires kind of burn up in the sun?"
"They do," Wesley acknowledged. "However, there will be a solar eclipse during the ceremony. Therefore, the vampires will still be a threat. It is our job to remove that threat."
He lost the team at that point. The all started talking at once.
"Vampires aren't easy to kill," said Angel suddenly, shutting the team up again. "The student archers will drive them back at us, which should make them disorganized as well as taking out a few. The ones that are left, we'll have to deal with. We'll probably have the advantage of numbers. That won't mean much."
Wesley picked it up again. He pulled what looked very much like a wooden stake out of his suit. "You'll all have wooden stakes or other weapons. Vampires, you see, all have a weakness�a vulnerability, if you will�over their hearts. It's relatively easy to put a stake through their hearts. Of course, getting close enough to do so . . ."
"Hey, I fought in gang wars," interrupted Rafael Ramirez, formerly of L.A. "How tough can vampires be?"
"Tough," said Angel. "Strike hard, strike fast, or you're dead. They're a lot stronger and faster than you."
Rafael sneered at him. "No sissy-boy vampire's gonna take me down."
"No?" Suddenly, Angel was even scarier than he'd been before. "Want to find out?"
Wesley stepped quickly over to Angel. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" Percy heard him ask.
"They may find out anyway. Better they know now." Angel never stopped looking at Rafael. As he did, his features suddenly twisted, distorted. Ridges appeared around his eyes and on his forehead. His eyes turned feral and yellow. Fangs protruded from his mouth.
The basketball team took a collective step back, some with shouted expletives. Angel was a vampire.
"Still want to fight me?" Angel asked, golden eyes fixed on Rafael.
It took Rafael a moment, but he collected himself and jumped forward with a yell. He never reached his target. Angel's arm shot out, catching Rafael in mid-leap and sending him flying. The fall he took would have been nasty if he hadn't landed on the wrestling mats. It looked like it had taken no effort for Angel to do that.
Dominic Hagen, a very large center, was the next to try his luck. He made it closer than Rafael, but it took all of two seconds for Angel to block his punch, grab him by the shoulder and whip him around, then catch his chin and hold him immobile with neck exposed. While the team looked on in shock, Angel released Dominic with a contemptuous shove. The ridges and fangs receded, and Angel's eyes returned to their normal color.
"That's how fast it'll go," Angel said. "You let just one in and you're dead or, worse yet, one of them. Your only hope is to attack with numbers and with weapons. Try to be the lone hero and you'll be lunch." The vampire waited a moment for that to sink in. He had no trouble holding the team's attention. "I can give you a crash course in vampire-slaying, and I will, but the most important thing you can remember is to stick together."
Percy looked around at the team, swallowed hard, then stepped forward. Angel shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it aside.
"Act like you've got a stake in your hand," Angel ordered. Percy curled his hand like he was holding a stake point-down.
The demonstration began with Angel walking Percy through some simple martial arts. They quickened the pace bit by bit, and in the end, Percy succeeded in thumping his empty fist against Angel's chest.
"Good," said Angel approvingly to a thoroughly winded (and bruised) Percy.
Percy nodded. "Buffy does this?" he asked incredulously.
"Buffy's . . . special." Those two words told even someone as inherently insensitive as Percy all he needed to know about the vampire and the Slayer.
The lesson continued, with various members of the team going up against Angel or practicing with each other. As Angel explained, the vampires they were going up against would most likely be brawlers rather than martial arts experts. A knowledge of some simple blocks and throws might give the team just that much more of a chance.
About a half-hour later, as Angel was busy bruising Matt Green, Percy spotted Xander Harris looking in. Percy went over to him.
"How's it going?" asked Xander.
"Great," said Percy with great enthusiasm. "Angel's showing us how to fight vampires."
Xander winced at Matt took a hard fall. "That's funny, it looks to me like he's beating the crap out of Matt."
"Green can take it," Percy said dismissively. "Angel's a pretty cool guy. Did you know he's a vampire?"
"I heard that. Would you tell Mr. Cool Guy that the weapons have arrived, and he needs to come get some stakes?"
"Sure." Percy looked back to where Angel was facing off against Hogan Martin and shook his head. "You know, we really coulda used him on the team."
***
Xander left the gym with an explosive sigh of exasperation and downed the rest of his Mountain Dew. He'd just left one of the art rooms, where a bunch of girls were making stakes, and Angel had been the hot topic of conversation there, too.
" �Angel's sooo dreamy,'" Xander mocked. " �Angel's such a cool guy.' Makes me want to ralph!"
"Xander!"
It was Larry, the former bane of Xander's existence whose disposition had been greatly improved by coming out of the closet. The big football player jogged up to Xander.
"Buffy said to tell you Oz's van just arrived," said Larry.
Xander paused at a vending machine just long enough to buy another caffeinated drink. "Great. It'll need to be unloaded."
"Can do."
