Gunn didn't want Wolfram and Hart to know about Angel's prospective bolt hole just in case he was actually using it.  He also didn't want the Scoobies to know because judging by the way Angel had reacted to them and to the vision they were a source of Angel's fear and pain, so he spoke in friend only code.  Luckily Fred and Wes were smart...

 

"Of course...  Where else would he feel safe after the hotel?"  Wes went to his office and grabbed his coat.  "Gunn, Fred and Lorne, you guys come with me the rest of you stay here."

 

"No bloody way!  I want to find Angel and I need to go!  I don't care what you say Percy!  I have to make this right."

 

Spike was storming towards the doors, willing the tears that were marring his blue eyes away.  A strong hand clamped on his arm and he turned expecting a small blonde slayer to be on the end of it.  Instead there was a stone faced ex-Watcher.

 

"You might be what he is running from."

 

Spike felt as if a stake had been pushed through his chest at that very moment.  Could that really be the truth of the situation?  Had it come so far that Angel would run from him?  He knew deep down in his heart, in the places so dark that he refused to visit them that it was.  He had abused Angel more thoroughly than the Master could have ever managed.  He had ripped Angel to shreds but he hadn't been there to pick up the pieces.  He had broken every single promise that he had ever made to Angel just because of Buffy.

 

He looked up at Wes with hopeless blue eyes and willed him to understand his need to go, but it didn't look as though he was going to be swayed.  For once, Gunn was the practical member of the group.

 

"As much as I agree with English on this and as much as I don't want to hurt Angel more I think that we could use a bit of muscle on this... just in case."

 

High above the City of Angels carried on invisible wings, pain, fear and desperation moved towards their target... they hit with the precision and force of an inter-continental ballistic missile. 

 

Angel was curled up in a ball on the sofa in Cordy's apartment, shaking with fear.  He didn't want either of them to die and yet he didn't know how to save them.  The vision showed that his desperate pleas had fallen on deaf ears, that they had ignored him and faced off against one another.  What else could he do?  If he left LA he doubted that would stop them �" it would only stop him having to witness.  Then again it may draw Gabriel away... but he'd have to leave Spike...

 

Every so often a small gust of air blew over him in a gentle caress and he knew that Dennis was trying to offer some support but there was nothing that he could do.  He wondered if it was easier to be a ghost �" you can't be hurt physically but there was still the emotional pain that came with existing.  Was it worth it?  Was all the heartache really worth it just to be able to walk the earth?  Wouldn't he rather have oblivion?  Oblivion couldn't hurt him; oblivion couldn't break him into thousands of tiny pieces and refuse to put them back together at the end.  Oblivion seemed peaceful.  It seemed the best option.  He had tried to imagine his life without Spike, his life without the possibility of Gabriel... it was the blackest despair that he could conjure.  He knew that he couldn't allow one of them to kill the other because if they did he'd lose them both.  He'd never forgive either of them for such an act.  He was the only criminal here, he should have dealt with Gabriel last night on the roof or he should have made Spike acknowledge him.  He had let them walk all over him and the result was that he might lose them both forever.

 

Or he'd lose himself.  Not for the first time did Angel consider running �" really running.  Not to a high roof top or an old apartment but away... far away... somewhere they wouldn't look for him.  He doubted that would work though.  Gabriel would follow him if he had to and he couldn't see Spike letting him... no he could.  Could he release Spike that way?  Would they all just move on if Angel wasn't there to cause problems?  He had destroyed all of them at some point or other.  The cruelty that he had unleashed as Angelus or signing that damned contract... surely they'd be better without him to hurt them further?  He wasn't worth all of the pain that they were forced to suffer.  Cordy and Doyle had both lost their lives because of him... then there was Darla, Holtz, Jenny Calendar, Daniel, Penn, Drusilla, Spike... then Buffy whose first love was two and a half centuries older than her and had hurt her more than anyone should be hurt in their lives... there were thousands of graves that had been dug because of his hands.  Was he really worth this?

