Disclaimer: The concept of Immortality featured in the Highlander universe belongs to Rysher. All Buffy: The Vampire Slayer characters belong to Warner Brothers. Victoria DiThon Kestral and "Theolus Ozcorun" belong to me. This is a short story that takes place a few days after the double episodes when Angel loses his soul and between "Forever Young" and "Forever Divided" of my fanfiction universe.
It is also rated PG-13 for some violence and mild language. I can't help it; Victoria won't quit talking to me! Enjoy!
Victoria DiThon Kestral stepped off the bus and glanced around. "I can't believe I'm doing this," she muttered to herself. She, like most immortals of her kind, made a point of staying well away from any Hellmouths. It was not considered Holy Ground, but nobody really wanted to know what could happen to a Quickening there. Unfortunately, Victoria could not avoid this. Her friend Laurana Thompson had called the day before with a rumor that was flying around the vampire community. Angelus was back.
"I disappeared with only a note on the kitchen table, too," Victoria reminded herself quietly as she picked up her duffel bag and headed for Sunnydale High School. "Justin is going to kill me if I get back." Fifteen minutes later, the young looking Immortal was standing in front of the campus. School had officially ended an hour ago, but hopefully the one she was looking for was still there. Victoria laughed humorlessly. "Looking for the Slayer. I must be insane!"
A few steps away from the library, Victoria felt the presence of another Immortal. "Just my bloody luck," she whispered as she drew her broadsword from her black trenchcoat. Holding it slightly defensively at her side, she cautiously pushed open the door and walked in. The librarian and four teenagers were seated at a table spread with books and staring the sixth person in the room. He was standing with both hands around a sword and looking fiercely at her.
"Oz, what's wrong?" Willow asked. "Who is that?" Her boyfriend had suddenly jumped up from the table and pulled a sword of all things out of his bag. A few seconds later, another girl had walked into the room, also carrying a sword. Willow glanced at her friends. Giles was looking at the two curiously, Xander was glaring at the stranger suspiciously, Cordelia looked scared, and Buffy looked beyond caring.
"Victoria DiThon Kestral," the girl said, her mouth quirked in a half smile. She lowered her sword and walked a few more steps into the library.
"Theolus Ozcorun," Oz answered, to the surprise of his friends. "What are you doing here, Tria?" His use of her name in their triumvirate with another werewolf alerted her to the fact that he was not ticked off about her sudden appearance.
"I'm here because of Angel, Virate," Victoria answered simply, sheathing her sword. She walked forward, and the two gave each other the traditional warrior greeting of clasped forearms, then Oz pulled her into a hug. Victoria grinned and pulled reluctantly away. She glanced at the other teenagers. "Which of you is the Slayer?"
"I am," Buffy said harshly, her attention immediately captured by the mention of her former boyfriend. "What do you know about Angel?"
"A lot," Victoria said. "He was my sire, after all." She glanced at Oz. "Do they know about Immortals? Our kind of immortal, I mean?"
"Um, yes," the librarian said. "My name is Rupert Giles. I'm Buffy's Watcher. I've told them about your kind, but since it's recorded that you usually stay away from the Hellmouth, we've never discussed what would happen if someone came." Giles glanced at Oz. "Obviously someone was here all along."
Oz placed his sword back in his bag before replying. "I've been kind of studying the Hellmouths for a couple of centuries. I'm trying to figure out why strange things are attracted here. It wasn't really my intention to get involved with any thing to do with the vampires," Oz said.
"Wait a minute," Cordelia said to Victoria, while the others were still stuck on the mention of 'centuries' by Oz. "You said that Angel was your sire, so that means you must be a vampire. But it's light outside. That's impossible." All of her friends stared at her. "Why is it that whenever I figure something out, everyone looks so surprised?" she said, and slumped back into her chair with a sniff.
Victoria sighed. "It's a long story. I came here to only check up on what Angelus is doing now. But since the Oz-man is already here, it looks like I'm going to end up getting involved whether I like it or not."
"Look," Xander said. He was still suspicious about the stranger, but since she was obviously on their side, he decided to go along with it. "We were all planning to patrol for any sign of Angel tonight. It's still a few more hours until sunset. Why don't you tell us how you know Angel?"
Victoria was silent for a second, then grabbed another chair to sit down. "Okay," she said reluctantly. She stared at Giles. "I have a few friends in the Watchers. If I find out that you've put this in the Chronicles, I promise you that I'll kill your Slayer. I'm sorry to make such a drastic threat, but unfortunately for you guys, I know for a fact that Immortals have infiltrated the Watcher network. If word gets out about what I am, I'll be dead so quickly that I won't even have time to hide. Do we have a deal?"
Giles nodded. "Yes," he said simply.
"Well, it started about a century ago, when I was in London…"
Victoria wrapped her cloak more tightly around her and shivered in the wind. She had gotten back from Asia three years ago in 1897, but had spent the years in Avalon, her haven on Holy Ground in Wales. On a spur of the moment decision, she had decided to go to London. Everything had changed since she had last been there over thirty years ago. Victoria could still easily pass as a teenage boy, her height adding to the effect. However, it was getting harder to find a decent place to board for a few months. Nobody would believe that a boy would have that much money on himself without immediately accusing him of being a thief. Victoria was not about to tell them that the money had in fact actually been stolen from various banks in the American territories where she had traveled a few decades ago.
