Project Infinity - Friday, August 24, 2001, 2:24 AM

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Infinity Pit Ruins

        Once a huge Steel Mill converted over to a research facility for Project Infinity, this place is a twisted remnant of its former self. Advanced technological know-how, combined with funding from the city and private donors produced one of the most daring plans in the world, and it all went horribly wrong. This lot stands in testament to just how horribly things when wrong.

        The remaining steel and concrete appears to be torn in thick shreds, while being twisted around. Thick titanium girders are bent like pipe cleaners, twisted beyond recognition. Slabs of concrete, half melted, almost seem to flow in a counter-clockwise pattern away from the location of the Infinity Pit. The actual device is gone, but its clear where it used to be. A metal plate blocks the way now, but beyond the plate is a shaft over a mile deep, the rock that makes up the sides fused into a seamless shell. Now and then, undispersed energy still discharges along the broken steel that juts up from the concrete like the ribs of some half decayed corpse, lighting up ruins briefly.

Nothing has changed from seven days earlier, save that the sword no longer rests within the breast of the demon statue. Two vampires watch in a sort of unholy rapture, as Angelus, sword in hand, stands before Acathla. The circle upon the stones is glowing with a sickly red light, and is reflected by the blade in the vampire's hand and the ring upon his finger.

A low rumbling, almost subsonic, fills the area, and the sensation of something very old, and very malevolent presence. It can't be long now.

Vampiric hearing picks up footsteps, and the sound of very human breath approaching the ritual area. He can smell her before she appears into view - Lara Croft, the woman once brought here by force.

"Wait," Angelus commands softly, and it is enough to freeze his two vampiric companions in place. Eyes filled with delight and amusement and triumph fall upon Lara. "Let me guess, you brought the sword," he says, unimpressed.

Lara laughs. "Don't be ridiculous." she grins. "But you can search me for it..." she holds out her arms at her sides, "If you like." her tone is a wicked invitation.

"I think I'm beyond needing permission anymore," Angelus says dryly. They wouldn't try the same trick twice. In any case there wouldn't be time for a repeat performance of what happened with the Slayer. "So tell me," he says, adopting a casual stance with the sword pointed at the ground, tip resting in the soil. "Are 'nice' and 'intelligent' mutually exclusive?"

Lara continues to walk forward. "Not generally." she walks to the edge of the ritual circle. "So. Going to invite me in? Or are you still holding that rather tawdry preference for blondes?"

Angelus turns around, resting the blade on one shoulder and pacing towards Acathla. "What do you think big guy?" he asks, patting the statue's chest. "We got time for a turning? What's that?" he asks, leaning his ear towards the demon's mouth. "You think we do? Well, I guess I'm inviting you in then."

Lara waits for him to 'cut the pathway' into the circle - spiritually speaking. "Turn me afterward. I want to see this, and if you turn me now, I won't wake up 'til tomorrow." She smiles. "But give me a kiss, and call it a promise." She licks her lips in anticipation.

Angelus steps away from Acathla, leaving the sword resting against the statue, and just steps outside of the circle himself. "Maaaybe I don't want to kiss you," Angelus says, putting hands behind his back as he draws near. Of course he's playing. What better time for games?

Lara walks along the edge, hands behind -her- back, looking at him like a coy school girl, "Maybe I don't want to either," she concedes, "But anything else, and Acathla might blush."

"Who, him?" Angelus says, unclasping hands and looking over his shoulder. "Don't worry about him. If he can see anything, he'll just be jealous anyway." Oh, maybe the vampires bother her. "Guys, have some respect. Turn around."

Lara walks up to Angelus, still smiling blithely, and lets one hand rest against his cheek. She tilts her head and presses her lips to his, steps in closer, good and close, and in her little inner heart of hearts, knows this is the last kiss she'll ever have of the bastard. And it has to be good enough for him to forget everything for a few seconds but her. So Lara pours on the enthusiasm, and then some, sliding her hands along his arms slowly.

