6

It was kind of reassuring to know that even demons panicked.

Seeing what was going on, the rest of the bar emptied out, leaving him, Bob, Amaranth, and Ergold alone in the place. The jukebox was now playing REM’s “It’s The End Of The World We As Know It”. Sometimes Logan really wanted to punch the jukebox.

“What the fuck is that?” Ammy asked Bob.

Bob, still looking up at the black shell that seemed to have swallowed the block, shrugged. “It could be a coupla different things. Let me check,” And just like that he teleported out, so suddenly that Ammy actually stumbled. But she’d just gotten her balance back when he popped right back into place, running his hands through his hair. “Well, fuck me sideways.” He walked over behind the bar, and started pouring himself a drink. Uh oh.

Ergold raised his head from the bar, and asked, “What happened?”

Bob gulped down a straight glass of vodka, then exhaled in a manner a person might if they had just swallowed straight paint thinner. “We’re totally, totally fucked. He’s done a dimensional inversion on us.”

Ergold’s eyes, which already seemed a bit bulgy, bulged out even further. “Who the fuck has that kind of power?”

“A warlock and his demon lord sponsor.”

“A dimensional inversion?” Logan asked.

Ergold slapped his toupee back on his head, and said, “He turned a dimensional bubble inside out. Basically, we’re trapped in the cosmic equivalent of a fishbowl.”

“How much of the city are we talking about?” Logan asked Bob. He wished he was surprised, but he’d been around Bob so long he was now jaded by the impossible.

“As far as I can tell? Looks like all of downtown L.A., from Sunset on.” He then fixed Ergold with a speculative look, and gestured at his haphazard toupee. “Can I get you some duct tape for that, mate?”

Ergold’s eyes narrowed to deadly little slits. “That’s not funny.”

“What’s the purpose of this? To give Angel nowhere else to go?” Logan continued, actually fairly sure Bob’s duct tape comment was funny.

Bob nodded, pouring himself another vodka. “And also to make sure he can’t call in help, although Reignet’s too late there. Also, it’s permanent night out there, so Angel can face him at any time. My guess is he wants to kill him as slowly as possible, and daylight would be too fast.”

"Terrific." Logan grabbed the bottle out of Bob's hand, and took a swig before continuing. Hey, it was cranberry vodka. "Can you undo it? The dimensional inversion?"

"By myself? No. But as soon as I call the Powers and point it out, they can put things back to normal. Of course, that'll happen if the demon lord behind this pulls out of the bargain anyways."

"So this isn't a problem we need to solve?"

"Nope. Nice for a change, isn't it?"

Actually it was. "So we don't have to worry that there's creatures in this dimension who'll start snacking on civilians?"

It was Ammy who snorted derisively. "The ones already here'll start snackin' on them."

Bob grimaced. "She's right. The demons here might think it's an apocalypse underway, and in that case, all bets are off."

"Son of a bitch. So this whole big display is just to draw Angel out?"

Bob nodded. "Oh yeah. Apparently he's so confident he'll wipe the asphalt with him that he's trying to provoke a fight. He's a cocky bastard, ain't he?"

"Where is that undead asshat?" Ammy asked.

Bob waved a finger at her in a "naughty naughty" manner, which Logan already knew wouldn't work. It wouldn't work on Bob either, would it? "He's at my place. He may not even know the world's changed shape since he went to bed."

"Let's go get him then!" Ammy insisted.

"First things first," Bob told her patiently. "We need a battle plan. We may not know where Reignet is, but we know how to draw him out."

Logan knew exactly what he meant. "Angel."

"Right. So let's get the band together and work out a set list."

Ergold looked deeply confused. "You have a band?"

For a demon with a long association with Bob, he really didn't know him that well at all, did he?

Logan pulled out his cell phone, surprised to see that it still worked ("You're with me," Bob said, as if that explained his mysterious ability to get reception. It probably did), and called Giles first. The Englishman knew something bad had happened, but not what precisely; when Logan told him it was a dimensional inversion, his reply was a simple, low key, "Oh." Again, it was a stereotype that the British were stoic stiff upper lip types, but you had to absolutely love the ones that embraced it whole heartedly.

He decided to come to the Way Station and join them, which didn't seem like a good idea since the demons were probably having a free for all out there, but Giles said he wouldn't be walking the streets, as he'd invited a friend over prior to the inversion. Logan had no idea who he meant until Giles suddenly teleported into the bar, with a white haired girl on his arm.

Scratch that - woman. She just looked young. "Oh wow," Willow said, looking straight at Ergold. "Is that an Etruzian brain parasite?"

It took the demon a minute to realize she was staring at his toupee, and scowled evilly at her when he finally made the connection. "You're no one to talk about hair, missy."

She raised an eyebrow at that. "Missy?"

"I thought we could use some magical assistance," Giles interrupted, aiming the comment straight at Logan and Bob. "When you're fighting a warlock, you can never have too much magic on your side."

