FF: Rebirth

["The Fool" <honouredfool@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Title: Rebirth. Part II of the "Into the Light" Series. 
Disclaimer: Characters from BtVS are all property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and others. I own my pride and my self-respect?at least until I sell them to buy Skittles.

Authour's Notes: Everyone thanks Shyfox for beta-ing this for me. ;) I have to think of a better title for this series. The second portion of this is mostly C/F. Sorry. WARNING: Parts of this story could be construed as offensive to the Judeo-Christian God. If you find them so, sorry, but he's really sort of funny.


Chapter One.

After the funeral Willow and Mr. Roberts had disappeared into Angel's Mansion, followed only by Spike. 
"We need to be alone for a while," Mr. Roberts had explained to the remaining Scoobs. We'll be out soon."

They had insisted, only to have the door shut in their faces. So they left. 
Inside Mr. Roberts gave Spike directions. "Don't come in this room. If anyone comes to the door, don't let them in unless Willow tells you to. There's blood in the fridge and a couple of cartons of cigarettes in the kitchen cupboard. Don't smoke in the house." Then he and Willow walked into the little bedroom and shut the door.

"Come on, we have to be quick. If I take too long he'll make her go." The old man hurriedly drew a symbol on the floor and they stepped into it. A column of light burst out of the ground transporting the two beyond the boundaries of the physical world.

"Tara?" Willow called softly. Her lover, or rather her spirit wandered out of the darkness and smiled gently at Willow.

"Hey." She answered with equal softness.

"I got your note. I'm sorry about-"

"I thought I said that there was nothing to be sorry about."

"I know its just-" Willow started to cry.

"Hello Tara." 
"Maclas." The old man gasped at the use of his real name. Only one other person had known his real name. "I spoke to her." Tara confirmed his thoughts. "It took some doing but I convinced the Guardian?" She trailed off as her virtual twin came out of the dark.

"Father." She stood looking at the old man. "You've aged?not very well."

The old man collapsed at her feet, crying like a baby. "Oh father, you were always so emotional." The girl sighed, looking down at the man. "Come now, get up. You're being silly."

"Oh Bridgit," The old man stood up, "you never liked that did you?"

"Of course I did Father. But you needn't do it now. You have a job to do, and I have to get back. If I leave Merlin alone for too long he starts to aggravate the others."

"Merlin is here?"

"They're all here father. One day you'll be here too, then we can cry until the end of time if that's what you want. Now you have a job. So get to it. She needs you more than I do now."

"Yes dear." The old man stopped and looked at his long dead daughter. "Bridgit I-"

"It wasn't your fault. I forgive you. I love you father." Her eyes shone with tears. "Now look what've you've?" her admonition trailed off as the old man swept her into a fierce embrace.

"Good-bye my life, I'll see you soon. It's almost finished. I can feel it. I'll be here soon."

Tara and the two mortals watched Roberts' daughter fade into the dark. He turned to them. "Well, she's right. I have a job to do and I must get back to it."

Willow asked shyly, "Can I stay? Just a little longer?"

"Of course Willow, you may stay until I return. When you feel my presence in Sunnydale again you must come back though."

"Good-bye sweet girl. I'll be back soon." Mr. Roberts embrace the slight blonde witch. "Thank you for finding her."

"Good-bye Maclas."

With that the old man disappeared into the dark.

"So," Willow began, "what's it like?"

"I don't know. I've been waiting here for you the whole time."

"Oh."

"You have to tell her."

"I will."

"Promise?"

Chapter Two

Mr. Roberts walked into Angel Investigations and snuck up behind Cordelia. "Hi." She screamed and jumped three feet in the air. Angel's door burst open and Faith burst through, hand reaching for the stake she kept in the waist of her pants.

Cordelia began to beat him with her little fist. "You old bastard! What the hell did think you were doing?" The old man tried to fend off her attack through a fit of laughter. 
"Sorry, it was just too easy though. You'd think all this time around demons would improve your senses." She continued to beat him. Faith ran to her side, grabbing her arms. 
"C, C stop it. You might hurt him." She couldn't help but laugh at the brunette's fury either. The Slayer pulled Cordelia into a tight embrace from behind, effectively ending her attack on the old man, who far from being hurt was wheezing with laughter. Finally Angel and ad Wesley appeared in the doorway with puzzled looks on their faces. 
"It appears we missed a joke somewhere." Wesley said to his companion. Angel flashed that little half-grin of his.

