Roomies

Disclaimer: The characters of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series Universes (Angel, Cordelia, Spike, Xander, Doyle, etc…) are the creation of Joss Whedon and are, therefore, the property of him, Mutant Enemy (Grr, Arg), and 20th Century Fox (and all other affiliated parties). No money is gained from this work as it is created purely for the enjoyment of others. Please do not sue.

AN: Constructive criticism and friendly fedback are always appreciated. Flames will be used to warm my toes.

~Part 31: Sudden Death Overtime~

Xander gave the back of Angel’s head a heated glare as he continued to drag his feet to annoy Spike. When the blonde started to growl at him, Xander simply pointed his tongue out. “What?” he asked to further annoy Spike.

“Stop bloody well draggin’ yer feet you sodding wanker! I may not be able to hurt you but I sure as hell can give the Mic over there a good going over,” Spike threatened softly.

“You’re all talk!” Xander protested hotly.

Spike grinned much like the way he did just before hitting something while on patrols and asked, “Do you really want to test that theory, mate?”

Xander gulped and shuffled over to Doyle and made an obvious effort *not* to drag his feet. He shoved his hands into his pockets and finally took a good look around him. “Pretty low rent… even by my standards.”

Doyle nodded as he headed into a living room. “Well, they were in hiding.”

Angel nodded. “Good place for it,” he offered stoically.

“I still can’t believe that you guys did that,” Xander muttered, returning to his previous topic that caused all his childlike behavior as he made his way through the room. It was surprisingly clean for such a run down place. “I mean, couldn’t you have given us enough warning to clear out of the office before you made with all the bad touching and scary noises.”

“I smell something,” Spike said, ignoring Xander’s monologue as he made his way through the kitchen.

“Yeah, well, not all of us have super-demon senses,” Xander retorted, “or made with the nasty five minutes before we left.”

Doyle picked up a bit of meat left on the table and muttered, “It’s still warm.”

“Not food.” Angel walked over to a rug that covered most of the kitchen floor and leaned down to pick it up. Once it was moved they could all see the latch to a cellar.

“Fear,” Spike intoned softly.

Angel pulled at the latch and let the door open to reveal a large group of demons cowering in fear inside the cellar. “Don't be afraid... It's okay. We're here to help.”

~~~

Angel looked from Spike to Xander and sighed. “We need to deal with this. They think that I’m some kind of promised savior.”

Xander grinned. “And we all know how incredibly wrong they are on that point. I mean, weren’t you guys the leaders of the last Scourge?”

Spike shook his head and said, “We were the Scourge of Europe you dolt. This lot is completely different. Never heard of them before, m’self.”

“And, of course, since you’ve never heard of them—“ Xander stopped abruptly as Spike vamped out and hissed at him. He took a step back, trying to take refuge in Doyle’s arms but the half demon was too preoccupied to join in their usual round of banter. “Uh… Doyle, you okay?”

Doyle glanced away from the window only for a moment before once again studying the streets.

“Doyle, what is it?” Angel asked, his voice colored with concern.

“Th’ Scourge,” Doyle said softly.

“We’ve already established that and the fact the neither Spike nor Angel have taken any of their past hobbies,” Xander offered, trying to cover up his uneasiness with a joke.

Angel elbowed the teen as he asked, “You know them?”

Doyle nodded slowly as he continued watching the street.

Suddenly serious, Spike asked, “What are they?”

“Death,” Doyle whispered ominously.

Xander kicked his foot softly against the wall, the thumping it made sounding very much like that of a heartbeat. “I thought Death carried a scythe and wore a big black cloak?”

“Shut up, Xander!” Angel ordered louder than he really meant to.

Xander shrunk into himself and leaned against the wall, his lips pressed tightly together.

Doyle glanced around to make sure no one was paying any attention to them before explaining, “An army ov pureblood demons. They got a big hate-on fer us mixed herit’ge types. Very inta pedigree. They hunt us down like animals.”

“No one fights back?” Spike asked.

“Sure they do. All th’ time,” Doyle replied. After a pause he added, “Yah c’n kill 'em... bu’ these guys believe in wha’ they're doin’. They're ready ta die fer th’ cause.”

“Hard to fight fanatics,” Angel muttered.

“More like impossible...” Doyle said hotly.

Spike sucked in a quick, unneeded breath. “So when did you…?” he started to ask.

“When I got th’ visions fer th’ f’rst time I thought I was havin’ a stroke,” was all Doyle offered. He shuddered at the remembrance of it. He swallowed thickly and leaned back against the wall. “I didn't know wha’ th’ images meant. Bu’ I had ta know if wha’ they showed me was a dream... or real.”

Doyle was silent for a long time. He watched the family of demons in the room interact with one another for a few minutes. After a long time he simply said, “It wasn't a dream.”

“You couldn't have known,” Xander offered softly. His voice was barely loud enough to be heard but they all caught what he said.

Doyle gave Xander a weak smile before turning back to Angel. “These people're gunna need more’n their mythic promised one. Th’ contrac’ually obligated 500 might be a start.”

At the look on Angel’s face, Doyle said emphatically, “Yah c’n't fight th’ Scourge, Angel.”

“It won't come to that,” Angel stated, “because we're going to get them out of here.”

~~~

Xander walked up to Cordelia and nudged her shoulder with his own. “You alright?” he asked softly.

Cordelia made a scoffing sound. “I just found out that one of the people I trusted with my life—on more than one occasion, I might remind you—has been lying to me pretty much since the moment I first met him. I’m just dandy.”

“’Trusted’? As in past tense?” Xander asked.

“Not helping,” Cordelia snipped at him.