Lara slides her hands over his body...his arms...his hands, and then disengages her mouth. "Finish this." she purrs. "We'll have our fun later." She smiles a dark smile, disengages herself, and steps out of the 'doorway' cut into the circle that Angelus never closed, mentally hoping that Constantine will think to shut it and keep Angelus enclosed. "Five million dollars," she muses, turning around, now outside the circle and facing him. "Upon reflection, for all of this...you should have given me ten." And with her free hand (the other holding the gem), she removes a gun, points it upward, and fires. And on her face, not a hint of regret.

THERE'S THE SIGN! You wouldn't think that a half-ton of dragon could be silent, but it is, circling around the ruins and dropping low. ~Go!~ he mind-shouts unnecessarily. Hopefully it won't unnerve the Slayer too much. Obsidian eyes look out for anything that might be considered.. nasty.

Buffy doesn't need the extra push, but it helps to get her to jump quicker, somersaulting through the air and landing on her feet of course, in between Angelus and Lara, sword up and ready and pointing to the former. The bastard vampire who she now smiles at. Its a bad smile, a smile with teeth. "Hello, Lover. Miss me?" she doesn't waste a moment, using surprise on her side, she steps forward to swipe at him, both hands moving to the sword hilt. If it hits him, it will hurt.

Boiling rage. Seething rage. Pure all consuming hatred and desire to inflict some massive amounts of damage. And it cools rather rapidly into cold hatred. Angelus takes the time to pick up the sword from Acathla. "Or maybe I'll just kill you slowly before turning you," he says, eyes smoldering as he starts to advance. Then someone is blocking his way. And god dammit if he isn't faster than any vampire ever was back home, his sword clanging against hers in a parry. "Hey, you can walk normally again. Good for you." He starts an attack himself, not much style, but strength and speed alone make him deadly. "You know Lara at least pretended to care. You just couldn't help yourself could you?"

There is, in fact, no visible movement from on top of a mostly-horizontal slab of concrete at a cautious distance from the action. "Visible" is the key word there. DarkStorm, with his minor resistance to magic, would probably spot a faint blur edging slowly closer to Angelus.

Constantine is mindful of Buffy's warning to him, and so he has thoughtfully come up with a standard invisibility spell. It wasn't much work, really. Certainly it was less work than forcing himself to stay away would have been.

"Gentlemen!" Lara chirps cheerfully as Angelus' two minions realize that things didn't go quite right. "So kind of you to give me your attention." She slides her gun into its sheath, reaches behind - and pulls out two stakes. "Now. No pushing, no shoving, you've each got what's coming to you and we need to be orderly!" Snarling, the pair rush her. Lara snarls a happy Lara Croft snarl.

Buffy isn't surprised by the parry, she -is- surprised by the vicious onslaught of blows that comes after it, barely keeping up, but throwing everything she ever had into it. *CLANGCLANGCLANG* "From killing you?" Buffy meets one of his downward thrusts by swinging her sword up. God, she's straining. He's stronger. "I just can't help myself." but I wonder if I can -do- it. This is alarming. Buffy's back foot slips on some loose stones and she loses ground. More importantly, she misses his sword when his sword finds her shoulder, and sends her spinning, with an open cut on her upper arm. Okay. The sword is flipped more warily in her hand. And she moves forward again for a stab.

Angelus turns away from the blow but it cuts a gash into his shirt and ribcage, and he backpedals a bit to gain some time. Behind him, the subsonic rumbling that has filled this place all night increases, audible and ominous. Stone grinds on stone, the sound coming from Acathla. He's moving. His mouth is opening. "Hey, Buffy, don't feel bad just cause you're going to fail. When you die, I'm sure your sister will be there waiting to comfort you. Hey, I guess you gotta forgive John now don't you?" He launches his verbal attack at the same time as his bladed one.

