DOYLE, DEMON WATCHER
PART FOUR - PART SIX
Disclaimers: Angel: the Series and Buffy the Vampire Slayer belong to Joss Whedon, David Greenwalt, Mutant Enemy, Greenwolf Corp, Kuzui Enterprises, Sandollar Television, Fox, and the WB. Highlander: the Series belongs to Rysher Entertainment, Davis/Panzer Productions, and Gaumont Television. No copyright infringement was intended. This story was written for entertainment, and no money was exchanged.
Spoilers and Timing: In the Angel Universe, it takes place after "Rm w/a Vu". In the Highlander Universe, it takes place after Highlander: The Series' ending. There are spoilers for "Money no Object".
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Angel checked his fridge. "D***."
"What is it?" Cordelia asked from the table.
"I'm out," Angel said.
Cordelia was about to ask what he was out of when she glanced at the fridge, then at the hungry expression on Angel's face. "Oh."
Angel grabbed his jacket and his keys and headed toward the elevator. "I'm going to get some more."
"Like, where?"
Angel looked at her. "I don't think you'd want to know."
"That was more information than I needed, actually," Cordelia answered.
Angel said nothing and traveled up the elevator.
PART FIVE
Doyle visited several of his contacts, but none of them knew about the vampire murders. He hoped Angel found something out.
If these vampires were killing Watchers in the L.A. area, there was a possibility that he or Joe were the next targets. Angel had offered to watch Joe, but Joe had refused. Doyle knew Angel would be hanging in the shadows. Joe just didn't know what he was facing. Which was why Doyle was heading over to Joe's hotel to talk to him.
The cab pulled up to Joe's hotel and Doyle got out. He walked up to the lobby door and pulled on the handle.
"Excuse me," a feminine voice said. "But do I know you?"
Doyle turned and saw Amanda whom, unlike two years ago, he knew was around twelve hundred years old and very good with a Broadsword. She stood only a few feet away from him on the sidewalk. "I don't think so," Doyle told her.
"Oh. I must have mistaken you for someone else. Goodnight."
"Goodnight," Doyle replied before slipping inside.
Amanda had recognized the young Irish man the minute he stepped out of the cab. When she engaged small talk, his accent just confirmed it.
She didn't think he was a Watcher. He had spoken to her freely two years ago, when they first met. But that had been the same night she'd taken a Quickening, and it couldn't just be coincidence that he was here, now. She was sure he recognized her, too. The look he'd given her confirmed it, and he was a bad liar.
She decided to follow him. She watched through the window as he walked past the counter to the elevator. She waited until he disappeared inside before entering the lobby.
She walked to the elevator and watched the numbers above the doors. They stopped on the third floor.
Amanda slipped into the stairwell and started walking up.
She didn't spot Doyle in the hall. Amanda walked cautiously down the carpeted floor, listening for Joe or Doyle's conspicuous accent.
When she reached the end of the hall, she found one of the doors was slightly ajar.
Amanda approached it cautiously. Back pressed against the wall, she listened in, trying to figure out what was going on. What she heard was an argument.
"Joe, you could be the next target!" the Irishman yelled. "I could be the next target! Angel can protect both of us. He's very good at that."
Joe sighed. "You're right. I just didn't want him to find out about us."
"Is the Tribunal sending any guards?"
"No. I'm not their favorite, you may have heard. That's why they sent me. If the vampire cultists kill me too, they wouldn't think it was much of a loss. They were planning on killing me three years ago, remember?"
Amanda gasped. Vampire cultists? The two Watchers, because Doyle was obviously a Watcher, may not know it, but she knew exactly what really went bump in the night.
The sound of glass breaking inside the hotel room jolted her out of her thoughts. "Joe, look out!" Doyle shouted, followed by a soft thud.
Amanda rushed in, taking out her sword. "Joe!"
Glass shards littered the floor. Joe lay on his stomach on the ground, knocked down by Doyle, who got up and faced the window.
She looked out the window. Five vampires stood on the hotel room's third floor balcony. She guessed that when Joe went too close to the window, the vampires tried to grab him, but Doyle knocked him out of reach. Because they had to be invited in, even into an occupied hotel room, they couldn't just waltz right in and try to grab him again. Instead, the five vampires watched them with yellow eyes and snarled.
Amanda ran over to Joe. "Joe, are you alright?"
Joe was a little surprised to see her, but just as surprised to see the vampires' game faces. "I'm all right."
Amanda turned to Doyle. She was shocked when he pulled out a stake and a cross and approached the window.
"Wait!" Amanda told him. Doyle turned to her. "We rush them on three." Doyle nodded. "One, two, three!"
Amanda and Doyle rushed out the floor-length window frame onto the balcony. Amanda was the first to make a move. She swung her broadsword at the first vampire that rushed her, beheading it. The vampire turned to dust, leaving two for Amanda to deal with, and two for Doyle to deal with.
One of her two grabbed and yanked out a metal bar in the window frame and stood on guard. The other vampire hung off to the side, doing nothing.
Amanda swung at the first vampire's stomach, and the demon parried. She swung upwards at his left shoulder, then down at his right leg, and he blocked both of them.