She turned down a deserted street. A lamp lighter hadn't been down the road yet, so it was relatively dark. Victoria released her hold on the cloak and loosened her sword in its scabbard, just in case. It was not a useless gesture, as a man dressed in shabby clothing stepped out of an alleyway in front of her. Victoria glanced behind her, but two men had also appeared to block her escape.
"Okay, boy," the man in front of her said harshly. "Money, jewelry, anything of value. Come on, give it to us."
Victoria kept her face slightly lowered and used jerky movements, as if she were shaking in terror. It would take too long to draw her sword and still keep the element of surprise. She reached for the dagger at her waist instead of her money purse.
The man in front of her screamed as a dark shadow came hurling across the street. It moved at unnatural speeds. Only a second passed before Victoria took advantage of the opening and spun around. It was easy enough to dispatch the first of them, with a deep stab to the chest. The third thief, however, had enough warning to put up a fight. Victoria finally took him out, but he had managed to pull out his own knife. Victoria ended up on the ground next to him, dying of a stab wound to the lung. The stranger stared silently down at her as she gasped one last breath and died.
Three hours later...
Victoria inhaled deeply as she revived and looked around in surprise. She was in a small one room apartment cluttered with furniture and other items. Someone was facing away from her, staring into the fire. "Who are you?" Victoria rasped, her lungs still not completely healed.
The stranger turned around. "Good, you're awake." He left his stool and cautiously approached her. Victoria's sword belt was by her cloak, on a chair next to the bed, so she unsheathed the stiletto from her wrist and held it defensively. The stranger stopped and held up his hands. "Whoa, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm like you."
Victoria did not remember feeling the buzz when she woke up, or when the stranger had come barreling across the street. She raised her left eyebrow. "So tell me: what, exactly, are we?"
The stranger looked at her curiously. "Vampires, of course." When Victoria didn't say anything, he sighed. Suddenly, his face contorted, and he showed his true self. His eyes were tinged red below his protruding forehead and the tips of his fangs could be seen over his bottom lip.
Victoria stared at him. "I've seen some pretty bizarre things in a hundred years, but this takes the cake. I'm dreaming. That's the only possible explanation for this. I've never heard of an Immortal dreaming while they were dead, but I suppose it could hapen." She re-sheathed her stiletto and stood up from the bed. She hastily buckled her sword belt and started checking to make sure that her weapons and money purse were all accounted for. Victoria grabbed her ruchsack and pulled her cloak back on, then headed for the door. "Good-bye," she tossed over her shoulder as she reached for the door. Suddenly she was whirled around forcefully. Victoria found herself face to face with her would-be rescuer. His face had gone back to normal, but Victoria could still sense something on the edge of her mind, that this seemingly young man was not quite what he appeared to be.
"You're not a vampire?" the man asked. Victoria shook her head. "Then what are you?"
"I take it that this is not a dream?" Victoria said after a second. The man nodded. "Okay," she said slowly. "Since you've already seen me come back to life once, and you're not so normal yourself, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to tell you. I'm an Immortal. I'm a little over a hundred years old. But I'm not a vampire. For one thing, I bleed, which I think you saw." Victoria glanced down at her blue shirt, which was stained with blood around the hole where she had been stabbed in the lower ribs. "My name is Victoria DiThon Kestral. To repeat what I said when I first woke, who are you?"
"My name is Angel," he said. "I'm a vampire. I'm a little older than you are. But I have a soul, and I don't kill humans." He stuck out his hand and Victoria shook it formally. "I followed you from the last inn, thinking you were a vampire, but like me, and was working up the nerve to ask you if you wanted to board with me. I noticed that you were trying to pass for a boy." Angelus did not mention that the girl who traveled by herself and fought extremely well intrigued him. That sort of thing was not common.
"You saw through it?" Victoria asked in surprise. "I thought I was doing pretty well. What was wrong?"
"Nothing, as far as I can tell," Angelus said. "You've got the acting down pretty good. And I know most people would notice the sword and automatically think you were a boy. I only figured it out because I have enhanced hearing and noticed the way you were altering your voice."
Victoria nodded. "Okay. And by the way, I accept your offer of board. I've got a trunk in storage I can get tomorrow."
"Works for me," Angelus said. It was nearly sunrise, so it was already time for him to go to bed. Victoria had not had any sleep for almost twenty-four hours and dying hadn't helped any, so she decided to hit the sack as well. There was a double bed that he took by the fire after drawing the heavy drapes. Victoria got a small single that was partitioned off in a corner. Angel did not fail to notice how Victoria laid her sword carefully within reach on the small table next to her bed. Both lay awake into the dawn, thinking about what they had discovered that night. Neither had ever known about another type of immortal. But it seemed there was.
"We lived together in London for about a year," Victoria said to the six rapt listeners. "And became very good friends. When I accidentally got badly injured in public, he came with me to leave London. We went to my home in Wales, and that's where things got interesting."