DarkStorm circles a moment more... Lara - hopefully - has those two vampires, and Buffy - *very* hopefully - has Angelus (and there's not much he can do from up here without zapping either of them), so he straightens out his flight to join the throng outside. . o O (~Good luck, Slayer. May the Eight preserve the balance in your favor. I'm just a mind-call away should aid be required.~) With that, the grey shadow veers off.

An unseen finger is lifted in Angelus's direction. The whole invisibility thing does sort of take the point out of the gesture, but Constantine feels better for having made it anyway as he draws closer to the fight.

Lara backhands and one and kicks the other, sending them back to give her some space. One of the stakes is reverse-spun in her hand and thrown. It thunks into one of the vampires' chests with a satisfying noise, and he clutches at it even he bursts into a whirlwind of dust. Lara grins, whirling to face the female vampire, and humming under her breath. For the curious, it's 'I'm A Believer' by The Monkees.

Parry, block, cut--no parry, block, block, block. Buffy isn't getting any openings and she knows it. She's struggling and already her breath is coming in short, struggled gasps. Another cut is made to her side. And another to her other arm. All shallow and not life threatening but he's LANDING them and she isn't. "Do you always talk this much, because frankly," she steps forward to meet a lunge with her sword and brings her foot up to try and connect with his stomach to kick him back "I liked you when you were doing the big, bad, broody thing."

Angelus slides her sword wide with his, the blades hissing against each other. The foot connects, and pushes the vampire back. But even without the ring, it is obvious how little it affected him. "I liked you better when you were on your knees with your mouth full, personally." Again the physical attack coincides with the verbal. Acathla is still opening his mouth, and it is noticeable now, as a red glow starts from within.

Constantine mouths a long string of very obscene and highly improbable (anatomically speaking) suggestions to Angelus. He just wishes he could say them out loud. Oh well. You can't have everything. He stands, poised and waiting, a few feet away from the swordfight.

Lara toys with the female. "Come on now, love - if Angelus wasn't busy getting his arse kicked, he'd be terribly disappointed with you." she taunts. The female, shrieking obscenities such as those Constantine wants to verbalize, lunges for her - Lara stakes her almost absently, stepping smoothly to the side. The frothing vampire practically does the work for her, and wails as she too, combusts.

Buffy loses ground -again- and she glares murderously at Angelus as she twirls around to meet a sword thrust. She is about style. She is, also, to anyone who's watching, losing. More than ground. She might look pretty but she's losing the fight. Again the sword meet and bring the two almost right up against each other. "You're so psyched about hell? Close your eyes," she sneers at him, but there's a sheen of sweat on her forehead, and her wounds are bleeding openly. "I'll send you."

"I'd still win," Angelus says with a sneering smile, and brings his sword down with most of his strength, sheer power disarming her more than anything. "Look at that," he says, suddenly quiet and relaxed. "You lose." He did it! That's it! Getting the ring will be simple now. He raises his sword up for the final blow.

Lara furrows her brow. There has to be a way to even the score. Dropping the stake, she reaches into her hip holsters and pulls out her guns. Bullets might not kill Angelus, but they'll hurt like a bitch. She hesitates, trying to make sure she doesn't hit Buffy on accident.

Constantine knows his hand being forced when he sees it. He steps forward, fast, and then he's close enough for vampire senses to smell him, to hear his breathing--if, that is, he hadn't specifically targeted his invisibility spell at blocking himself fully from vampire senses in particular. Especially Angelus's. He flicks his hand once, and something not quite as invisible as he is goes flying at the side of the vampire's face: a blur of light, to heightened senses, and nothing to normal ones. Then he steps back again, quickly making his way away.

Angelus reacts on instinct as he catches the flash of movement, his free hand coming up to close around whatever it is. His hand closes on the pendant, and the effect is near instant. The vampire's eyes are wide, and a flash of light comes from them. Then guilt. Wave after wave as powerful as any physical assault. His sword drops to the ground loudly. Behind him Acathla yawns his mouth open all the more, the red light from it swirling and expanding.

