BuffyAngel68 - If That's Destiny On The Phone, I'm Not Home! 03

Title: If That's Destiny On The Phone, I'm Not Home! 3/7
Author: BuffyAngel68
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon, holy lord of all creative, intelligent minds, (may we worship him always!) owns all of them, not me. TYVM Joss, for creating characters with such depth and heart. I had a marvelous time making them speak and can only hope I captured their spirits. Yada-Yada-Yada- not making money- will return them in a much happier state than I found them, emotionally and otherwise.

Rating: is G-light PG here on in.
Author's Note: I'd appreciate feedback from anyone who's dared to read every part of my Life After series. The first two parts were quite intensely sexual, (which I know gives some the wiggins) with one particular m/m pairing (which I know *also* gives some *under-informed* ones the wiggins) that I haven't seen or heard much of, and that I think works beautifully. Please don't get squicky, the whole thing will be worth it I swear, and there are things in the first parts that you must read to understand this multi-chapter adventure follow-up. Please read, review and e-mail! Remember, feedback is bread and water to thirsty, starving writers! Thanks in advance.

Chapter 3: ...only to separate again.

TUESDAY EVENING

"She said they'd be here, Rupert. Sit down."

"I'm sorry. I just can't seem to settle. Something about this bothers me.... no. I'm not bothered. I'm frightened. I feel as if we've been set up."

"We have," Angel agreed. "but since it's the PTB's making the decisions, there isn't much we can do about it but submit."

Finally halting the pacing he'd been engaged in for two hours or more, Giles stared directly into Angel's eyes, determination and strength glowing brightly in the watcher's hazel orbs for all the world to see.

"Yes, well, William and Alex will tell you I don't bow and scrape as easily as I once did." he stated forcefully and went back to treading a random path around the living room.

His words only strengthened Angel's evolving picture of the man he'd once known. Once Rupert Giles had been a chunk of raw, pure ore, soft and malleable. Now a vital element had been cut away, other, stronger, metals had been added to fill the breach, and he'd endured a journey through a super-heated forge of his own creation, transmuting him into a new alloy; an unprecedented creature to himself, who resisted mightily being bent to another's will.

"I've tried fighting their schemes and machinations before, Rupert. It never works, and it always ends with someone I care about hurt, in one way or another. Do you want them to put Alex.... or William in harms way? Maybe neither of them can die in the usual ways anymore, but they can be scarred forever, emotionally and physically. They both have enough scars, don't you think?"

"Far more than either of them deserve."

"Then give up, alright? We can't win when the Powers own the casino. Let's see what they have in mind before we automatically assume bad intentions."

"Their intentions aren't good or bad. I understand that, just as I understand their position as Oracles. They do what they have to. It's simply that.... thanks to the support of William and Alex, I'm finally finding my own strength. Mine. Suddenly, words of surrender and submission seem to stick in the back of my throat.... I can't help but choke on them. The thought of them endangering the man I love more than my own life, just because I wouldn't be their willing lackey.... I can't abide it."

"I know. Every time I see Cordelia in pain from one of her visions..."

A light rap on the door halted Angel mid-sentence and he abandoned the thought.

"Speaking of Cordy...." Giles murmured as he moved to open the door. "Cor.... Willow? What are you and Tara doing here?"

"Tara had a vision during our bedtime meditation. She said all she knew was that we had to get here right away. So, what's the big bad? Where's the fight?"

Stepping out of the kitchen, Oz answered her question quietly, his eyes slightly narrowed, expression strained as he tried to ignore the obvious closeness between his old love and her new one.

"No fight, Wills. We're all just.... waiting."

"Oz? Oh... oh, Goddess.... Oz." she exclaimed softly, running to embrace him. "What.... when did you get back?"

"Saturday morning. Had a vision of my own, kinda. My new master said I had to come back. After whatever this is.... I'll explain everything over a cup of tea."

"Saturday? And you haven't been to see me?" she questioned him, pulling out of the circle of his arms to study his face, the tiniest touch of injured feelings coloring her tone.

"Been busy catching up with old friends, old places. Sorry."