"I guess so. Uh, guys?"

"Oh. Right." Mr. Roberts tried to stop wheezing. "I came up to check on my daughter's progress and to bring her something that I'm sure she thought she'd lost."

Faith stopped laughing. "Your what?" she asked the old man, hope gleaming in her eye.

"Daughter dear, not biologically of course, but in a deeper sense. You've all been my daughter's over time but I feel closer to you than to the ones in the past. Will you be my daughter? I don't really have a family anymore." Tears sprung to Faith's eyes as she looked first at the old man, then at Cordelia who nodded encouragingly and then back at the old man. She leapt the desk she was behind, bounded across the room and leapt into the old man's arms. "I take it that's a yes then?"

"Oh yes. Yes, Yes, Yes."

"Good, I brought you something." He said to her as he put her feet back on the ground. He reached into his coat and pulled out the knife Mayor Wilkins had given her. Its black hilt reflected her face as she held it close to her face. The two prong blade gleamed with a polish that was better than new. The old man had even taken the time to sharpen the inside edges, something Faith had never thought to do.

As she held it memories came flooding back to her, of the Mayor, of her descent into darkness, the look on Alan Finch's face as she plunged the stake into him, the feel of it being thrust into her own stomach by but Buffy.

"I, I don't want it." She managed to stumble out. "It's full of who I used to be." The old man looked satisfied.

"Good. I didn't like it anyway, it's entirely ineffective for our duties anyway. I just thought, well you seemed to love it so much before?"

"Not anymore, I hate it now. I never want to see it again." She passed it back to him and he tucked it away in his coat. Cordelia moved from her place behind the desk and slowly slipped her hand into Faith's giving it a little squeeze. Turning to Angel, Mr. Roberts asked him

"Do you still have the case I gave you?"

"Of course it's downstairs in my weapons closet. Do you want it?" The old man nodded. "I'll run down and get it." Angel turned and left the room.

Wesley spoke up for the first time since he came in. "I just want to say that I think this is all very, very wonderful." He stopped and took his glasses off to wipe them.

"Ummm," Faith looked at her new "dad," "Hey Pops, there's someone you should meet before we get too into this." She turned to Cordelia, looking into her eyes with adulation. "This is my girlfriend Cordelia. C, this is my dad." The old man looked bemusedly at his new daughter. 
"Hello young lady. I just want you to know that if you cause my daughter any pain I'll turn you into a frog before you can say 'croak" Cordelia looked nervously at the old man, unable to tell if he was joking. Luckily just then Angel returned, carrying a 1x3 foot thin wooden box.

"Oh goody." The old man said, taking the box from Angel and putting it on my desk. "I have a gift for you Faith, a reminder of this special day." He opened the box and lifted a large, curve bladed knife out of the case and held it out to Faith. She grasped the handle breathlessly admiring it in the sun.

"Oh Dad," she murmured, "it's beautiful." She spun to show Cordelia. "C look at the handle, it's sharpened wood, like a stake." Cordelia looked nervously at the knife.

"That's great hon, that's real," she paused looking for a word, "scary." Faith looked up into her lover's face, which was tinged with fear.

"Hey," she exclaimed, "hey, there's no need for-" she stopped and looked down at the knife. "I guess I can see why though." It was truly a fearsome looking weapon. "Sorry C."

"It's all right. I know how you feel about knifes." She smiled winsomely at her lover. "Just don't think that it's going to sleep with us."

Angel and the old man's eyebrows shot up simultaneously. "Oops." Cordelia muttered. Mr. Roberts cleared his throat. "Right, anyway" there was an awkward pause. "Here's the scarab for it. You might want to consider a big scary coat like Angel and I wear, it would be quite useful for hiding your knife in. He pulled his own coat back to reveal the hilts of two knifes identical to the one he had just given Faith. They all laughed. "See," said the old man, "no one will ever know its there."

The quintet spent the rest of the day in a relaxed state, cherishing the precious hours they had when for once nothing seemed to need their attention. Finally in the early evening the old man stood and stretched. "Well, I think its time I was going back to my motel."

Cordelia's ears perked up, "Motel? You're not staying at a motel. Family stays with family when they visit. I would expect to stay in your home if I ever visited you in, well, wherever you're from and so you're going to stay with me." She looked at him, daring the man to argue. Instead he smiled.

"Good." Faith looked at him quizzically.

"You never had a motel did you?" His smile grew larger.