Amanda feinted toward his neck. The vampire moved the bar to block the swing, but Amanda moved the swipe downwards. It slashed into his shoulder, cleanly removing the arm holding the bar.
The vampire only got out a short scream of pain before Amanda beheaded it. The creature turned to dust as Amanda turned to the other vampire.
The second vampire was terrified. He looked at her, then at her sword. He turned and stepped onto the rail. Before he could jump over it, however, Amanda beheaded it. The dust fell onto the balcony and began floating to the ground below.
Amanda turned to see how Doyle was doing.
Doyle was holding off the other two with the cross. There wouldn't have been a need if he transformed into his demon self, but Doyle couldn't risk it in front of Doyle or Amanda. Amanda, it seemed, had experience with vampires and demons, but Joe would get a big enough shock when they explained vampires to him.
After a few minutes, one of the vampires decided to rush him, despite the pain the cross promised. Doyle stepped back through the window, out of reach. The vampire slammed into an invisible shield and lost his balance. Doyle moved in and staked him.
The other vampire was waiting behind the dust cloud. Doyle brought the cross back up. The second vampire did not try to attack him like his companion. Doyle stepped forward, and the demon stepped back, trying to avoid contact with the cross.
Doyle backed him up to the railing. The vampire glanced at the railing, then back up at Doyle. He knew he had no where to run. This time he did rush him.
Doyle stepped to the left and plunged his stake into its heart. The vampire's eyes widened in surprise before it exploded.
Doyle turned to assist Amanda, only a few feet away from him, and saw that she had taken care of her two. As one, they turned back to the broken window.
Joe stared back at them. "What just happened?"
Doyle and Amanda looked at each other.
"I can't believe it. I just can't believe it," Joe repeated for the fiftieth time.
He and Amanda sat on the hotel room's bed, and Doyle sat in the chair. Doyle and Amanda had explained everything to Joe. They'd told him what vampires were, that witches, demons, and other supernatural phenomena were real, all of that. They'd excluded anything revealing how they themselves had found out about demons and vampires for their own reasons.
He'd had enough trouble believing in Immortals back in Vietnam. But Vampires? His logical mind wanted to reject the idea, but the evidence he'd been presented with said it was true.
"Well, believe it, old chum," Doyle told him. "You've already learned about Immortals. Why not believe in everything else?"
"I need a drink," Joe stated. "I put some in the fridge."
Amanda got the wine and poured all of them some. Joe and Doyle drained theirs in one gulp; Doyle from practice, and Joe because he really needed it. Joe was the one who ended up coughing.
Amanda set her glass down on the nightstand and sat on one twin bed, opposite the men.
"So," Joe began when he could talk again. He looked at Amanda. "How did you find out that demons and vampires were real? Care to share the lost chronicle?"
Doyle raised an eyebrow and smiled. "So, Duncan wasn't the only Immortal who found out about his Watcher?"
"No, but thankfully, not all of them do," Joe answered. He turned back to the twelve centuries old woman. "Well, Amanda?"
"Well," Amanda began. "It was nineteen twenty-seven. As I'm sure you have written in my chronicles, I had been with Cory Raines robbing banks across the country, and having a good time. When we split up, I said goodbye to him and Duncan, and headed for New York."
"At a dinner party one night in the Big Apple, I met Nathan Prescott. He challenged me and we went to a nearby alley to fight."
"Nathan wasn't very good, and I got the upper hand. But when I was about to behead him, he smiled. Then I heard a scream, coming from behind some trash cans. I think he was my Watcher. He had been attacked by several vampires. More vampires fell from the rooftops and attacked me. I fought back. I soon discovered that most wounds wouldn't stop them, so I went for the neck. I was kind of surprised when the creatures turned to dust."
"There were too many of them, and I knew it. I knew the vampires would get the upper hand very soon, and then Prescott would have me."
"That was when another figure appeared at the other end of the alley. It was a girl who couldn't have been older than sixteen. She helped me kill all of the vampires. During the fight, Prescott fled."
"I was scratched by one vampire before I dusted him, and it hadn't healed by the time we'd killed them all. So the girl saw my cheek heal, right before her very eyes."
"She got in a defensive position and demanded to know what I was. I knew the girl was good, and it probably wouldn't do any good to lie to her, so I told her. After I was finished, I asked her what she was. She told me she was the Slayer, and that she had a Watcher. She wouldn't introduce me to him because, if she did, her Watcher would never let her fight with me again, because it was the tradition of Slayers to fight alone. I agreed, and helped her several times after that until she died."
Amanda picked up her glass and drank the rest. "So, that's my story."
They were silent for a minute when Doyle spoke, "Actually, the current Slayer doesn't follow the rules. She has several friends, and even her Watcher has accepted them." He told them what he'd heard from Cordelia and Angel about life in Sunnydale and Buffy.
Amanda smirked. "About time. I met the other Slayer's Watcher at the funeral. Stuffy English know-it-all told me to-ooh, to think she'd been in his care! It makes me so furious! It was no wonder she died, with his rules and ignorance."
Joe had been confused since Amanda first mentioned 'Watcher'. "What do you mean by Watcher?"