Wales had been the only place they could go. Angel's hold on sanity was slowly slipping. A mysterious visit that he wouldn't talk about had knocked him back to himself after the horror of regaining his soul a few weeks before Angel met Victoria. But his memories were catching up to him, and even Victoria's calming presense began to loose effect.
Angel came crashing through the brush at an inhuman speed. He came to the cave where he and Victoria lived during the winter and shouted her name. Victoria immediately ran out into the clearing. "What's wrong?" she asked hurriedly.
Gasping for breath, Angel managed to croak out, "The villagers…someone saw me eating…after me."
Victoria cursed in French. "Gods, not again," she said as she and Angel quickly started packing enough provisions to get away from the village. "They must go on a witch hunt every time they get fucking bored, ‘cause that's how I died." Angel looked at her curiously. Victoria did not talk about her past, and he did not know much about it.
They left the cave and started running. Soon they exited the woods onto one of the main roads and came face to face with ten men, armed with rifles and torches, obviously trying to track Angel. "This looks familiar," muttered Victoria. She drew her sword and heard Angel growl as he went into full vampire mode. He suddenly shied away when some of the men pulled out wooden crosses.
"Its the ghost of the Druid Girl!" one of the men cried. The men stopped in fright. They were not that afraid of a vampire, but the Druid Girl had been a girl that had lived there three generations ago. Her body had disappeared soon after the destruction of the nearby stone henge led by her adopted uncle, but her spirit had haunted the woods ever since. None of the men moved.
"On three, we rush them," Angel whispered to Victoria. He was in obvious pain from the four crosses bearing down on him. The villagers were still staring at the pair of demon and ghost when suddenly the apparent girl let out a battle cry. The vampire was on them in less than a second. He had already snapped the neck of the lead man when Victoria reached them and impaled the one next to him. By then, the men had reacted. Victoria pulled out a revolver and shot three of the men in turn. She turned and gasped when she saw three more men hanging on to Angel as another prepared to stab a wooden stake into his chest. Victoria brought up her gun and shot him. Angel used his captors' momentary distraction to shake them off.
But another man grabbed the stake and stabbed it into Angel’s chest. Then the four remaining men ran back into the woods. "No!" Victoria screamed. Angel had told her what would happen if he were staked. She kneeled at his side and saw that the stake had just narrowly missed his heart. She jerked out the stake, but Angel just lay there. She knew that he wouldn't move unless he drank blood for strength, so Victoria did the only thing she could think of. She used her stiletto to slit her wrist and held it above Angel's mouth. He convulsed as the blood dripped into his mouth and harshly grabbed her wrist, pulling it closer to him.
Victoria screamed in pain as her wrist bones cracked and Angel sunk his teeth into her. Her vision dimmed from loss of blood, and the last thing she saw was Angel with his eyes open and consciously drinking her blood.
Angel finally realized what he was doing and dropped Victoria's wrist in horror. She lay there, unconscious and slowly dying. Angel knew that her blood would take hours to replenish itself, and he was still not strong enough to carry her. But they needed to move soon, or he would be caught in the sunlight. A thought popped into his mind, but he shied away from it. Drusilla had been his last mistake, and he didn't want to hurt Victoria. She had said once that no one knew what would happen if an Immortal was changed into a vampire while it wasn't First Death, but that if forced to, Victoria wouldn't care. There was no other choice. Using the bloodied stiletto, he slit his own wrist and pressed it to Victoria's mouth. She swallowed reflexively and kept drinking.
"So what happened to you?" Buffy asked. Her eyes were wide, as were everyone else's. It was impossible for this apparent teenager to be what she claimed.
"I'm now a vampire," Victoria said with a shrug. "It's like a poison. Normally my Immortality would merely clean it out of my blood. But because this is pretty much defined as magic or such, it couldn't."
"What can you do then?" Giles asked. He was dying to contact Victoria's Watcher and tell them this story, but from his knowledge of Victoria's past, he knew she would keep her promise to kill Buffy. She was one of the Immortals famous in the Watcher networks, for many reasons, and keeping promises was one of them.
"Well, I can turn into a vampire during the night," Victoria said. "And during then, I have the same limitations as a vampire. Like crosses and Holy Water. Except if you stake me, you just have to pull out the stake and I'll revive. And sunlight will merely make me revert back to normal."
Suddenly, all the watches in the room, with the exception of Victoria's, beeped. "It's sundown," Buffy said in a low voice. She glanced at Victoria. "Want to join us?"
Victoria shrugged. "Why not? Maybe Angelus will listen to me." They all trooped out of the school and started walking towards the cemetery. "I'm going to split from you guys now. I don't want to let the vamps know I'm here too early." She jogged the opposite way down the sidewalk and quickly disappeared into the darkness.
"So what do you want us to do, Buffy?" Willow asked. Her friend had gotten quiet once they reached the cemetery.
"The usual," Buffy said, trying to act as if nothing were wrong. "Patrol and kill the vampires." Her smile was plastered onto her face, but all her friends knew it was entirely fake.
They spread out, and waited.