"No, I was going to stay with Angel, but since she insisted?" Cordelia realized she'd been had but let it slide, muttering to herself,

"Like father like daughter."

***

For two weeks Mr. Roberts stayed with Cordelia and Faith, trying his hardest to eat them out of house and home. One morning the old man was sitting in the kitchen talking to Dennis when Faith walked into the kitchen. "Good morning daddy," she put on her best little girl act for him, only it wasn't really an act and they both new it. The old man stood up and kissed her on the forehead.

"Good morning sweetheart. Good morning Cordelia." He greeted the young woman as she walked into the kitchen.

"Good morning Owen." If he didn't put a stop to that soon everyone would be calling him Owen. Of course that was his name, as far as anyone knew. <Oh well. What's the harm in it?>

Owen walked into the hallway and took his coat from a hangar. "I have to go out with Angel for a bit. Then I'm back to Sunnydale."

"Where are you going?" Faith asked, not looking forward to his departure.

"Wolfram and Hart. I have to ensure that certain things are done there."

Faith jumped up. "I'm going with you. Its dangerous there." The old man put a restraining hand on her arm.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. I need you to stay here and make sure no one comes for Cordelia. Of all of us she is the least able to defend herself against the agents of the Dark. Cordelia was going to protest, but then she realized the truth. <Goddamn it! Why am I so weak?>

"Angel and I have worked out a plan and everything. He sort of insisted on coming, I was just going to take care of it myself on the way out of town. Its not a big job really." Faith looked at him pleadingly, then at the sweet face of her lover. 
"Alright, but this is the last time you go anywhere without me."

"I'll be fine," he emphasized. "I'll see you in a few weeks. I love you."

"I love you too daddy."

"So do I Owen." The old man beamed at Cordelia's announcement. 
"Wonderful."


***


An hour later two men burst into the top floor offices of Wolfram and Hart. A receptionist attempted to stall them. "Gentlemen, can I help you?" Angel glared at the woman, slipping into his game face.	
"No." he growled at her. The old man approached the doors that led to the inner sanctum of this demonic law firm. Without pause the old man thrust his hand forward and the doors burst apart. <Oh great. We're being attacked by a vampire and a Jedi.> The receptionist wished she had never taken this job.

"Hello there boys," Owen started with mock jocularity. "I was just in the neighborhood and I thought I'd stop by and kill you both."

One of the men looked up, sneering. "And who might you be? That one must be this 'Angel' who has been causing us so many problems but you, I don't know you?"

"Come Hart didn't your master ever warn you about me?" He pulled his knives from his coat. "Perhaps these?" The man he addressed as Hart paled visibly. "I thought he might have." There was a tense pause. "Well, as my daughter might say, less talk, more chop." With two quick strides the old man was across the room, standing face to face with Hart. The carefully maintained human visage crumbled and a hulking demon stood where the lawyer had been a second ago. "You can't hurt me. There are rules."

"Oh yes, there are rules but they don't come into effect until the words are said. The old man paused and looked the demon in the eye. There was a blur of movement and then the demon was looking Mr. Roberts' foot in the eye as it kicked his head across the floor. A horrified Wolfram looked down at the head of his former partner and ran towards the door. He was just a man after all, and if killing the "Hart" demon had been so easy who the hell was he to stick around? As he reached the door he realized a mistake he would regret for the rest of his life. All two seconds of it. <Where did the other one, Angel, go?> His own question was answered as he barreled headlong into the point of a sword that hadn't been there a moment ago. "Oh dear." He looked down at the sword then up at Angel's face.

"Ooops." The vampire sneered as he pulled the sword from Wolfram's chest. As the body fell to the floor Angel snapped the blade out in a quick movement, separating head from body. Angel looked up at Owen. "Well," he said, "that should put a crimp in their plans."

"I should hope so. Let's get out of here." The old man turned to leave, pulling a fire alarm panel on the wall.

They waited at street level until the building was empty and then Owen muttered a few words under his breath. The building collapsed into rubble. Then the rubble collapsed into a pile of rocks. Then stones. Finally it was no more than a very, very large pile of concrete dust. "Just so they can't salvage anything." He grinned and they turned away. "I love to win. Well, I'm back to Sunnydale. I'll be back to get you all in a few weeks. Be careful."

"You got it."



The Fool

Unofficial List Hermit and Skittles Addict.

"Want beer. Like beer. Beer good."

--Buffy in "Beer Bad"

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