Wrong. So, so wrong

Buffy should’ve known she was asking for trouble when she silently hoped things were going to get easier. Nothing was ever easy. Case in point—her life.

Almost twenty hours and the third round of take-out later, they weren’t any closer to translating the book. This was all giving Buffy a bad case of déjà vu of Groundhog Day proportions, minus the endless rendition of “I Got You Babe” and Phil the furry sidekick.

Either of these would’ve been welcomed distractions.

Talking about distractions, I really should be listening to Wesley

“…despite a thorough search of the archives, I wasn’t able to locate any comparable text. However, given that this book was made over an extended length of time and possibly handed down over multiple generations, would naturally generate some sort of linguistic evidence. Even dead and extinct languages, no matter how removed, have an origin in which we can trace. Given more time, I can locate this source.”

“Keep working on it, Wes. Anything else?” Angel sipped from his fourth mug of otter.

“Actually, yes. Since I was unable to translate this book using more traditional means, I decided to try another approach. This too had the same outcome. Nothing. Yet in this instance, the lack of reveal in itself, actually divulged quite a lot.”

Buffy took a quick sip of her Tab to wash down the four tacos she’d just polished off. “Huh, what?”

“Neither the release nor dissolution spell I cast revealed anything. Nothing at all. It was as if the words themselves did not exist. They had, for the lack of a better term, no reflection.”

“Just like a vampire.” Angel sat forward, placing both hands on the table.

“Exactly.” Wesley nodded.

“Strangely, this makes sense. It’s kinda like that time with the whole creepy aspect of the demon thingy. I couldn’t read Angel’s thoughts. No matter how hard I tried, it was just blank. Nothing there.”

“No surprise. All forehead, no brain.” Spike’s scoff earned a scowl from Angel which he completely ignored. “So Percy, you thinkin’ this was done by some vamps heavy into the black arts?”

“Yes, I do, but I believe Fred is far better equipped to explain how.” Wesley nodded to Fred, who quickly took over.

“Okay, as most of you know, the very foundation of magic is built off the laws of physics. The Law of Conservation of Energies states that energy cannot be created nor destroy, only altered from one form to another. So my theory is that the energies naturally created by the existence of a living human being were harnessed and it is these same energies fueling the magic guarding the book from revealing the words.”

“Should’ve known, blood magic.” Spike shook his head.

“The castor obviously is extremely powerful. And since flesh magic is very unpredictable, I believe our best course is approaching this without the use of any further magics on our part.” Wesley took a slow sip of his drink.

“Agreed, old school it is. So I’m guessing we’re back to square one. Figuring out what language this is written in, which means more research, yay.” Buffy held up her hands in mock celebration, and then gestured towards the book in the middle of the table. “So Fred, you got anymore show-n-tell for the class?”

“Well, I’m still waiting on the results, but I conducted a series of radiocarbon testing on a cross-section of quires to determine when the book was assembled. Now, since soft tissues—tendons, ligaments, fascia, skin, fibrous tissues, fat, synovial membranes and the like are constantly being made and remade all throughout a lifetime, the carbon-fourteen levels found will be identical to those of the contemporary atmosphere at the time these soft tissues were formed. By gauging these levels, after of course taking into account margin of error, will give us an accurate time frame.” The more Fred talked, the more excited she appeared to be about her findings. This eagerness was short lived after taking in the confused faces staring back at her. With a weak smile Fred added, “We can figure out the age of the book based on when the first person died.”

“I don’t know about you guys, but color me totally impressed.” Buffy looked around the table, receiving nods in agreement. “Okay, so while we’re waiting on Fred’s results we keep looking for the needle in the proverbial language haystack. I’m thinking, more than ever, we gotta figure out what this book says. There’s some major mojo working here and…”

“Boss?” Harmony entered, but hesitantly stood back waiting for acknowledgment.

“Harmony, I told you we couldn’t be interrupted…”

“I know you did, Bossy, but the phone has been ringing off the hook. And I’ve tried to tell him you were super busy, but things are kinda getting crazy. George is pretty riled up about the beaucoup bucks Wolfram and Hart shelled out for some MIA guy’s bail, and now stuff’s flying around all over the office.” Harmony threw her hands up in the air.

“Fine.” Angel stood from the table and headed over to his desk, his brow was furrowed and he looked confused. “Who’s George again?”

“Legal department…” Harmony tried jogging his memory, but Angel didn’t catch on, so she tried again, “Sadecki demon with the bad comb-over. So not fooling anyone.”

“Oh, okay. Patch me through.” Angel waited by the phone as Harmony hurried out of the office. A moment later the phone rang and he answered. “This is Angel…yes, but isn’t this your department’s…that’s true but…no, no need to involve Special Projects, I will handle this personally…thank you.”

Angel hung up and sighed heavily as he rounded his desk. “Greenway’s gone missing. We have to track him down before anyone catches wind he’s skipped town. Let’s meet back here in twenty.”

Without a word, Fred, Wesley and Gunn collected their things, headed to the door and left. Buffy stood and followed, meeting up with Angel.

“Angel? What the…we’re in the middle of something here. Something big.”

“Buffy, this issue needs to be taken care of. It can’t wait.” Angel stepped around her and headed towards the elevator adjacent to his desk. He didn’t make it far before Buffy grabbed his arm.

“This can’t wait either, Angel. I’ve been working on this for months, and we just had a major breakthrough. I’m not stopping now.”

“No one is stopping you. It’s just that we can’t help you anymore than we already have, I’m sorry.”

“Sorry? So the minute 976-Evil calls, everything that we’ve been working on is not important? That’s so messed up, Angel.”