Buffy had just been staring up at him in shock and horror since her fingers went numb, and the sword dropped to the ground. Even more so, wide eyed, when he drew back the sword. I lost. Its a realization that doesn't come easy, and she expects it to come, actually, on the tip of the sword. And then it happens. He's distracted! Buffy kneels down to grab up her sword, never taking her eyes off of him...and freezes. Stops absolutely dead. The horror, the disbelief in her eyes is more than any normal person should be able to stand. She blinks once. It doesn't help. This is hell. Its totally, totally hell. She doesn't even breathe. "...Angel."

Lara blinks, her guns now going up and back. Her feet backpedal too, and her brows furrow as she senses the change in Angelus, the expression on his face...she darts a look to the side, wondering how John did whatever he did...and steps forward again, searching Angelus'...no, Angel's face, but still a good few feet away from him and Buffy.

Constantine is still here, out of sight but around, but he won't be for long. He's off and away, stumbling over the twisted pieces of metal and the half-melted blocks of cement. He knew how much this was going to hurt Buffy. He did it anyway. He does not want to hang around to see her pain.

Angelus is stunned by incomprehension. All he knows with certainty is that just about everything he's ever done was incredibly wrong, and tonight is the worst of all. He looks first at Buffy, then Lara, with a voice strained and broken. "I'm sorry," he says to both of them. To the world. It's all he knows. He's so sorry for everything.

Buffy closes her eyes, tears tracing down her cheeks. Oh My God. This was the complication that was never supposed to happen here. She's done this, and the world never got any better. She slowly, very slowly reaches out a hand to touch his face. Oh My God. "I know." the Slayer says, looking into his eyes, and somehow that means the world to her right now. "...I know." her arm goes back, and then plunges the sword forward into his chest. She never looks away from him, but steps back, fingertips lingering for only a second more. And she just stares.

Lara watches from that yawn of distance, and somewhere inside, she starts screaming. Her face tightens with her effort not to cry - she hasn't sobbed since the crash, and yet she's unable to stop herself, hiding it behind her wrist. Stiff upper lip, Croft. Yeah, right. She steps closer, wanting to save him, wanting to save Buffy, wanting to save herself. And then she stops. Words come to her lips, they are spoken in silence, and drift away into nothing. She begins to slowly move toward Buffy, eyes watching Angelus and the portal behind him.

Angelus' eyes widen as the sword runs him through. The presence in the area can still be sensed, and now it is filled with hatred. The portal starts to swirls faster, but it does not grow. Angel doesn't fight it and doesn't reach out imploringly. His eyes close and he falls backwards willingly as the portal takes its hold on him, the vampire looking for the peacefulness of oblivion. He seems to shrink, really pulling away very quickly, as the portal itself grows smaller. There is one last great angry roar from the collective horror that is that Dimension, and the portal whirls to a pinpoint of red, then winks out. Acathla's mouth closes.

Constantine is gone, both from view, as he's been the entire time, and in reality. He doesn't want to have to see how what he did is destroying Buffy.

Buffy just stands there, her hands over her mouth. To not scream, to not say something. Her eyes are filled with tears that haven't fallen and she just stares at Acathla. After another minute, she just turns to go. I can't be here. She's in total shock. She's forgotten about Lara, and won't remember until she speaks.

Lara holsters her guns, and wordlessly moves up next to Buffy, her upper arm brushing the younger woman's shoulder. A faint noise comes out of the back of her throat, as if sobs were trying to force their way out, and she refuses to let them. She stands there, beside Buffy, staring at the silent and looming statue.

"World saved." Buffy says in a hollow voice. She isn't crying, but her eyes are too bright. He had a soul. Why didn't I see it coming? Why did I think this would be any different? She can't even be angry right now. She can't be anything. "...how...?" how did it happen? She'll piece it together if she thinks about it. In a way she already knows. How else could it have happened? But she can't think clearly. Or maybe she's thinking too clearly and can't place blame yet.