Victoria ran around the cemetery and climbed over the stone wall. She knelt in the grass and pulled her sword out of her coat, placing it on the ground in front of her in preparation. Angel was her sire, and they were permanently linked. If Victoria reverted to vampire form anywhere near him, he would instantly know.
Victoria took a deep breath and concentrated. Suddenly, her forehead seemed to curl out over her eyes, which changed to an even deeper gray. Her canines grew and pressed against her bottom lip. Victoria remained kneeling and waited for Angelus to come.
Angelus was sitting at the table in the abandoned warehouse, contemplating how to get rid of Buffy. He could not stand the mere thought of her, unless it had something to do with her death. Drusilla had left immediately at sundown, to do - who knew with Drusilla. Spike had retreated to one of the back rooms two days ago and had not been seen since.
Angelus suddenly stood up, startling a few of the vampire lackeys nearby. "Victory," he growled, before leaving the warehouse at a sprint.
The lackeys looked at each other in confusion. Then they shrugged and went back to whatever they were doing. A few minutes later, Spike came out of the back room. "What are you doing?" he asked harshly. The lackeys stared at him. Spike sighed. "Get down to the cemetery and watch for the Slayer."
The vampires hurriedly left the warehouse. They weren't stupid, though. They knew that most of them would not come back from the fight.
Fifteen minutes later, Victoria was growing stiff on the cold ground. Occasionally, she would hear one of the others as they called out to one another. Luckily, none of them had seen her yet. Then Victoria heard the sounds of a fight. Obviously, the Slayer and her friends had it under control, but Victoria desperately wanted to help them.
Victoria soon felt the stirring in her soul that meant Angelus was near. She stood and held her sword at the ready, glancing around. "You can come on out, Angel." She said his old name mockingly. "I know you're near."
The older vampire stepped out from behind a tree. "Well, well, well," he said. "Victoria DiThon Kestral. What brings you to the Hellmouth?"
"You," Victoria said. "What happened, Angel? When I knew you, you were good and had a kind heart. And a soul, for that matter."
"No!" Angelus growled. "I am not like that and never will be ever again! All I want to do is forget those years, even if it means destroying everything that reminds me of them. Including you." He rushed at Victoria, but as a vampire, she was just as fast. She sidestepped him and brought up her sword.
Buffy and her friends finished their fight and stopped to rest and regroup. "Wait a minute. Do you here something?" Xander asked. "Sounds like a fight." They quickly ran towards it and stopped in surprise at the sight. Victoria and Angel were engaged in battle, sword against vampire strength.
"No!" came a cry from the opposite side of the clearing. Drusilla stood there, her vampire face filled with horror. She rushed between the two combatants, shoving Victoria aside and stepping in front of Angelus.
"Dru! What are you doing?" Angelus cried.
"I won't let you kill her! You can't kill my sister!" Drusilla said harshly. At this revelation, Buffy and her friends, watching from the sidelines, were instantly confused. So was Angelus.
"What do you mean, 'sister'?" he snarled. "I may be her sire, but you are in no way related."
"Not true, Angelus," Victoria said smugly. "I met Drusilla years ago. I rescued a small boy from her, but she decided to hang around. We discovered that we had exactly one thing in common: you." Victoria picked up her sword from where it had landed when Drusilla had pushed her away. "Drusilla, I don't want to kill him unless he forces me to. And he's doing a bloody good job of it."
"You couldn't kill me," Angelus sneered. "Even you couldn't kill your own sire, Victory."
"That's where you're wrong, Angel," Victoria said mockingly, inwardly wincing at his use of her vampire name. "I've done much worse things in two hundred years." At that she lunged forward suddenly and quickly impaled Angelus with her sword. Drusilla gave a yelp in surprise as Angelus stared down in horror and slowly toppled to the ground.
Xander suddenly ran forward, ready to stake the fallen vampire, but Victoria stopped him with her sword, holding the flat of the blade against his chest. "He forgot two things," she said quietly. "That my sword is made of a silver and steel alloy, and that I really can't kill him." She looked at Buffy and the others. "Go home. I promise to make him leave Sunnydale. And Oz-man?"
"Yes?"Oz said. He was still rather stunned that she had told strangers about her past. Oz had lived with her for three years in Greece before she told him.
Victoria looked at him, her gray eyes dull. "Don't get killed on this blasted Hellmouth, Virate. I would hate to have to explain that to our mutual friends. Jason would go insane." Oz nodded, and he stood with his new friends as Drusilla and Victoria gathered up Angelus and disappeared into the night.
"I can't believe we let them go," Xander said. "If she can't kill him…"
Buffy stared after the three vampires. "That just means that I'll still have too."
Victoria and Drusilla entered the warehouse and placed Angelus' body on the long table. Some lackeys stared at them, but Victoria made them back off when she reverted to vampire form and growled at them. Victoria sat down at the table and proceeded to clean her sword of the dried blood. Drusilla stared at Angelus for a few minutes, then turned to Victoria.
"Why did you come, sister?" Drusilla asked. The insane vampire reached out a white hand and stopped directly above Angelus' wound. It was nearly healed, and he groaned softly.
Victoria shrugged. "I heard that Angelus was back. I had to come." She inspected her sword one last time and sheathed it in her long coat. "I won't kill him, and he knows that. I just made it completely obvious."