 

Tears rolled down his cheeks as he remembered everything that he had done in his life.  The disappointment that he had seen in his father's face when he had been caught stealing or seducing the maid.  The pride and awe on Darla's when he had wanted to kill the entire village.  The horror on Dru's as he had turned her below a crucifix, seducing her into his bed as he went.  The screams as he'd beaten William until there was only the smallest amount of blood left in his veins.  He started to gasp for air that he didn't need, hyperventilating through the horror of his actions.  He knew that he had to calm down so that he could help Gabriel avoid death.  He knew that he shouldn't be considering it but he was going to help him escape and if he broke down now he would hurt the only person in the world that he had never harmed.  He couldn't do that to Gabriel.

 

He pulled himself out of his tight ball and started to breath as he would if doing tai chi.  In and out.  In and out.  Deep, slow, steady breaths to bring his sanity back to him.  In and out.  He felt the peace begin to wash over him and he closed his eyes focusing on his breathing.  He had to do this for Gabriel...

 

A black marble plinth rose from the floor of the room.  On it sat a glowing golden ball.  It was small and looked as fragile as glass yet he didn't think that it was made of glass... Directly behind the plinth was a large throne made of the same black marble.  They looked so stark against the relief of the rest of the room.  White marble floors and walls and twelve other chairs...Except... the wall behind the black throne...

 

At the very top of it was a white inverted three point star, a crowning glory on the black wall.  From the bottom point extended what could almost be a family tree �" except their were no names just strange symbols, glyphs... he didn't know what they meant...  The first layer had twelve glyphs on it... twelve chairs... He continued to stare at the wall hoping to be able to decipher something from it but there was nothing.  He watched as a deep red �" almost black �" globule formed in the centre of the star.  It ran down the bottom point and like a stream of water, ran along each line of the tree and into each of the fifty or so glyphs.  Once it reached them, they glowed, first red then gold building to a searing white light.  The fluid still flowed until it reached the bottom of each line.  Then something... more strange... happened... the fluid drained out of each glyph except two �" the star and a strange looking H entwined with a K curving out of one of the uprights and wrapping itself around the H.  It was like an H within a giant three surrounding it.  He didn't understand it but all of the liquid was flowing to that very symbol.  It built in light and then the fluid burst out creating another pathway... an inverted V with a flaming sun at its apex appeared and seared itself into the wall.  He wasn't sure what it meant or how he was meant to understand it but he was trying - he really was.

 

He turned round in a small circle to view the rest of the room.  It was a great hall with just the twelve chairs and the black throne and the strange orb.  He looked back to the wall and started in shock.  Stood before the throne was a man watching the wall, his back to Angel.  He bent his head as if in prayer and then he straightened.  Angel tried to speak, to ask him what was going on when the man turned to him and his breath was snatched away...

 

He was indescribable... All Angel was aware of was a honey colour skin, titian hair with strands as red as blood and golden as the sun... and burnt golden eyes gazing at him with... pride...

 

"Angel."

 

"Angel!  Petit you have to wake up, come on Mon Ange, come back to me."

 

Gabriel had never moved as fast in his life as he had when the smell of Angel's fear hit him.  He had flown through the streets following the screaming scent and ended up in a set of stylish Spanish apartments.  He followed his senses to an apartment door and although there was no one living in the flat there was actually someone 'living' there �" besides Angel.  A ghost couldn't stop him from entering the apartment but could make it difficult for him once he was in there.  Especially if it was an established spirit.  He was pleasantly shocked when the door opened for him and he was pushed in by a forceful air.  His heart was in his mouth when he reached the sparsely furnished living area and saw Angel unconscious on the couch.  Unable to smell blood �" Angel's blood �" in amounts that would suggest a normal reason for his state he started to worry.  When Angel failed to stir even slightly in response he became very worried.