Entering just in time to hear Oz tell Willow what he knew to be a blatant lie, Spike smirked and snorted under his breath, but sobered at a laser sharp glare from Giles. Moments later the door reverberated with the force of a powerful fist. Knowing it must be their final expected guests, Angel rose from his chair and walked to the door to open it.

"Gunn. Welcome to Sunnydale." Angel greeted his friend, grasping the smaller man's forearm briefly before turning to embrace Cordelia, entering a few steps behind. "How are you, Cordy?"

"Dealing. I swear the PTB's have it in for me, Angel."

"Giles isn't too happy either. Maybe the two of you should start a PTB Anonymous support group." he joked as they separated.

"Not a bad idea." she laughed, hugging Giles enthusiastically as he approached.

"Cordy. It's so good to see you again. It's been too long."

"Really! I haven't been back since the funeral, and that was in May."

"Yes. You must be Gunn. Honored to meet you."

"Yeah. You too. Heard good things about you. Your town is a pit."

"Gunn!" Cordelia hissed, smacking him on the arm.

"It's alright. He's not wrong. Can't argue with the truth, can I? Come in, come in, both of you. Where's Wesley?"

"Deciding whether to get out of the car. I think he's nervous about Spike jumping him the minute he steps in the door."

This brought a soft laugh from the young vamp.

"Tell ya what. I'll make it easy on him. I'll go wake up Alex, let Woosy feel safe comin' into the house."

"A good idea, perhaps.... None of your TWG's though. If something is going to happen tonight...."

"I get it. Don't arouse, don't carouse. Just rouse."

"Good man."

"TWG?" Cordelia asked.

"Time wasting games. Occasionally, William gets a touch of separation anxiety. He's developed certain.... intriguing and intimate games to keep Alex and I from leaving the house. If we possibly can, we stay with him. I've noticed that the closer we get, the less it happens. Perhaps he won't need the extra attention at all, someday. Until then.... it's nice to know I'm needed, in whatever form the need comes."

"Yeah. Yeah, it is." Cordelia agreed, looking surreptitiously over her shoulder at Angel, who had just re-entered the small house with Wesley in tow.

"Trust me, Wesley, it was a one-time thing for him, too. He's so committed to Giles it isn't even funny. Would you shut the door? Thanks. We all here, Giles?"

"I'm not dealing the cards, Angel. Ask the ones holding the poker chips."

"See?" the vampire said, turning to Cordy for a moment with a light smile. "I told you he wasn't happy."

"What does he mean by all?" Wesley asked, his voice betraying some of his fear and a tiny pebble of irritation at something or someone. Angel wondered at the source, but knew it would have to wait.

"All of the gang. Minus Anya, of course."

"She won't be missed, I must say, not with a much more conspicuous absence still so easy to feel here. Without it's leader... it isn't a group. I'm rather surprised so much of the core of the group has stayed here."

Angel was silent for a long moment, close to drifting away on sweetly tinged memories of her, but he pulled his heart and mind back from the abyss, knowing his focus had to be in the present, not the past. A moment later he heard William and Alex come trooping down the stairs. Feeding each other's mutual confusion, everyone gradually drifted into a loose group in the center of the room. Oz was the only facing generally in the direction of the kitchen and the stairs. Therefore, he was the first one to know when the event they were all anticipating began to unfold.

"Ummm.... Giles? Giles, Angel, Spike.... anybody?"

His soft plea barely got above the babble of sound from the others, reaching only Willow who, having chosen another soft-spoken true love, had not gotten out of the habit of listening for quiet voices edged with fear.

"Are you alright, Oz? What is it?" Willow asked then followed the direction of his pointing finger. Her stunned gasp finally alerted the others to what was going on.

"Oz... is that what I think it is?"

"I don't know. It looks like... a portal to me."

"More than one." Wesley corrected him. "Four would be my guess."

"And four newly created immortals." Giles added, dropping another piece of the puzzle into place.

The entire gathering stared as a wall of swirling light swiftly expanded to swallow the entire area from the kitchen to beyond where the stairs ended, and from ceiling to floor. The barrier was punctuated only by four enormous circles of utter blackness.