"So just why did you come?" Spike said, rolling out of the shadows in his wheelchair. Victoria leapt up and whirled around, instantly on the defensive. Drusilla went to her love and draped herself across him. "I've heard of you. Victory, I believe you are called by vampires."
"That’s right," Victoria said. "And I know of you, William the Bloody."
"The name is Spike," the blond vampire corrected. "So what the hell are you doing here, besides wrecking havoc?"
"Trying to save your asses," Victoria retorted, still on the defensive. "The Slayer is out to have all your heads, with or without the body attached. Preferably without. You can't win."
"That’s where you're wrong, dear girl," Spike said with an evil grin. "She hasn't managed to kill us before now, so what makes you think she suddenly could?"
"Because, dear boy," she replied sarcastically. "She thinks I'm on her side." Victoria hoped with all her might that the younger vampire would not see through her guise. She was on no one's side, and was only there to see that Angel lived through this. "I told the Slayer that I would make you leave town. I probably can't do that, but I can offer the suggestion. There are plenty other cities in the world. Hell, I live in one that doesn't even have vampires, because the few that were there when I moved in are scared shitless of me. You guys could move in, no prob."
Spike laughed. "Not a chance. I'm going to kill that Slayer if its the last thing I do."
Victoria reverted to vampire form and growled at him. "Then it will be the last thing you do, because a new one would just come. You have virtually no power, Spike. You probably can't even take me down at the moment, and I haven't drunk any blood in almost ten years."
"Then it's about time you started," Spike said. "I won't trust you until you prove your worth. Drink the blood of one of the Slayer's friends, and I will take your suggestion into consideration. We'll see how good you really are."
Victoria closed her eyes momentarily, as if making a choice. But there was no choice. The only one who would survive was Oz, as an Immortal. She opened her eyes and said, "Deal."
Drusilla and another lackey followed her out of the warehouse. The distance to the high school was not great, and the three were there quickly. Victoria told them to stay at the entrance, and she entered the building and headed to the library. Looking in, she saw that the only ones present were Oz, Willow, and Cordelia. Oz immediately looked up at the feeling of her presence and saw Victoria motion for him to come from the door window. He made an excuse to leave and met her in the hall. Victoria raised a finger to her lips as a signal for silence, and the two Immortals headed for the entrance to the school. When they got outside, Victoria knew Drusilla and the other vampire were in hiding and watching closely.
Victoria looked Oz straight in the eye and went into vampire form. He started and nearly drew his sword, but Victoria placed her hand on his shoulder. "Forgive me, Theolus, my Virate," she said using his name in her triumvirate, and quickly leaned forward to bite his neck. Oz stiffened in surprise and pain, but quickly lost strength. He had been in that position before and knew that she could make the experience pleasurable, but it had to look believable. Victoria drained as much blood as possible in a feeding madness before her mind came back to her. She dropped Oz in horror as she felt his lifeblood and power roll within her and turned towards the shadows. "Satisfied?" she asked harshly.
Drusilla appeared and said, "I always knew you were worthy." She reached out a hand and dabbed away a bit of blood still on Victoria's lip. Licking it off her fingers, she grinned. "Welcome back, my sister."
Victoria was numb with shock. She had just betrayed a friend, something she had never done before, and one of her closest to boot. She tried to grin, but the smile didn't reach the haunted look in her eyes. "It's good to be back," Victoria said, desperately hoping that her luck would hold. "Victory is will rise again."
Oz surged back to life in front of the school building. He slowly got up and drew his sword - just in case the vampires were still near. "Damn you, Victoria," he muttered. "You had better still be on our side."
About ten minutes after Oz had left, Willow realized something was wrong. He definitely should have been back with the sodas by now. She left the library and went to the soda machines, but saw nothing. She wandered down a hallway looking for him. Finally, she headed back to the library, prepared to sound the alert. As she jogged past the entrance to the school, she stopped in surprise when it opened.
"Oz!" she cried when he staggered through the door, sword in hand. Willow caught him in her arms. He held her for a moment, then pushed away.
"I'll kill her!" he was muttering. "I'll take her damn head myself! I cannot believe she did that!"
"What?" Willow asked frantically. "What happened?"
Oz took a deep breath and looked at his girlfriend, struck as always by her beauty and strength. "I think Victoria has defected." He pulled down the collar of his bowling shirt and showed her the still livid, though closed, red bite mark. She gasped as she saw it fading away before her eyes. He smiled tiredly. "I told you I was Immortal. She drained me, but not all the way. I just need to rest and have something to drink.
They headed back to the library, and Oz told them what had happened. Buffy and Xander had come in the back way while Willow was gone. Cordelia and Giles were shocked, and Buffy nearly said that she didn't care if Victoria had defected. Xander, however, was pissed.
"It was all a setup! We could have taken out both Angel and Drusilla, but she stopped us!" He turned to Oz. "I thought you said we could trust her!"