Bob nodded. "Good thought, mate. Nice to have you back on board, Willow."

"Thanks. You look great. I love what you've done with your hair," she told him. Unlike Ammy, Willow looked relatively normal, wearing blue jeans and a slightly gauzy long sleeved blouse with a bright multicolored paisley pattern. The only truly unusual thing was a rather large amulet on her neck, gold and filigreed, with a main pendant that looked like a lion's head holding a ruby in its mouth. Her blue eyes scudded over to Logan, and she chirped, "Scary claw guy! Hi."

He realized nearly everyone thought of him as the "scary claw guy", but still, it wasn't always welcome to hear. "The name's Logan."

She made a face at her own faux pas. "Okay, yeah, I knew it was something Irish, I just forgot what. Sorry."

"Is that the Talisman of Aulm?" Ammy asked, taking a closer look at Willow's ornate necklace.

"Amaranth, this is Willow," Bob said, making the introductions. "Will, this is Ammy."

"Willow?" Ammy repeated curiously. "Rosenberg?"

"Amaranth?" Willow repeated. "Oberon?"

They both looked at each other for a moment, then burst out laughing.

Giles had the decency to look as puzzled as the rest of them felt. "You two know of each other?"

"Oh sure," Willow confirmed. "We both took part in the online spellcasting competition last year. Ammy was the Australian champion."

"And Will was the Irish one," Ammy confirmed. "Which is funny, 'cause you're clearly American."

"Yeah, but I've been living there for a while, so I guess they figured it was okay. Hey, you look fabulous! I love your outfit."

Even Ammy looked surprised by that comment. "Umm, thanks. So is that the talisman?"

"Oh, yeah. You'd never believe where I found it. I went to an estate auction with my girlfriend, 'cause she collects all these antique swords and stuff, and there was the talisman, lumped in with some costume jewelry."

"You're kidding me."

"No! It was insane. I bought the whole lot for like twenty dollars."

While both the girls marveled over the bargain of such a gaudy necklace, Logan asked Bob, "Does that thing do anything?"

"Oh yeah. It's a shield."

"What?"

"A shield. It protects the wearer from harmful magic and bladed weapons."

He waited a beat to see if Bob was joking, but when it was clear he wasn't, he went on. "Seriously?"

"I ain't shittin' yah, mate. Once activated, that thing is like a mystical bodyguard. And Will activated it; it's giving off a golden shimmer."

Logan looked for it, but didn't see it. He assumed that was just another Bob thing, an ability to see energies that went beyond the Human realm. "So I couldn't even claw her? Not that I want to."

"No, I don't think you could, not unless I gave you some of my powers back." He paused briefly. "But I suppose you could punch her."

What odd conversations they had.

They sat down to discuss their options. In spite of the great deal of witch firepower that Ammy, Willow, and Giles seemed to indicate, the basic problem was still the same: Reignet was immortal, and as long as his demon lord was powering him up, all they could do was weigh him down with temporary setbacks. It was up to Bob to figure out who was the demon lord, and either get him to break the contract or just kill him, as death had a tendency to break contracts. But Bob really didn’t think it would come to that - if the demon lord thought he was in genuine peril, he’d just cut the Human loose. After all, Humans were a dime a dozen (after which he added “no offense”, but by then it was too late).

Angel was the key to drawing Reignet out, but Bob was convinced that once he got his hands on Angel, he could take them both to another dimension and screw them out of helping him. But Bob needed Reignet to grab Angel, as that was pretty much the only way he could trace the power transfer going on between Reignet and his source.

“So let him get grabbed,” Ammy insisted. “Will and I can think up something to get him back.”

Logan shook his head. “What if you can’t? We just sacrificed Angel. I don’t like it.”

Ammy gave him a look that could have stripped the spine from a small mammal. “”What do you suggest then?”

His immediate answer made them all look at him funny. “And how does that work?” Ammy replied.

Logan was forced to shrug - it was his gut response; he never claimed it was logical.

But Bob rapped his knuckles on the bar, and when they looked at him, he was smiling slyly, his eyes sparkling with mischief. “It can be done,” he said, and laid it out for them. “It won’t last long, but it doesn’t have to last long.”

Willow gasped, clearly getting this. “Just long enough to trace the demon lord! We can put a rebound spell on him - it’ll slingshot him back after a couple of minutes.”

“As long as Reignet doesn’t get wise and intervene,” Ammy countered.

“If what I read about Reignet is true, if he discovers what we’ve done he’ll be absolutely furious,” Giles interjected. “He’ll want to come back here and turn the city upside down. He won’t care if he comes back here or not.”

Willow looked at Bob imploringly. “Do you think you can take care of the demon lord before that?”