Lara swallows. "I don't know." she manages. "But the others are waiting." There's a very tentative gesture, almost as if Lara's afraid, and then she puts her arm around Buffy. "Come on." she says, in a low, querulous voice.

Buffy is there to be led. And she doesn't want to be here anymore. She tears her eyes away from Acathla and walks with Lara out to see if her friends survived. She's in a daze. Abdiel told her and she didn't listen. She should've listened. She just walks in step with Lara.

Lara swallows. "I think," she tries again, "I think you'll stay with me tonight. On the couch..." Because she won't leave Buffy alone in the state she's in, and she doesn't think she can deal with being alone in her state, either. She heads out of the alley.

You go into Chromium Way.

Chromium Way(#61RJs)

        This street forms the center of Beacon Harbor's industrial zone. Monolithic factories belch thick acrid smoke into the sky, lazy trails of poison stretching up into the blue. Blocky warehouses of corrugated steel, and dull looking brick offices are scattered among the heavy factories. Most of this area was developed years ago, but a section of about three blocks has been forced through rather brutal renewal. A disaster ripped through here, pulling down buildings and ripping apart machinery. The crater, left over from this experiment, is still visible from the street, the lot where the facility once stood now cordoned off by a chain link fence topped with razor wire. The buildings around the site are in various states of repairs, some of the decades old buildings getting their first new coat of paint in years.

Buffy arrives from Infinity Pit Ruins.

Buffy has arrived.

"I..I don't know." Erik shakes his head, his voice sounding drained. He dismisses his firemen's getup and hose, merely floating about five feet in the air, surrounded by his glowing force field.

Lara seems to remember something, even as she steps out of the ruins, one arm around Buffy. With a tearstained, drained expression, she pulls out a mobile phone, hits a button, speaks into it, and disconnects it before putting it away again, all in one quick, yet oddly weary motion.

Buffy just nods. Okay. Okay. I'd rather run away somewhere and hide, but okay. She doesn't even notice the bits of demon parts she's stepping over. She just stares straight ahead, unseeing. Well she sees her friends, which helps a little in some way...but not a lot. They're alive. That's good. That's really good. "...seems like you had the better time out here." the girl doesn't look all right. She's pale and her eyes are bright with tears. Very very wide. I'm going to snap.

DarkStorm crawls to his feet, hissing ".. if there'ss any more of you, I'm *sstill here*..." One familiar with draconic expressions might note a wince as he straightens all four limbs, and he redistributes his weight to take pressure off the left forelimb. Wrist - broken. Tail, bits of head and neck - scorched. Wings - perfectly fine! That picks Raiu's mood up immensely. He looks over to Shade and Erik, before turning his head to Buffy. He hiss-growls "...thiss meanss we won, right?..."

Meanwhile, just a little ways away....

        One of the demons has escaped. It crawls through the debris of the nearby landfill, trying to find shelter. It has to collect its evil little thoughts and plan whatever revenge it can manage. A demon on its own can be quite troublesome, as some individuals have proven (coughcoughSINNcoughcough.) However, as it claws its way across the trashed landscape, what could only be called it's foot (because it's currently walking on it and a similar appendage) knocks against something, and it trips. As the demon looks up to see what it's tripped over, it finds itself looking at an irate, and very dirty, man, who appears to just be standing up from a nap.

        "Well. What do we have here?"

The demon gibbers, a common enough demon verb. It doesn't seem to affect the man, who just stares at it. "Freaky little thing..." he says, seemingly to himself. "Clawed, fanged, definitely not human..." The strange fellow smiles. "Maybe good eatin'."

        The demon definitely doesn't like the sound of that. It hisses and bares its fangs, but this only results in a quick and very powerful punch in the mouth, before it's picked up by one of its hind claws. Before it dies, it looks into the eyes of its assailant, here's him whisper "What the divosk..." and realizes that whoever this is, he has no idea just what "Hell" *means.*