"Grab someone and a cart and get out there, then. Not much time left to do this in." Xander gulped down half the Coke he'd purchased without so much as a breath.
"You okay, Xander?" Larry asked.
"Fine. Just fine. I haven't slept in the past two days on account of having a friend in the hospital and planning a battle against a demon, my folks aren't showing up for graduation, I'm fairly certain I'm going to die today, my shoes are too tight, and on top of everything else, I'm having to listen to everybody talk about what a terrific guy Angel is. What's not to love?" With that, Xander finished off his Coke and tossed the can in a random direction. The way he figured it, messy hallways were going to be moot by this afternoon anyway.
That brought Larry up short. "What's wrong with Angel?"
Xander glared. "Nothing, apparently. Angel's so gorgeous and such a great guy, and why didn't we ever see him before, and does he have a girlfriend?"
Larry gave Xander a patient look. "I get it. Xander, you shouldn't be jealous. You're a great-looking guy, and while granted, Angel's beautiful, there's no need for you to . . ."
That was too much. "I am not jealous of Angel!" Xander snapped.
"Really?" Larry gave Xander a puzzled look. "Then why . . ." A light of understanding and sympathy suddenly washed over Larry's features, and he grasped Xander's shoulder in a ham-sized fist. "Oh, I see now. Isn't it a bitch when the best ones are taken? I feel for you, man."
Larry clapped a stunned and sputtering Xander on the back once, then left to help unload Oz's van.
***
Within fifteen minutes, Oz's van was empty. Oz and Willow watched Larry and Jonathan nervously wheel the cart of fertilizer away, then shut the door.
"I guess that's it," said Willow. "Won't be long now." She wished, she truly did, that she could make her heart stop thumping quite so hard. If only it were time. If only it were over and done with, and she knew all her friends had survived.
Oz looked at her, concerned. "You nervous?"
Willow swallowed. "Only in a terrified way."
"We'll make it through this," Oz said comfortingly, taking her hand.
"Are you sure?"
Oz considered it. "I sound pretty sure, don't I?"
That made Willow smile. "Yeah."
"Then I must be sure."
Willow frowned as a suspicion hit her. "Is that just a comforting way of not answering the question?"
Oz shrugged lightly. Willow leaned forward to kiss him, and he kissed her back. Quite thoroughly.
Willow opened her eyes. "How long till graduation?"
"A little while," was the answer.
Willow decided to kiss him again. What better time would there be?
***
Buffy had gone beyond tired some time ago. Her nerves were frayed to the breaking point, held together only by the knowledge that if she fell apart, an unspeakable evil would be loosed on the world. She had been making rounds, checking on preparations, trying to keep her mind on her immediate duty. Trying to ignore thoughts of Angel, or of the small bundle she carried.
As she entered the library and saw who was in Giles' office, her resolve to stay in the moment nearly failed.
I cannot be seeing Angel right now, she thought, and turned. Then she reconsidered. She needed to know what their state of readiness was. Resolutely, she walked in.
Just don't ask me how I'm doing, Angel. And don't apologize. And whatever you do, don't say goodbye.
"Did you get what you needed?" Angel asked without turning around.
Buffy forced herself to move to his side. He wasn't looking at her. "Yeah, I did," she said, and looked at the table where the weapons were set out. "This isn't going to be enough."
"Giles is on it," Angel told her. Buffy nodded, then turned to leave. As she did, he asked, "How are you?"
Silently, she cursed him. Out loud, she said, "I heal fast. Like you." No, she thought. Not going to let this get to me. Talk shop. "So, are we sure that everyone knows what their position . . ."
"I'm not going to say goodbye."
The quiet words stopped the world. Buffy had no idea how to react to them.
Angel looked at her, though not completely in the eye, for the first time in the conversation. "If we get through this, I'm just going to go."
Then that was that.
"You understand?" asked Angel, his voice pleading for understanding. She forced a nod. "There's just too much . . ."
Of its own accord, her hand came up in a catching gesture, cutting him off. Too much to say, too little time to say it, and if they said anything else, neither of them would be able to let go. And if she heard one more word from his mouth, she would fall apart.
Angel set down the crossbow bolt he'd been fiddling with and left the room. Once alone, Buffy pulled from her coat a piece of cloth shielding Faith's bloodstained knife. She set it on the table, shaking with emotion. She knew what she had to do, but when it came time, would she be able to do it?
"Forgive me, Faith," she whispered.
***
More weapons were arriving every second. Xander had them all placed in the band room, which was serving as a sort of staging area for the graduates. One group at a time, the seniors were herded into the band room and equipped, and the weapons were concealed under their robes.
Now, Xander headed back to the library. As he turned a corner, he was nearly run down by Angel carrying an empty gym bag. The vampire seemed oblivious to Xander's struggle for balance, asking brusquely, "Where are the stakes?"
"Art room. E hall. And I'm fine, thank you. Your boys will be ready, won't they?"
"We'll be there."
"Good. I'd hate to think you were just beating on them for fun."