 

Dennis was also worried but as no vampire could hurt him �" there was the occasional benefit to being dead �" and as this one didn't seem to want to hurt Angel he allowed him in, despite Angel's request that no one got in �" not even Wesley �" because Angel needed help.  Dennis understood fear and despair �" he'd seen it on Cordelia's face after Doyle's death, after the visions, after a hard night helping people �" but this was beyond him.  Angel seemed distraught and if this vampire could help him Dennis wasn't going to stop him.  So Dennis left Gabriel to help Angel and went to lurk in the hallway.

 

Gabriel kept talking to Angel, unsure as what to do. He could sense no physical malady and had a horrible feeling that this was caused by those visions.  So he sat down on the sofa and pulled Angel into his body and held him, whispering in his ear and stroking his hair, willing Angel to come back to him.

 

Gunn produced the keys to two of the seven seater people carriers that Wolfram and Hart owned and they all piled in to the sleek black vehicles, Wes and Gunn behind the wheels.  They pulled out of the basement garage and into the LA night, slipping into the traffic like sharks, moving silently and swiftly towards their target, gliding in and out of the other cars like shadows.

 

Bleary brown eyes blinked and focused on worried green ones.  Slowly Angel realised that he was lying on top of Gabriel, cradled gently in strong arms.  He hadn't been truly held for a week, he hadn't woken in arms that were loving and protective and so real.  He didn't think.  For once Angel didn't analyse his actions before he acted.  He burrowed further into the strong chest below him, revelling in the feel of someone holding him.  He didn't resist when Gabriel brushed a kiss across his forehead, rather he leant up and pressed a soft kiss to Gabriel's lips.  He meant it as a thank you but something in him snapped with that gentle touch and he melted into Gabriel's embrace.

 

Wes pulled the car into the curb and killed the engine.  The motor had barely stopped turning and they were all out of the car, Gunn pulling in behind them.  Wes turned to the group.

 

"Let me talk to him.  If he wants you to leave you do so �" don't make it any harder for him than it has to be."  He glanced up at the building they were stood in front of, he felt as though he was in a horror movie and standing before the haunted house, his fear was that great.   "I have an awful feeling that nothing will be the same after tonight." 

 

It was only a whisper but everyone heard it as loud as a fog horn.  They each felt that thick fear in the base of their gut and desperately tried to ignore it. It caused a ripple of terror to flow through Spike turning into a shudder that crept up his spine and ran over every nerve.  He would be damned before he lost Angel. 

 

Fred, wide eyed and ashen, slipped a shaky hand into Wesley's as they turned and went into the building.

 

Angel broke the kiss and scrambled off Gabriel and the sofa, retreating until his back touched the wall.  Gabriel looked at the frightened boy that was shuddering in the corner.  Something was very wrong with his boy.

 

"Angel?  Tell me Petit, what is haunting you?"

 

Wide eyes stared at him in a silent plea �" Angel didn't want to tell him.  He wasn't going to accept that.  He moved towards Angel, slowly and calmly and squatted down in front of him.  He stroked Angel's face, trying to get him to calm down and Angel lent into the touch, tears rolling down his cheeks.

 

"I saw it."

 

"Saw what Angel?"

 

Hopeless brown eyes stared up at him, so full of fear and love that Gabriel withdrew his hand for a moment.  Before brushing his thumb over the quivering lips.  He moved closer.

 

"Mon Ange?"

 

"I saw them kill..." his eyes widened and darted around the room.  It was here.  His vision had taken place here.  "No!"

 

Angel spun on Gabriel and lightening fast got to his feet and holding Gabriel in a vice like grip began to drag him to the door.

 

"We've got to get out of here!" 

 

His voice was strained and his hold on Gabriel was relentless.  His nails bit into Gabriel's flesh drawing blood despite the fact that he was quivering like a leaf.  He reached the door and gripped the handle.