Before any of the group could even catch their breath, a thunderous voice, which a few of those present immediately recognized as belonging to one of the PTB's, rang through the small space.

Squinting against the bright light, Giles stepped backwards instead of forward, colliding with Angel who braced him and kept him from falling then leaned in to speak into the watcher's ear.

"You'll be alright, Rupert. We can't fight them; not now, anyway. Go on. Will and I are here for you. We're your anchors to home. If it gets too bad, think about us.... about William waiting here for you. Hold to that thought.... hold tight to it, and there's nothing the Powers can throw at you that you can't survive."

"I can't. I won't walk into that.... unknown, that darkness...."

"It is a little intimidating, but it's only a doorway. I can't know what's on the other side.... we have no choice in this. You have to go. No letting them put our loved ones in harms way, remember? They'll make the others pay if we say no...."

After a long stretch of minutes spent gripping William's hand so tightly that both men's fingers began to ache, Rupert kissed his soul-mate softly, lingeringly on the mouth. When he moved toward the portal, William came with him, as neither was willing to let go until the absolute last minute, just before the watcher stepped through the portal and began his journey.

When he'd vanished, the younger vamp stared after him for several tense minutes, then turned and looked at Angel. The loss and terror the sire found in the eyes of his beloved blue-eyed childe caused a tightness and burning to blossom in the center of Angel's chest. When he recognized the long absent feeling for what it was, he tore his eyes from William's beseeching upturned face and gripped the other's shoulder tightly.

"We might as well sit. It could be a while."

"Yeah. Right. They said sit, didn't they?"

"That they did, and, for now at least, it would be best to go along."

The two dropped to the floor side by side, ready to wait as long as it took. In only moments, Angel was lost in his own thoughts.

{I'm not. That feeling used to mean jealousy, but..... I am not jealous of Will and Giles. They were meant to be together. The Powers said so. Of course.... time was that lost, 'please-don't-go-away' look was reserved strictly for *my* departures from his life. Damn. How did I get so lonely and pitiable that I can't even be truly happy for my childe when he's finally hooked up with someone good for him? Rupert loves him completely, unconditionally, passionately.... I could never give him that. I didn't have it to give. I still must not, or else Cordelia.... oh. Don't go there, Angel. Never again. God, I am so pathetic.....}

Though he had seen it rarely in the past few months, Gunn immediately recognized the panicked, 'God, get me out of here!' look on Cordelia's face, wrapped his arms around her waist tightly and lifted her an inch or two off her feet, preventing her from bolting out the door.

"Uh-uh, girl. Angel had the right of this thing. It's the Powers, an' you know better than anybody we got no out here. You got one option, an' flakin' on us ain't it."

"Gunn... let me go...."

"I can't do that! No more talk, Cordy! I'm gonna set you down now, but don't you run..." he told her when she finally stopped struggling. "Look, I know how strong you are. You'll whip through this like a shoe sale at Neiman Marcus. Get goin'."

Utterly unconvinced, Cordelia clutched Gunn's arm convulsively, but he peeled her hands away. "Cordelia! Quit actin' like a little baby! Was I wrong, huh? Are you really goin' weak sister on me?! You damn well better not be, 'cause I'll pick you up an' throw you in there...."

Her spine straightened abruptly at his words. Flames of anger ignited in her eyes searing away all traces of her fear, for the moment at least. Cordelia brushed her hair behind her ears, huffed indignantly at Gunn, turned and marched through the portal.

As they dropped to the floor to wait for the young woman's return, Oz looked over at the lithe young black man beside him and gave him a small grin.

"You really do know Cordy."

"I know how to get her movin' when she's scared."

"Piss her off."

"Damn right."

"Oz." the former werewolf said, offering a hand.

"Gunn." the other replied simply, pumping the hand firmly once before releasing it. Feeling everything necessary had been said, the pair settled into companionable silence.

On hearing three names announced for Wesley all conversation halted, everyone still remaining in the room falling into a stunned silence, but noone's jaw came closer to hitting the ground than the man himself.