Doyle cleared his throat. "There's a different group of watchers called the Watchers' Council," he explained. "Their object in life is to train the Slayer to fight the forces of darkness."
Joe scratched his head. "Wow. If I hadn't have seen it for myself, I wouldn't have had any doubts that this wasn't real. But now that I have…" Joe looked at Doyle. "I think I should take this Angel guy's advice, and get some protection."
"Protection from what?" Amanda asked.
"A vampire, or several, have been targeting Watchers in the area over the past few months," Doyle informed her. "I work at an sort-of detective agency, so Joe came to me for help."
"And?"
"I'm giving it," Doyle replied. "So are the others at Angel Investigations. Let's go there, and tell Angel and Cordelia what happened."
"So the cultists were actual vampires," Joe said, trying to digest this. "Angel and Cordelia know about vampires too?" Joe asked.
Doyle nodded.
"Do they know about Immortals or Watchers?" Amanda asked.
Doyle shook his head. "No. I…never told them."
Joe got up. "Well, let's go then."
"I'll help," Amanda offered. "As long as I'm here, and until I find Prescott."
"Nathan Prescott?" Doyle asked. Amanda nodded. "He's been known to torture Immortals before he kills them. If he doesn't have time, though, he'll win a challenge in minutes."
"I know," Amanda said. "But I beat him before, and I'm not going to let him get away again."
"Are you sure about that?" Joe asked. "I heard he's been practicing."
Amanda shook her head. "No. But I'm not giving up."
PART SIX
Angel stepped out of a building and put the packets of blood in his car. It was parked next to the alley separating the Donation Building from a blues club. He peered into the alley, but it was too dark to see anything.
He opened his car door before he heard something coming from the alley. It sounded like a can hitting concrete. Angel closed his door, made sure he had a few stakes and that the stakes attached to the springs in his sleeves were still working, and moved toward the alley.
When he reached the mouth, he heard muffled sounds and took out a stake. A few feet away, a vampire was leaning over a woman, draining her of blood.
"Get away from her!" Angel told the vampire.
The vampire turned to him. He looked him up and down and said, licking his lips, "Well, well."
Angel got in a defensive position and raised the stake. He glanced behind the vampire at the woman. She was slouched down, her eyes unfocused. Angel felt regret and guilt that he was too late to save her.
The vampire, noticing his look, smiled. "Well, the mighty Angelus couldn't save them all, could he?" he taunted.
Angel was a little surprised the vampire knew him. He wasn't sure he'd seen the minion before.
The other vampire continued, "Is it too late to save himself?"
Two vampires rushed him from both sides. With both fists pointed at the two rushing vampires, Angel thrust his arms towards him. From his sleeves, two stakes emerged on springs. They penetrated the two vampires' hearts easily. Both vampires looked a little surprised before they burst into dust.
Angel heard the swoosh-like sound above him, but it was too late. A vampire fell from the roof onto his back and grabbed him by the temples. The vampire twisted Angel's head, attempting to tear it off by the neck.
Angel turned and ran backwards, slamming into the wall of the alley. The vampire stopped twisting his neck but did not let go. Angel slammed into it again and the vampire let out a grunt. After the third time, the vampire slid to the ground.
The first vampire rushed him, but Angel kicked him in the neck, turned, and staked the fallen one. Then he turned and raised his stake, ready to fight the first one.
The vampire met his face with a roundhouse punch. He almost hit him again but Angel deflected it. Then Angel kneed the vampire in the worst place possible. When the vampire double over in pain, Angel hit him in the small of his back, and the vampire went down for the count.
Before the vampire got back up, Angel rolled him onto his back and straddled him, pinning his arms with his knees. He positioned the stake over the vampire's chest directly over his heart. "Who's your leader?" he asked, inwardly grimacing at the bad line.
The vampire glanced at Angel, then at the stake, afraid. "Please! If I tell you, will you let me go?"
"Yes," Angel said. "Who is he?"
"It's Spike!"
No big news there. "Why did you attack me?"
"Spike wants you for this spell or ritual or something. I think it's to locate his insane girlfriend, Dracula or Drusilla or whatever. He said something about needing her sire's blood."
"What else do you know?" Angel asked.
The vampire was freaked. "I don't know, man! I've told you everything! Now, please let me go."
Angel seemed to consider it for a minute, then he lifted the stake from the vampire's chest. The minion sighed in relief. Then Angel brought it back down and slammed it into his heart.
The vampire gasped. "You said you'd let me go."
"I changed my mind," Angel told him while the other vampire turned to dust.
Angel stood up and was turning toward his car when something shocked him. Electricity flowed through his blue veins. Angel fell to the ground, paralyzed. Through his pain, he looked up, trying to see his attacker.
Spike stood only a few feet away. The bleach-haired vampire been hiding behind a few trashcans, and had several more of his vampire cronies with him.
Spike held a high-tech weapon. It looked like something only the military would know about. Spike glanced down at it. "I've got to ask Prescott where he gets these need little toys."
He motioned toward Angel. "Take him away, boys."
Three of his minions stepped forward and dragged Angel's limp body to their van.