 

Wes led them down the corridor towards Cordy's old home, his sense of dread building with every step.  Once they reach the door they silently they all looked at one another and agreed that Wes would be the first in.  He reached out and turned the handle.

 

The door opened a crack...

 

The door slammed shut with a resounding bang that ricocheted up both Wes and Angel's arms.  Wes tried pushing the door as Angel, so scared for Gabriel's safety that he failed to sense his friends' presence, frantically started pulling at it.

 

"What the bloody hell are you playin' at Percy?"  Spike's hissed comment was joined by a low growl and a flash of amber eyes.

 

Angel froze when he heard that voice...  This couldn't be happening!  They couldn't have found him so quickly.

 

"I'm not doing anything Spike!  The door... Dennis?  It's Wesley... could you let me in?" 

 

He tried the handle again and Angel watched as Dennis slammed the door for him again.  It was as if he realised how dire the situation was but Angel didn't have anytime to be grateful.  He whirled on Gabriel with wide eyes and shock white skin to find Gabriel looking like the devil himself, glaring at the door.

 

"Don't..."

 

"Angel?  Is that you?  Look, just let me in and we can talk �" the others will stay out here just..."

 

"No!  Go away Wesley!  Please!"

 

"Angel, just..."

 

"Go away Watcher." 

 

The new, slightly accented voice caused Wes to stagger back from the door in shock and the others to stare at the door intently unable to decide whether they believed that Angel had betrayed them and they were shocked at it or that they were shocked at themselves for bothering to trusting Angel.  Spike growled deep and low.  There was no mistaking the meaning of the growl, it was purely territorial.  It was the bone rattling growl of an Alpha Male who's found someone else marking in his territory.  It was about dominance, aggression and possession and there was no mistaking that.  In Spike's eyes Angel was his.  He'd accepted the claim that Spike had placed on him and had lived as his pet for a month �" despite the act that they had put on for everyone around them.  To all vampires such acts meant that Angel was Spike's unquestionable property and no other Master Vampire was allowed to go near to him in such away �" they needed his permission.

 

"Angel.  Open this door.  Now." 

 

Spike's voice was unnaturally calm and the tone was one that no one had every heard him use before.  It was still �" there was no other way to describe it.  Each word fell like a weight and carried the maleficent tone of a funeral knell.  Instinctively a part of Angel heeded his Master's voice, but another part, a smaller but powerful part of him was pulling away from that voice.  He didn't get a choice in what happened though as Gabriel caught him by the arm and pulled him back from the door.  He looked up into those green, green eyes and he knew that he couldn't open the door.   He couldn't allow that prophecy to come true...

 

"Please... please go away."

 

Spike growled again at Angel's refusal to do as he was commanded, he knew that if Angel began to pull against the Claim he would be irreversibly damaged.

 

"Angel, I am not asking you, I am telling you to open this door.  Right now."

 

Again there was the tone of voice that had all the cheer of a graveyard in winter.  It was terrifying for all to hear but for Angel it was anguish.  He heard it in every cell of his body; a small echo of what Spike said constantly repeating and commanding and it was becoming harder to fight.  Before he could answer though, he heard another growl.  Low and deep and powerful.

 

They all did.  Spike did.  Gabriel was challenging him and he wasn't going to back down.  When it came to Claims there was a protocol involved.  There were only three ways that a Claim could be released from its master �" the death of the Master, the death of the Claim or the Claim's jesses being handed over to another.  The last hardly ever happened though.  For a vampire to take a Claim was a serious affair and one that was only undertaken with eternity in mind.  They 'cared' for the creature that they owned, whether it is about sex, a power that they held or bloodline tradition, there was a want for the Claim, a want that went beyond average desire and hurtled towards obsession.  Another Master wasn't even allowed to touch a Claim without the Master's permission.  There were many reasons for this, but there were three that stood out more than the others, three that meant more than the others.  The first was scent.  A Claim had very little of its own scent left on its skin although it's still there in the blood.  Instead, they smell like their Master.  It can take years for the process to be completed fully, entirely dependant upon the relationship between the Claimer and Claimed and in the early stages of Claiming this can be disrupted.  The second was simple �" possession.  They owned the Claim and it was theirs to do with what they wanted.  The third was about power.  Having a Claim, having the ability to claim another vampire indicated that you were a powerful vampire; it elevated you in vampire society.