"Stephan... why does that sound so familiar? I know I've seen it somewhere, and recently too..... if I could just think for a moment...."

"You don't have a moment, Wes.... I mean Mic..... I mean...."

"For heaven's sake, Willow dear, Wesley will do fine for now."

"Right. What I was trying to say is that you can go into research mode after you come back. You have to go."

"Yes. Of course. I suppose...."

His hands clenching and unclenching, Wesley bowed his head and recited something quickly under his breath. When he lifted his eyes again, he looked ready to face anything.

"What was that?" Willow asked curiously.

"Nothing, really. When I was a boy, I and some friends had an explorers club. You know the kind of things children will do, fighting pirates, playing policeman and villans, all that. I thought reciting our old club motto would bolster my courage a bit. Worked a treat, just like always."

"I can see that. Would you mind.... I think we could all use a little extra courage."

"I couldn't. It's a silly piece of very bad poetry written by a ten year old..."

"Please, mister Pryce." Tara cajoled gently, one hand on his shoulder.

"Wesley. It's... it's Wesley." he repeated, despite the sudden wrongness of the sounds on his tongue. "Alright, if you will insist.... I never could deny a lovely female anything. 'On land or the high sea, 'tis adventure we seek. The bold all are welcome, no place for the meek. Whether mountain or desert, let the journey begin, for he can't come out stronger, who won't first venture in.' "

"That was beautiful, Wesley." Willow assured him. "It fits the moment perfectly, I think. Now, you should get going, so.... oh no. This means Alex is the one with no anchor. That's not right. Tara. Will you sit for Wesley? I'm gonna go be with Alex."

"Sure, baby. If that's what you think is best."

"Thanks, love. I know you understand. Even with everything.... he's still my friend, and he's still important to me."

"I know. Go on."

Hugging Tara quickly, Willow turned to go to Alex, but found an invisible barrier blocking her way to his side. She raised her hands, trying to find a gap or any way through, but could find nothing. Seeing this, the young man smiled at her, placing his palms against hers.

"Cute mime act. That a Wiccan thing, or what?"

"This is no time for funnies, Alex! They can't leave you without anyone to help you, without a guide.... I won't let them!"

"Cool down, Wills. It's okay. If this is the game.... I have to play by the rules. I'm not supposed to have any help? Okay, so I won't. No big."

"But... I can bring down the wall, I know I can. It won't be that hard...."

"Willow, stop. I'll be alright. I learned my lessons well this summer. Rupert and William have taught me so much.... I can handle whatever these yo-yos want to throw at me."

"What did they teach you?" Willow asked, grateful that, depite knowing full well she was stalling, Alex simply answered the question without getting angry.

"A lot of stuff that would sound *way* too corny if I tried to say it out loud. Mostly, it boils down to believing in myself, and in the people who love me. Hey. Good luck, Micheal. Kick some ass for me."

"Most assuredly." Wesley intoned as he stepped through his portal.

Knowing there was now no way to delay any longer, Willow favored Alex with a sorrowful half-smile and turned away to join Tara on the floor, even as Alex turned back to face whatever the voice had in store for him.

Standing absolutely still, Alex drew several deep breaths into his lungs, held them there a few seconds, then released them slowly. It was something Giles had taught him to do before attempting a new maneuver for the first time, but he had gradually found uses for the breathing technique outside the training room, employing it at work whenever he felt worn down, but quickly needed to re-focus his mind and re-energize his body.

Now, he used it to calm and center himself, as well as for power and concentration, sensing he would need to be at 110% to survive what the PTB's had in mind. Finally, as much at peace as he was going to become, Alex squared his shoulders and strode through the middle of the black hole in front of him.

The six anchors, left on their own, did their jobs as they'd been instructed; they sat and waited. They also, each in their own fashion, prayed for and worried about the ones who had stepped into the darkness. For the most part, the prayers were held deep inside, but they clung to them fiercely as their only connection, the only brand of help they could give; just as the travelers clung to the love and will of their anchors to help them follow their individual paths until they were led home again.