"We can trust her," Oz said calmly, still slowly regaining his strength. "I'm as angry as you, but think about it. She called me outside. I saw two more vampires lurking nearby. I have the feeling she had to prove herself to them. She chose me because she knew that I would survive." Xander started to retort, but Oz continued. "I've known Victoria for over fifty years. I have certain...connections with her. She'll come through for us." At this, Giles suggested that everyone head home for some much needed sleep. Oz drove Willow home. They made plans to meet at Oz's house after school the next day. "There's something I need to tell you" was all he would say.
After what seemed like one of the longest days of her life, Willow and Oz finally arrived at his house after school. They settled in the living room with sodas, and Oz began his story.
"When I said that I had connections with Victoria, I meant it literally. But first, I have to tell you something. We used to live together, right after World War Two. We were even lovers for a short time." Willow started to speak, but Oz placed a finger over her lips. "It's over, I promise. She has someone in her life I could never compete with even if I wanted to. They're so in love its almost sickening, especially since neither realizes it. Besides," Oz said with a small smile, "there is someone in my life Victoria could never hope to compete with. But I thought you should know, just in case Toria brings it up for some reason. Or even Angel, he knows, too."
Willow looked at him curiously. "So how old are you?"
Oz took a deep breath. "Don't be too shocked, but I'm a little over sixteen hundred years old." Willow gaped at him. "My real name is Theolus Ozcorun, but my teachers started calling me Oz, and the name kind of stuck. I'm Greek, by the way. I've been all over most of the world. I have this bad habit of being drafted by armies, for some reason, so I've seen my share of battles. I managed to miss Viet Nam, but I was drafted into the Korean War, and I did some . . . underground work for the Allies during World War Two."
"Wow," Willow said. "And I thought Angel was old! So about Victoria, what do you mean by 'connections'?"
"As I said before, I've been studying the Hellmouths for a long, long time. When I found out one was here in Sunnydale, I had to bring a kid named Jason with me at the request of an old friend. This was back in 1993, and we met up with Victoria down here, too. We found the exact spot of the Hellmouth, right where the library is now, but the school was just beginning to be built at the time." Oz paused for a sip of soda. "When the three of us entered the clearing, a figure appeared. It was a relatively minor demon called Triaumvervirate, who had taken a fancy to the number three." Willow was amazed by the way the name rolled easily off Oz's tongue. "He had decided to go to 'sleep' for a few decades and required some Guardians. Apparently Toria, Jason, and I fit the bill," he said wryly. "Victoria is Tria, the Courage, as both Immortal and vampire. Jason is Umver, the Strength, because he one of the 'pet' werewolves of a vampire master in St. Louis, though he wasn't a werewolf yet. And I'm Virate, the Wisdom, as both a werewolf and an Immortal. There are other reasons why we supposedly make up the perfect triumvirate, but that's the main one."
Willow nodded. "That makes sense. So this demon can just call you whenever?"
Oz shook his head. "He's asleep. The three of us will be automatically summoned if something invades his lair, wherever that is. And whenever the three of us are within a certain distance of each other, our individual strengths increase, and we have the ability to call each other from anywhere in the world if we need help."
"So that's how you know she's still on your side. You really are connected to her," Willow said. Oz nodded. "So what do you want to do?" she asked.
Oz stood up and gestured for Willow to follow him. He led her down to the basement as he talked. "I have a friend in LA who is a sorceress. She's actually the one who helped me finally locate this Hellmouth. Pallas inherited this house from a great-aunt or something, and she drives out here for all her big ritual magics. I 'protect' the house for her, and she lets me live here and occasionally borrow some of her supplies."
Willow smiled. "So that's where you've been getting some of the stuff I've needed. What are you planning to do?"
"Can you set up a summoning circle?" His girlfriend nodded. "Okay, so we're going to try a summoning, but I'm going to weave a truth spell into it. And then we're going to summon an incredibly minor little demon by the name of Tria. My revenge on her for draining me." Willow laughed, and the two started to set up.
Half an hour later, everything was ready. Willow sat on the cement floor with one of Pallas' books on her lap, prepared to recite the necessary Latin. She nodded at Oz, who stood on the other side of the circle. He extended both arms over the rim, palms facing up. Suddenly, a small orb of green light appeared between his hands. After his nod, Willow started to recite the summoning spell. A brilliant flash of red light came from the center of the circle. When Willow's eyes cleared, she saw that it was a small young man with shoulder length blond hair. He eyed Willow curiously, then whirled around to face Oz.
"What just happened?" the stranger asked. "Oz?"
"I'm really sorry, Jason," Oz said, visibly trying to keep a straight face. "We meant to summon Victoria." He quickly filled Jason in.
Jason laughed, not the reaction Willow had been expecting. "She's a riot." He glanced at the watch on his wrist. "Time is still moving, Oz-man. I have to get to work. Good thing this happened now, instead of the middle of a set, though." Giving Willow a wink, he raised his own hands and disappeared in another blazing flash of light.
"Show-off," Oz muttered.
"What did he mean, 'in the middle of a set,'" Willow asked. "Is he a musician like you?"
Oz did something that happened very rarely. He blushed. "Um, no, Wil. He's a stripper." It was Willow's turn to blush, and they hastily repeated the summoning. This time, thankfully, the blinding light was blue.