 

A growl like that meant only one thing �" Gabriel was challenging Spike over Angel.  Spike had two options fight or surrender and he had never backed down from anything in his life...  He growled back.

 

"No... please don't do this..."

 

He was tired.  He was so very tired.  His head was hurting and his heart was breaking and he was tired of it all.  He didn't have the energy to stand anymore.  Gabriel caught him as he slid boneless to the floor.  He could hear yelling outside and Gabriel murmuring in his ear but nothing made sense...

 

Black wings... White wings marked with black...

 

He could hear Wes yelling through the door telling him to open it so that they could talk.  He heard Spike's commanding tones telling him to get out of the room and away from Gabriel, threatening Gabriel with everything that he had.  He could hear Willow and Fred trying to calm the situation down.  He could hear Gabriel telling them to leave now �" that Angel didn't need them here at the moment.  He heard his own voice begging them to leave, begging Dennis not to let them in.  But everything was muted, fuzzy. 

 

A blue halo and a golden core... a broken angel with a golden core...

 

It was as though he knew it was happening but he felt like it was happening to someone else.  Someone who wasn't him.  He was just a detached spectator moving through the scene saying the lines that he was expected to say but he heard nothing really, he felt nothing.  He just wanted to escape, to get Gabriel out of there... he wanted everything to go back to how it was before any of this.  Go back a month... go back 240 years.  Then he heard the words that broke him from his mind spin...

 

"Move!"  It was Buffy's voice commanding total obedience.

 

There was a fierce bang on the door and he just knew that she was going to break it down.  He scooted over to the door and braced it with his weight.

 

"Gabriel, please go!  I saw them kill you!  Get out of here!"

 

"Angel move from the door now!"

 

"No!  Please, just let me sort this out!" 

 

The door rattled again, giving him the only answer that he was likely to receive.  He was forced forward slightly by the force of the impact.  He moved back to his position.  He looked at Gabriel and tried to put everything he was feeling into that look.

 

"Gabriel... please..."

 

Gabriel shook his head and fell into a defensive posture.  He knew exactly what was behind that door and he wasn't going to back down.  He had come for Angel and he wasn't going anywhere without him.

 

"Please, just get out of here!" 

 

The pounding on the door was becoming fiercer and fiercer and he knew that he and Dennis could only hold them off for so long.  Behind that cherry wood door were two slayers, a powerful witch and an angry vampire, and Dennis was only one ghost and he wasn't in good shape.  He needed Gabriel to leave and leave now �" if he didn't then someone was going to become ash and he was going to lose a part of himself along with them or his own life in an attempt to stop it.  He would die for both of them �" he loved them that much... he just wasn't sure that they really felt the same for him but he was prepared to risk it.

 

"Not leaving you to face them alone Mon Ange �" you mean too much for me to do that."

 

"They'll kill you."

 

There was no hope in Angel's voice anymore.  His entire body had closed in on itself and he could see no other future than death.  The death of someone that he loved more than his own life.  Gabriel refused to leave the shell of his love like this.  He steeled himself and his green eyes turned an umbered gold and small fangs made themselves known.

 

"They are going to try."

 

Weak from all the heightened emotion racing round his system, Angel didn't have the energy to do anymore than crawl over to Gabriel and kneel at his feet.  He stared into the green eyes that had watched over him so long ago and willed him to understand. 

 

The cherry wood door exploded as Buffy's foot slammed through it.

 

All that greeted them was an empty apartment and an open window.

 

Angel had gone...