“This is my job, Buffy, to handle situations when they come up. I have responsibilities. I don’t have time to play around anymore.” Angel shook off Buffy’s hand and pressed the elevator button.

“Really? You have responsibilities? Tell me Angel, what is that like, cause I don’t have a clue at all about having responsibilities.” Buffy crossed her arms, her steely gaze fixed on Angel’s back.

Angel spun around. All his earlier patience drained away leaving only irritation as he stalked towards Buffy. “You go on and on about being a grown up and I should treat you as such, but you make it pretty hard to do that when you’re acting like a little brat every time you don’t get your own way—”

“Now look here you right bastard!”

Spike moved from the sidelines where he was carefully watching and stormed towards Angel, only being blocked by Buffy who was watching Angel’s eyes flash amber.

“Take Spike and go. Better yet, don’t stop till you’re back in Italy and stay there.”

“So that’s how it is? Fine, we’re leaving. Don’t want to waste anymore of your precious time better served on your responsibilities here.” Buffy headed back to the table, quickly gathered her belongings and left Angel’s office with Spike in tow.

 

*****

 

Buffy was already halfway down the block before the anger fueling her pace started to fade, finally giving Spike the opportunity to catch up.

“I can’t believe Angel.” Buffy stopped and turned towards Spike. “What am I saying? Actually, I can. This isn’t the first time he kicked me out. Last time it was out of his city. Now he thinks he can kick me out of the whole US? Well, he’s got some nerve. I’m such an idiot. Giles told me not to trust Angel, but I vouched for him. I said that he’d do the right thing. Now I’m thinkin’ Giles was right. Bad guys one, slayer zero.”

“Luv, you couldn’t have known how bad it was. Angel lost sight of what is really important the minute he went from fighting evil to representing it. Bastard can’t see past the power lunches and a garage full of fancy cars to see what’s what anymore.” Spike took hold of Buffy’s hands. “No fret, you’ll get through this. Might be a tad more difficult without a massive library spanning centuries and infinite dimensions at your fingertips, but hey, you’ve had less to work with and still kicked arse, yeah? You’ll make this work. Always do.”

Despite how the stinging of annoyance lingered, it was far less ouchy. She felt better. Spike made her feel better.

“You’re right, we can do this. You and me.” Buffy offered up a small smile.

“Sounds like a plan.” Spike tugged Buffy closer, loosely wrapping his arms around her waist. “Now, let me take you home so we can forget about our responsibilities for a bit. I’m thinking, a good four to five hours of forgetting. Are you game?”

There was no way she was saying no to that, especially when he flashed her, her sexual kryptonite—the tongue-curl.

“The question is, are you?” With that, Buffy took off running towards Spike’s apartment with a very horny vampire hot on her heels.

 

*****

 

LA, basement apartment:

 

Fred, Wesley, Gunn and Angel stood in the center of the dimly lit room. The air was heavy with the scent of burning candles and blood. On the floor at their feet, five slain nuns with their throats slit, arranged in a ritualistic display.

Angel took in the scene, tuning out everyone and what they were saying. It was too much. It’s not like he hasn’t seen, or even more so, done worse, but this was all too much. This was his breaking point.

“That's it.”

“But probably months, or maybe weeks if I really push—” Fred stepped forward trying to reason with Angel who was backing up towards the door.

“I can't do this anymore.” Angel shook his head.

“Do what?” Gunn turned to watch Angel.

“Any of this. Living with it. Running Wolfram & Hart.” Angel threw up his hands in defeat. “I quit.” Angel turned and left the apartment, leaving a totally stunned Wesley, Fred and Gunn behind.

 

*****

 

LA, across town:

 

Images of archaic symbols and a leather-bound book.

Images of Angel doubling over in pain.

Images of swirling black smoke filling the mouths of hundreds of girls making them slayers.

Images of Buffy with fangs.

 

Inside a hospital room, Cordelia gasped and her eyes opened wide, the visions plunging her back into consciousness.
 

---

 

---

End Notes:

Groundhog Day was a 90’s movie when the main character, Bill Murray, had to relive the same day over and over again until he got his life “right”. Bill Murray plays Phil, but the Phil I was referring to is the name given to the legendary groundhog in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania who is brought out to see his shadow every February 2nd to let people know how many weeks in winter is left. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog_Day_(film)

Quire: “four sheets of paper or parchment folded to form eight leaves, as in medieval manuscripts.” Sadecki demon: look human except for the completely white eyes and spines protruding from their backs. They are known for telepathy and telekinesis. http://buffy.wikia.com/wiki/Sadecki_Demon

Greenway was one of WR&H’s clients, in trouble for racketeering and who escaped to another dimension. WR&H invested 10 million in bail costs. http://buffy.wikia.com/wiki/Greenway

976-Evil: is a campy horror movie from the late eighties. Ironically, one of the main characters is named Spike. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/976-EVIL If you go on this site: http://www.film.com/movies/erics-bad-movies-976-evil-1988 take a look at the pic half way down: slicked back hair, cigarette, leather jacket, the I-don’t-give-a-fuck attitude what other Spike does that remind you of. Well, of course, our Spike is way hotter.

If you haven’t already guessed, the last two sections are from the episode “You’re Welcome” written by David Fury. The dialog was taken directly from there. This is one of my all-time favorite Angel episodes.

Now, I wasn’t going to go line by line of Fred, Wesley, Gunn and Angel’s interaction at Greenway’s place. I just used what I felt was the most important.

PLEASE TAKE A MERE MOMENT TO LEAVE YOUR THOUGHTS. BELIEVE ME, THEY MEAN MORE THAN YOU KNOW.