Ch.40

I told her I had no power beyond magic or the infinity stones to bring back the dead. I sat on the back of the bus while they watched the crater and made light jokes to relief the stress of surviving the war. Faith was heartbroken over Robin because she'd found a good guy and nearly started something good only to lose him before it could even begin. She sat beside me and asked about the rings. I told her how old they were and that they'd fallen to earth in my reality long before I'd gotten there.

I told her she'd be immortal meaning she wouldn't age so long as she wears them and now that Robin's passed them onto her, I won't stand in her way. She said she knew how to use them to fight, but she didn't want to rely on their power. I agreed and told her she should wear them, but focus on her own training while she practices with them when she has time because with them she has all the time in the world.

Time passed quickly from there as the old watchers were released from Atlantis once Buffy bought a castle in Scotland with the money I gave her. Nearly two billion dollars buys a lot of stuff apparently so she set up safe houses in every major city around the globe and spent all her time gathering slayers. I nearly killed Quinten Travers when he suggested I should have a watcher now that I was a slayer.

With a few spells and a powerful seer, I was able to determine that there were no other male slayers nor was I bound to this reality. Instead I fucked his face up before curb stomping half the watchers council. I was so close to killing them all only for Faith to stop me with the rings. I damned near took them away from her but instead I regained a bit of control and told the watchers that I hadn't hospitalized that if I ever saw a watcher again I'd kill them.

I left Scotland and Faith chased after me wanting to not be apart of building the slayer organization. Instead we road tripped across America killing demons and vampires like a devastating plague. I taught her basic sorcery which took her months to master the sling ring basics. By then Angel needed help in LA and we met up with them as well as Illyria who recognized me instantly.

She wasn't pleased to be trapped in a mortal shell which I laughed my ass off to. She grew frustrated failing to hurt me and took out her anger on Spike who'd reformed from the necklace and even became whole again since we'd last met. When I was done laughing at her, I backhanded her so hard she broke through the reinforced training room walls and several offices before landing in the main auditorium of the lounge.

I appeared sitting on the stairs as Illyria struggled to get up. "You know, I remember the days when you and I wiped out armies, invaded dimensions and slaughtered our enemies while destroying anything in our path. Those we simpler times really with all the death, bloody and chaos only quelled by the legions bowing and scraping at your tentacle feet, worshipping you like a vengeful god. As if you'd have had half as much without me!"

I kicked her in the ribs and she busted several chandeliers before landing at Faith's feet. I grunted. "Now, we done wrecking things enough to talk or do you want me to get serious cause honestly, I've only gotten stronger in all the time since we tore shit up and I can do this for a few million years without breaking a sweat."

Illyria got up slowly and looked to me. "You have become the superior fighter."

I shook my head. "I was always the superior fighter. I just became sane enough to use my fighting knowledge effectively since we knew each other. When we met I was already insane and a drooling mess looking to kill things for food and sport."

She nodded slowly before kneeling to me, beaten and bloody. "Now you are king."

I grabbed her by the throat and lifted her up. "I never wanted to be king, only equals back then. We fought for over a million years after we met and not once did either of us come out on top. Still, you had the audacity to declare yourself above me? If you had not, I would've been there when the others betrayed you. Your lack of restraint and forethought was your undoing."

I set her on her feet and let her go to her surprise. I looked her over and frowned. "Your body isn't capable of holding in your immense power. You're weakening and that's the power I felt. You're slipping through time."

I used the time stone's power to repair the damage to the timeline while telling Illyria. "Your vessel is too weak to contain all your power. You need to shed a great deal of it if you're to remain."

Wesley came over with the Mutari generator and asked me to move away. I shrugged and went to the stairs, sitting down next to Faith. I stole a bag of popcorn from the best theater in town with a vibed portal. Faith and I watched and ate popcorn while Wesley reasoned with her. She said she'd be lesser and I grunted. "Maybe, but so long as you're alive you can regain that power by finding a way to strengthen your new body later."

She looked to me before tilting her head and asking if that's what I did. I grunted. "After a fashion, yeah. Though not at all intentionally."

She turned to Wesley. "Do it."

He did so right as she was about to explode. The mutari generator worked as advertised and I stood up yawning while Faith finished off the popcorn. I turned to Angel as they finished. "Yeah, don't call us again until you remember what team you're batting for."

He scowled. "I've always been fighting for good."

I shook my head. "You aren't a CEO Angel. You aren't a king and this isn't remotely helping as much as you seem to think it is. You forget that there's no score board, no bottom line. Heroes don't conform for any price, they fight and they keep fighting until the beastie's slain and then they move on to the next one. Each day you sit in your office, forgetting that the reason you fight is out there beyond those walls, suffering because no one's there to save them. I'd say more, but at least Spike goes out and helps people when he's not playing the role of a whipping boy."

Spike grunted. "Hey!"

Angel frowned and I shook my head when he said he was doing good here. "You're mistaking managing evil for doing good. That's why the slayer organization wants nothing to do with you. You've become complacent in this place. The longer you sit here, the more you become just another vampire working to keep the bottom line in a hell factory."

I took my brown leather dusted Faith offered and shrugged it on before grunting. "That's the run isn't it? All of this is distracting you from seeing that your efforts in here don't mean a damned thing in the big picture. Heroes inspire hope in the hopeless. They're the guiding light in the darkness and you're so hip deep in this beast's belly that you can't realize you aren't inspiring anyone, you're just churning it's guts around and keeping the beast alive if by assimilation which is something I don't care to see."

I lit a joint and Faith asked if I was ready to go. I looked to Illyria and back to Angel. "Yeah. I'm not interested in what comes next. My guess is they'll give her a room and an office or make her a client. It is what they do here after all."

Wesley asked. "You think we should kill her then?"

I shook my head. "Illyria is a powerful, intelligent and useful ally. Just don't let the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart sink their claws into her. They will ride you all hard eventually and put you away wet. That's the price for playing businessmen in a corporate hellhole. Use her, kill her, fuck her for all I care. I'm sure her body is anatomically correct enough after all."

Wesley tried to punch me and Illyria caught his hand before releasing him gently. "He was goading you into striking him so he can kill you with reason. He wants you dead."

She turned to me and I shrugged. "Yeah, not a big fan of the shadow men or their watcher offspring these days."

Spike lit a cigarette. "I knew something was gonna happen. He nearly killed Giles."

Faith scoffed. "That's old news. He nearly wiped out all the surviving watchers. He would've killed them too if it weren't for me reminding him the world needs them the hard way."

Illyria eyed her curiously before looking to the rings she wore and nodded. "With those I believe you could make him stop for a time at least. There were many old ones that died to those rings, torn asunder from the inside, crushed to mush from the outside and ripped apart hole by hole."

She clearly wanted them, but when she went to take them her power waned and Faith beat her down. We left and I told Angel I was taking one of his cars. He didn't much care so long as it wasn't the Ferrari. I chuckled and took the Lamborghini Murciélago with Faith riding shotgun.

She asked me when she kicked up her feet as we drove out. "Where to now?"

I grunted. "The Hyperion hotel. We're going to stick around for a while and tear it up outside to help those Angel and his team aren't."