Angel glared. "I said we'll be ready."
Xander returned his look steadily. "Why'd you go and tell them you're a vampire? Let me guess: you thought it would help them trust you."
Angel made an impatient sound. "As a matter of fact, yes. If I go into game face in the middle of the fight, I don't want them turning on me. Letting them know up front seemed like the best option. Or should I have consulted Key Guy first?"
"Might not have been a bad idea." Seeing nothing else to be gained (except a broken face), Xander turned and started to walk away.
"Xander."
The teenager turned, ready for a fight. Angel was looking at him steadily, but not in a challenging way.
"I . . . grudge you every second you spend with her," the vampire said slowly. "In some ways, I hate you, because you can be her friend. That's one thing I'll never be. You'll always be good for her; I'm not. I hate that more than I can say."
Xander stood, a million sarcastic comments running through his head, none escaping him. Angel continued to look at him for a moment, that same, steady gaze.
"Don't ever stop being her white knight."
With that, Angel walked away.
"Gonna miss that guy," sighed Xander to himself as Angel disappeared around a corner. Only this time, he wasn't sure if he was being ironic or not.
It took Xander a few more minutes to track down Buffy. She was looking frayed around the edges, but basically solid.
"How we doing?" she asked as she saw him.
"Okay. Forty-five minutes until everything goes down, and I'd say we're right on schedule. The graduates are getting armed and suited up, the basketball team's ready to rumble, the library's stoked, and Annie Vaughn's holding a prayer meeting."
Buffy smiled slightly. "Well, we can use all the help we can get." She paused thoughtfully. "You know, it never even occurred to me how rough this town must be on clergy. Think I might chase Annie down after all this and ask her about it. Assuming we survive, of course."
"That seems to be the word of the day." Xander paused, puzzled. "Or phrase. Whatever. How are . . ."
Buffy held up a hand, stopping the question. "Please don't ask, Xander. I'm trying not to think about it."
Something in her voice was dangerously fragile. Xander tried to think back to the last time he'd heard her laugh and found he couldn't remember.
He made a decision and drew in a breath. "Here's food for thought. I ran into Larry a little while back, and we had an . . . interesting chat."
Buffy grinned marginally. "He never did get the picture you're straight, did he?"
Xander shook his head. "Actually, he thinks I've got a new crush. Guess who?"
"Um, I don't know�himself?" Buffy guessed. Xander shook his head. "Oz?" Another shake. Xander was beginning to think this hadn't been such a great idea. "He doesn't�not Giles?" Xander made a face. "Okay, not Giles. Um . . . �kay, can't think of anyone else. Toss me a clue."
It was all Xander could do to make himself say it, but he figured it was the best way to get Buffy laughing. "Try tall, dark, and depressing."
It worked. Better than Xander would have liked, it worked. Buffy didn't just laugh; she howled, she guffawed, she gasped for breath as her lungs forgot their primary function, was forced to sit down on a bench as tears of hilarity ran down her face, and ended up with a hiccup five minutes later when her lungs resumed working.
"Feel better?" Xander queried, thoroughly humiliated, yet strangely satisfied.
"Much." Buffy wiped her face and looked at him with shining eyes. "This doesn't go beyond the two of us."
"I'd appreciate that so very much." Xander squeezed her hand. "You ready?"
Buffy smiled and squeezed back. "I'm ready."
***
"Pomp and Circumstance" had never been so boring. Although Buffy was near the end of the line of graduates, the music seemed to go on forever even after she was seated. She wondered where Willow was. The music finally stopped, and Principal Snyder took the podium. Buffy could feel the collective tension of the graduates around her.
"Congratulations to the class of 1999," said Snyder unenthusiastically. "You all proved more or less adequate. This is a time of celebration, so sit still and be quiet. Spit out that gum." He glared around at the seniors before going on. "Please welcome our distinguished guest speaker, Richard Wilkins III." Snyder's beady little eyes fastened on one of the students. "I saw that gesture. You see me after graduation."
Buffy rolled her eyes. Obnoxious to the end, the little troll.
The students applauded with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. As they did so, Willow suddenly scooted in beside Buffy. She was flushed and a little disheveled. Buffy had an idea of what she'd been doing. She also had a feeling there would be a slumber party with lots of girl talk tonight. If they survived.
The Mayor stepped up to the podium and began speaking. Buffy had a horrifying revelation.
"Oh my God," she murmured. "He's going to do the entire speech."
"Man, just ascend already!" muttered Willow.
"Evil!"
The Mayor continued blathering on about the students and the town. The only thing that penetrated the buzzing in Buffy's brain was a comment about some not being there who should have. As he said it, he stared straight at Buffy. In that moment, she knew her plan would work.
"Nothing will ever be the same," the Mayor said. "Nothing."
A shadow fell across the graduates.
***
"It's getting dark!" yelled Rafael in the gym.
"Time to move," Angel said, and the basketball team headed out toward the graduation venue.
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