Nodding, Xander looked down to study his shoes and caught sight of a stain of questionable origin. He shuffled slightly to the side before saying softly, “It was more of an omission of fact than out and out lying.”

Turning to look right at Xander, Cordelia’s jaw dropped. “You knew! You knew and didn’t say a thing to me!” she gasped out.

“Hey!” Xander exclaimed. “Shouldn’t you be more concerned that your two vampire love interests kept it a secret? I think I would.”

“This isn’t about you, Xander Harris!” Cordelia growled out while poking Xander in the chest with a finger. “This is about me and *my* pain here, Mr I’ll-Date-Anyone—or thing!—That-Pays-Attention-To-Me.”

Xander glared at Cordelia but stayed quiet.

“I mean, I let Doyle into nearly every part of my life,” Cordelia said. “He’s even mixed drinks for me. How do I know if some of his scales or something didn’t manage to get into me and contaminate me with his demonism?”

“Cordelia, as much as I sympathize with you, we are currently at a minority on this boat. I really would feel better if you didn’t mention ‘contamination’ of any kind while talking about Doyle,” Xander said very slowly. He stopped, then as a thought occurred to him, he said, “Okay, one: I really don’t think that demon genes can to inherited by swallowing some skin—at least in this case. And, two: Doyle doesn’t have scales.”

Cordelia’s eyes went wide. “You’ve seen him? And you still get the hots for him? Uhg!”

Xander shook his head at Cordelia and turned away from her just as Doyle came running through a door at one end of the room and Angel came crashing through one on the other end. “What the hell?” he asked softly.

Doyle came up to him and placed a hand on his arm. “They’re ‘ere. We need ta get ev’ryone ou’.”

Suppressing a shiver, Xander nodded and moved over to the Elder. He was just about to ask the half demon to help his round everybody up when a hatch above his head opened up and a strange device started to drop down. A light that was slowly growing brighter shone out of it from every side.

“Get out! Everyone out now!” Angel was calling from the catwalk along the upper level of the room.

Xander made a dash for the door only to reach it just and Doyle stepped back shaking his head.

“Aah, locked fr’m th’ outside,” the Irishman said. Loud enough for everyone to hear, he stated, “We're trapped!”

Xander made a mad dash for the catwalk and joined Angel, Spike, and Cordelia on a platform right across from the device. As he panted for breath, Doyle came up behind him. “Looks like the demons took a page from Sci-Fi Weekly,” he said upon getting a closer look at the device.

More simply, Doyle asked, “Wha’ does this thin’ do?”

“Its light kills anything with human blood,” Spike supplied.

“Well, it's getting’ brigh’er,” Doyle said, “an’ tha’ l’il doohickey's—It’s fully armed, i’n't it?”

“Almost...” Xander answered. He could recognize all the signs of a bomb in the thing, thanks to his favorable history on the subject of bombs. “I think if those cables over there are pulled it’ll shut off.”

“How are we gunna do that without touching the light?” Cordelia asked.

Angel shared a look with Spike, who gritted his teeth and nodded.

Cordelia shook her head in realization. “Angel, no!” she yelled, “It would be suicide.”

“There's got to be another way,” Xander said, as Spike turned his back on them all.

“It's all right,” Angel said softly.

“No!” Cordelia exclaimed. “How can this be alright? How can you dying—permanently—be anything resembling a good thing?”

Angel didn’t answer for a moment. Finally, he said, “Spike will take care of you.”

He leaned down and, gathering Cordelia into his arms, he kissed her softly on the lips. Once he pulled away, he grabbed Spike roughly by the arm, planted a swift kiss on the other vampire’s forehead and whispered something in his ear. That done, he looked over to Xander and Doyle.

“Th’ good fight, yeah?” Doyle said softly.

Angel glanced over his shoulder and sucked in a quick breath before turning back to Doyle and nodding.

“Yah never know ‘til yah've bin tested...” Doyle said, more to himself than anyone else. More loudly, he said, “I get tha’ now.”

He made as if to turn away but, at the last moment, turned back and sucker punched Angel. The vampire, caught off guard by the hit, went flying to the floor below. Spike ran for Doyle, who ducked, and fell as well, landing in a heap on top of Angel.

Doyle turned to face Xander and grinned. After a pause, he stepped forward and pulled Xander into his arms.

“Wha—?” Xander managed to ask before Doyle’s lips landed on his own.

The kiss was anything but perfect, but it was soft and Doyle put every ounce of feeling he had into it. He pulled back slowly, his teeth ringing slightly from knocking them against Xander’s, and smiled widely. “Too bad we'll never know...” he said softly, as he allowed his demon aspect to come forward.

Xander took in the now almost familiar sight of dark prongs and blue skin and felt a smile tug the corner of his mouth. “Never know?”

“...if this is a face yah cou’ learn ta love.”

“Wait,” Xander called desperately, finally realizing Doyle’s intentions as he moved to the edge of the platform.

Doyle threw one last grin over his shoulder before leaping to the device. Xander watched helplessly from the sidelines as Doyle struggled with the cable that he had pointed out. Cordelia’s sobs reached his ear, but Xander remained completely unemotional as Doyle’s skin started to melt off. The half-demon’s screams could have curdled the blood of the most seasoned veteran.

Angel and Spike appeared at Xander’s side just as Doyle’s body was completely vaporized. Angel let loose one more pointless ‘no’ before lapsing into an astonished silence.

Xander turned away from the sight of the machine powering down to see Spike holding on to Cordelia like she was his only chance at survival. That alone was what allowed the floodgates to open and tears poured down his cheeks and the sound of deep, tortured sobs reached his ears.