Across town in the vampires' lair, Victoria was the only one awake, though it was very close to sunset. She was sitting at a table with her feet propped up, jamming to the music from her portable cd player. In one lithe movement, she rose to her feet and ripped off the headphones. "Oh, shi-" she began before disappeared in a blue flash of light.
Reappearing in Oz's basement, she looked curiously around. Seeing Willow in front of her and sensing Oz, she wasn't too surprised when she felt a blade caress the side of her neck. "You know, Theolus," she said conversationally. "Triaumvervirate wouldn't be too happy if one of his Guardians killed another one off."
"Then what do you call what you did?" Willow was shocked at the coldness in Oz's voice.
"What, you think I really have turned?" Victoria laughed at that thought. "Oz-man, you are out of practice. You call this an interrogation?" She stiffened slightly when the sword at her neck began to move. Oz walked around the rim of the circle and stood next to Willow.
"Tria, you're the one who's out of practice," Oz replied. "Look closer."
Victoria furled her eyebrows at him in confusion. She carefully invoked what her friend Gwena called her OverSight. Oz's brilliant emerald aura and Willow's softer yellow one sprang into focus, along with the curtain of colors that signified the summoning circle. There were the familiar gray and scarlet tones that she associated with the circle, but what was the subtle pastel green one? Then she remembered. Cursing softly under her breath, she again looked at the world through normal eyes. "I have to say, you've gotten smarter in your old age, Oz. But really, a truth spell? A bit overkill, don't you think?"
Oz almost laughed, but finally removed his sword. "With you, never. Victoria, have you turned back to the vampires?"
She stared at him for a moment. "I will always be vampire; it's in my nature, as is the wolf in yours. You should know that, Virate." She raised her hand when he tried to interrupt. "But if you are asking about my actions in the recent past, I am fully on your side. My main goal is to keep you, your friends, and Angel alive. Drusilla, too - if I can. I could care less about Spike and the others."
"Why did you have to drain me though?" Oz asked. "You know I hate that."
"It was either you or one of the others, Oz. Who do you think would be my first choice? And did I, or did I not, only drain you enough so that you didn't die?" He had no response to that. "Okay, so send me back, before someone wakes up and notices I'm gone."
Oz nodded. "Oh, and Jason says hi." He nodded to Willow, who began to recite the Latin that would send Victoria back to the vampires' lair.
Victoria rolled her eyes. "Need to work on the concentration, Oz-" She disappeared in yet another flash of light.
Upon arriving back at the warehouse the vampires were using as their hideout, she opened her eyes to find Spike standing in front of her. Without the aid of his wheelchair. "But I thought-" He clapped his hand over her mouth, then pulled it away just as fast.
"You bit me!" he cried in utter shock.
Victoria gave him a quirky half grin. "Then don't do that," she said. "Now how the hell are you walking around?"
Spike sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Angel thinks he's in charge and that I can't challenge him. What was all the flashing lights about? Where did you go?"
She shrugged. "I'm one of the Guardians for a demon. Another Guardian called on me for help. But now I'm back." The truth, technically. Those damn truth spells took a while to wear off. "So what's going on? Why are you showing me that you're okay, when everyone else obviously doesn't know?"
Sighing again, this time in utter exasperation at this impish child, Spike replied, "I want to take you up on your offer, and move to your city. This damned Hellmouth is more trouble than it's worth. Much as I would like to kill that bratty Slayer, I also don't want Dru or I dead."
Victoria nodded slowly. "Can't argue with that. I don't want Dru dead either, though I don't much care about you. So why are you telling me this? Why not just leave?"
"I need your help." Victoria raised an eyebrow. "You really think Angel will let us just waltz out of here?"
"Good point," she said. "What do you propose to do?"
She was interrupted when a door in the back banged open. Spike hastily sat back down in his wheelchair, and Victoria whirled around and drew her sword in a single fluid motion. Angel attacked her with his own sword and knocked Victoria's out of her hand with brute strength. Before she could react, he slammed her against the wall, one hand clutching her throat and the other holding his blade right below her chin. Victoria clawed at his hand, but he didn't waver.
"You lied!" Angel growled. "Oz is alive!"
"Oz is an Immortal, you idiot!" Victoria gasped. "You think I would kill an innocent, much less take the head of a good friend?"
With that, Angel easily threw her across the room. She hit the wall and slid down, stunned. He strode over and kicked her in the ribs, which cracked with an audible sound, and she curled into a ball of pain. Angel was about to kick again when a flash of red light appeared right in front of him. Angel had turned away to shield his eyes, and when he looked again, was confronted by a large, growling wolf standing protectively before Victoria.
"What the hell is going on?" Spike asked in a bored voice from his wheelchair.
Victoria pulled herself up to a sitting position using the mysterious wolf. Wrapping her arms around it's neck for support, Spike and Angel could see that the animal was much larger than a "normal" wolf should be. Victoria looked at Angel mournfully, then the two disappeared in more glaring flashes of light, this time of both red and blue.
Victoria collapsed into the arms of Oz, for she and Jason, in wolf form, had appeared back at his house. "Shit, I think her back's broken," he said. By this time, Victoria had fallen mercifully out of consciousness, knowing she was safe. Gently, Oz carried her to the couch. "Thank the gods for Jason, or she'd probably be dead now."
