Part 8

"Just like that?" Matt asked incredulously. "You just showed yourself to her like that? Was that even part of the plan?"

"Yes, yes, and yes," Nicholas answered impatiently. "She now thinks knows who she's fighting."

Matt frowned. "No, she does know who she's fighting."

"Not completely. She doesn't know you're not on her side, yet."

"True..."

"Look," Nicholas interrupted. "I know what I'm doing. You just follow along and do what I say."

"Yeah, sure," Matt replied. "Whatever. I just better get my share."

Nicholas narrowed his eyes dangerously. "You do not make demands from me, Matthew. And you do not speak to me that way."

Suddenly afraid, Matt nodded. "Right. Sorry."

"Leave me, nephew," Nicholas said. "I have other things to do."

"Sure," Matt said. "I just thought you'd like to know that the Slayer's pregnant."

Nicholas leaned forward. "Pregnant?" he asked with a frown. "This is interesting. Do you know what it is?"

Matt shook his head. "Nope," he answered. "Lynn doesn't know, either."

Nicholas frowned and turned his head sideways in thought. "Perhaps I've miscalculated. We'll have to work faster than I thought."

With a grin, Matt nodded. "The fun begins now..."

******

Willow frowned as she stared at the piece of paper in the desk in front of her. "'For the blood of a dark angel and the blood of a fighter of light shall bring forth a dark light that will save the world from the greatest evil it will ever know,'" she read. She glanced up at Giles, who was staring at the paper thoughtfully. "Giles, this is way too vague. 'Dark angel' and 'fighter of light' can mean so many things."

Willow and Oz had arrived with their son Alex earlier that afternoon, followed an hour later by Xander and his daughter Carla. They had left Alex and Carla with Buffy's mother, Joyce, and had met at the library later that night with Buffy, Angel, Giles, Lynn, Jade, and Daniel to try to figure out what was going on.

Now they all sat around the library table, much like they used to when the Scooby gang had been in High School.

"Yeah, but 'dark angel' just screamed vampire with a soul," Buffy put in. "And since that would be Angel, ' fighter of light' just seemed to fit me."

Again, Willow frowned thoughfully. "True," she conceded. "But then again, 'dark angel' could mean a demon. According to the Bible, demons were basically angels that got kicked out of Heaven after siding with Lucifer in their 'rebellion' against God. What if 'dark angel' refers to a demon?"

"But that could go back to me again," Angel put in. "I'm a demon."

"Were," Oz replied. "You're human now."

"With vampire tendencies," Angel answered. "If not, I wouldn't have been able to get Buffy pregnant again."

"But then again, the word demon opens so many possibilities," Xander said. "It might include Angel, but it also includes several thousand other creatures. We're trying to limit the possibilites, not widen them."

"Okay, so let's put 'dark angel' aside for now," Buffy said. "Any ideas for 'fighter of light?'"

"Aleah?" Jade asked.

"Aleah falls under Slayer category," Xander answered. "This would also include Buffy."

"But Slayers aren't the only fighters for the light," Daniel said. "Wouldn't we all be fighters of light? What if this just means anyone who's not evil?"

Lynn growled in frustration. "Guys, there's too many what ifs in there."

"Lynn's right," Angel said. "Instead of limiting the options, we're just making this more vague. What do you say we put it aside for the time being and deal with a more recent problem?"

"Like?" Xander asked.

"Like, my old friend Nicholas."

"Oh, yeah, our resident vampire witch..." Lynn commented.

Giles turned his gaze on Angel. "Pardon?"

"Oh, I'm sure you must've heard of him, Giles," Angel replied. "He has witch genes in him and crossed over sometime in the 17th century."

With a frown, Giles nodded. "It uh, rings a bell, but I'm not quite certain."

"Well, he's back in town and probably looking to cause trouble," Angel said. "Don't know what he's up to, though."

"Hey, guys?" Willow said suddenly. "What if joining of blood doesn't really mean making a new life? What if it's in the literal sense? Like, when you make a vampire, you combine blood, right?"

Giles looked down at the paper with the translated prophesy again. "I hadn't thought of that."

"But if it's referring to the making of a vampire, it would be referring to making a new demon..." Buffy started.

"Hence the 'dark light,'" Xander interrupted.

"No," Buffy said. "'Light' being the keyword here, Xander. Why would a vampire want to save the world?"

Willow looked at the paper again and nodded. She leaned back against her chair. "Hey, we just eliminated a possibility. Let's congratulate ourselves."

"We eliminated a possibility," Jade murmured. "We haven't solved the mystery."

"Okay, so what have we got so far?" Buffy asked rhetorically, looking down at the paper she had been using to take notes of the meeting. "It's not a vampire." She looked up. "That's it. I'd say we're still in square one."

Angel shook his head. "Not even," he added thoughtfully. "There are some good demons, you know. We still can't say it's not a demon."

Buffy groaned. "Great, we're in square negative three."

"No, no one said anything about demons," Lynn spoke up. "We said vampires. I don't think you make demons the same way you make vampires. It's either a vampire or a child. And since there aren't really any more good vampires, I'd have to go with child. Besides, going by my gut feeling, I'd have to say this concerns us, not some random demon or person. If not, we wouldn't have found this prophesy. Plus," she turned to Daniel, "just because someone's not evil, doesn't necessarily means they fight for the light."

Buffy nodded. "That's true."

"Alright, but like I said earlier," Angel said, "we've got more immediate things to worry about. Like for example, Nicholas..."

"Yes, of course," Giles replied. "But for now, we'll have to leave it at that. We'll meet here tomorrow morning and discuss this issue further. For now, go home and get some rest."

There was a collective nod of agreement as everyone stood and started gathering their things to leave.

Part 9

Back to Daala's Fanfic