Willow looked up from where she'd been covering the girl with a blanket. "Jason?"
The wolf had wisely been making himself inconspicuous so as not to alarm Willow. He carefully crept out of the corner to nuzzle Victoria's cheek. Oz reached over and scratched his head. "Jason's a werewolf, like me. He'll have to stay in this form for awhile though; he can't change back immediately." Oz went back to methodically checking Victoria for injuries. She looked dead to the world. Finally, he straightened up and said, "Besides the fractured spine, she probably has a concussion and internal bleeding. The bruises on her neck are healing though, and so are her ribs." Willow winced as one of them slid back into place with an audible crack. Oz looked at Jason. "What did she do now? Get thrown into a wall or something?" He sighed when Jason nodded his head yes. "I'll be right back, Wil." He headed for his bedroom.
Victoria groaned softly, and Jason placed his head next to her cheek in comfort. Looking closely, Willow could see some "similarities" between the wolf and the sweet young man she'd seen a short time earlier. Oz appeared gain a few minutes later. Willow's eyes widened as she saw the wicked looking knife held casually in his hand.
"Whoa," she said, jumping slightly. "What are you going to do with that?"
Oz held up his hand, the one not holding the dagger. "Don't worry!" He grimaced at Victoria's prone body. "It's like this: Victoria became Immortal when she was thirteen years old. She and the other 'kid' Immortals, myself included, don't have the healing factor that the adults do. We make up for it in other ways, but right now, I don't think Victoria's going to heal quickly unless I kill her. She unconsciously knows that she's safe, and isn't healing as fast as she normally would."
Willow gaped at him for a few moments, then hastily recovered. "What do you mean, yourself included?" she asked, the first thought that came to her rather numb mind.
"Oh, I was eighteen when I became Immortal, I think," he tossed of casually, still studying Victoria. "Could've been anywhere from sixteen to my early twenties. I lived in a really small village, and nobody bothered with personal birthdays and stuff." He glanced at Jason. "Any arguments on killing her, wolf-boy?" A quick shake of his head said no, and a slight growl at the nickname. "Okay," Oz said. "Much as I hate to do it, let's do this. I'm going to get a trash bag so blood doesn't get all over Pallas' carpet."
After laying the trash bag on it, Oz easily lifted Victoria off the couch and placed her on it. He removed her coat and jewelry, wincing as she groaned in pain. "Jason, go outside. I'm not going to take a chance with you around fresh blood. Willow, can you let him out?" She nodded, and showed Jason to the backdoor. Before she could come back, Oz quickly plunged the dagger into Victoria's heart. Pulling it out again, he felt the familiar gripping of his heart through their bond that meant she had died. Outside, Jason howled.
Willow came running back inside, but Jason wisely stayed out. She gasped as she saw blue lightning flicker over the wound and begin to heal it. Suddenly, there was a loud crack and her back straitened slightly. Oz nodded, glad she was finally healing.
A few minutes later, everything was obviously healed. Her body jerked, and Victoria reached up a hand to grab Oz's throat. She stared at him, fury in her eyes, before letting go and slumping back down to the floor, closing her eyes in relief. "Gods, I'm sorry, Oz. I thought you were Angel."
"Angel did this to you?" Willow asked.
"Except for the stab wound, yeah," Victoria replied in a hoarse voice, glancing at the bloody dagger next to Oz and grinning slightly. "He didn't know you were Immortal, and was mad that I hadn't killed you. So he threw me against a wall."
Oz grabbed Victoria's hand and helped her up. "Go clean yourself up, Toria, and grab one of my shirts. You're safe now." She nodded silently and gathered the last dregs of her strength to leave the room.
Meanwhile, Jason had managed to nose open the kitchen door and came back into the room. He immediately went to Victoria, and she dropped to her knees to give him a hug. "Thank you, Jason," she whispered. Oz gently put his hands on her shoulder and the wolf's head. Willow, quite unexpectedly, did not feel jealous, but touched that she could see nearly visible evidence of the love the three shared for each other.
A brilliant flash of white light, with blue, red, and green undertones, caused everyone in the room to jump slightly. The four were confronted by a shimmering transparent image of what was obviously the demon Triaumvervirate. "Well," he said. "My three Guardians have proved that they really do care for one another. I was getting worried there for a second when Tria drained Virate." He looked over them, not even appearing to notice Willow. "But now it's time to go home, Tria and Umver." He waved his hand and Victoria and Jason disappeared, along with all of Victoria's belongings. Oz and Willow stared at the demon. With a wink at Oz, he said, "Good-bye, Virate." Then he disappeared.
Willow stared at Oz. "I take it that's Triaum...Triumv..."
"Triaumvervirate? Yep, that's him." Oz shook his head. "He's the riot, not Victoria."
Victoria reappeared in her apartment's living room. Justin Le Faye leapt off the couch when he saw the blood on her shirt. "What the hell happened to you? Where did you go?"
She gave him a long suffering look. "It's a long story, Jus'. Let's just say that the Hellmouth is never dull."
~finis~
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This page was last updated: 6.15.4 ~jlg~