And there was the flaw in the plan. Bob’s lip twisted ruefully as he admitted, “I don’t know. Time runs differently in various dimensions, and I have no idea if I’ll be in an average one, a fast one, or a slow one. It’s possible it’ll be all over by the time Reignet reappears. It’s also possible it could be hours.”

“Shit,” Ammy cursed. “And it almost seemed like a good idea.”

“My dear, it’s the only idea we‘ve had,” Giles noted wryly, sipping the tea that Bob had miraculously scared up for him. After a moment, he added, “Don’t count it out yet. We’ll simply prepare for war.”

Ergold, who had been silent all this time, finally piped up. “You’re a Watcher, aren’t cha?” Giles simply nodded, and the lizard made a noise that could have been a scoff or possibly a sneeze. “I shoulda known. You guys are always getting ready for war.” He then fixed his gold eyes on Logan. “What the fuck’s your excuse?”

Logan held his gaze levelly. “I’m an ex-assassin. If I can’t kill it, I’ll die trying.”

Ergold blanched a slightly paler shade of green and turned back to his beer. Logan was pretty sure he was done contributing for the afternoon. Good.

Bob caught his gaze, and asked, with genuine concern, “Are you sure about this, mate?”

Logan nodded. “And Angel would agree with me if he was here. If he has a problem with it, tell him he can take a free punch at me later.”

“If we’re alive.”

“Yeah, well, that’s always a risk.”

“And I’ll never get why you like that bloodsucker so much,” Ammy snapped impatiently. She didn’t seem to like this idea, but she never liked much, so that didn’t matter.

“Like really doesn’t come into it,” Logan told her. “I’m the only one who can do this and probably live to tell about it.” He noticed Willow smiling at him in a slightly goofy way. “What?”

“I was just thinking you’d have been neat - scary, but neat - to have in the Scooby Gang. Although I’d probably have spent a lot more time washing blood out of my clothes.”

“There also may have been a slight problem with armed government thugs,” Giles noted.

Willow waved that away. “Oh, been there, done that, been really disappointed by them. You’d think government thugs would have had a bit more fight in them.”

“They don’t handle magic well,” Logan pointed out, exchanging a knowing look with Giles. He went a bit magically nuclear on the Organization recently, hadn’t he? A bit of guilt flashed behind his eyes before he glanced down at his cup of tea.

The funny thing was, if Logan was right, the only one of them in this room who had never really flirted with the dark side was Amaranth. Irony didn’t get much thicker than that.

****

They didn’t know how long it would take for Reignet to respond to Angel’s appearance. They had hunkered down for a long wait, but probably because they were expecting a long wait, they were disappointed. Bob loved how it always worked that way.

He didn’t want to expose himself to Reignet or his lord, as his lord might be aware of his energy, so Bob basically just did something that Humans might call “astral projection”, but wasn’t really. He was just opening his consciousness up, encompassing the city one block at a time. In theory, he could open it up until he took in the entire world, but Bob already knew that level of awareness would drive him instantly, totally insane. Okay, insaner. In any event, he didn’t think it would be a good thing.

Even in this form, he could barely sense the magicks surrounding Angel as he hacked and slashed his way down the sidewalk, which had become the demon equivalent of a looter’s paradise. They were tearing their way through doors and smashing windows, going after people who had hidden inside buildings, but Angel had armed himself with two swords and was cutting his way through them like a threshing machine. He’d cut off one demon’s head with his right hand, while at the same time running another through on the left. In fact, as the crowd of demons converged to stop him, the quicker and more deadlier he became. It was almost like an oddly eerie yet beautiful dance. He was constantly moving, blades twirling as he turned, blood splattering the asphalt in colorful patterns as limbs flew and bodies fell, and Bob got a real sense of his sword fighting training there. It wasn’t all training, though; it had gone beyond that to the level of talent, of art. This was a man who knew his! weapon was nothing more than an extension of himself. He was the weapon, no matter what he had in his hands. It was almost awe inspiring - it was death dealing as art, and Angel’s face remained frightening blank. He was all movement, thought, and action. It was Zen fighting, with no awareness of self, only of place.

Despite the feeding frenzy, some of the demons on the outer edge of the mob realized that despite being outnumber roughly fifteen to one, Angel was in spectacularly lethal form, and fled the scene. Angel probably would have gone after them to finish the fight, but he never got the chance.

Bob sensed the energy shift, the sudden thinness in the dimensional wall before a light appeared out of nowhere, piercing the veil of permanent night. Angel had actually looked up about a millisecond before the pinhole light appeared, but it was probably too quick for Reignet to notice.

As it was, he was extra careful, as if aware this might be a trap. The light flared and then faded, but as it did, the sound of the swords hitting the pavement was audible, its owner gone in the blink of an eye.

“Holy shit,” Bob heard distantly. It was Ammy, still in the bar with the others, watching through a special scrying mirror. “He actually took him!”

Bob wanted to say he told them so, but he had no time. He found a thread of energy left in Reignet’s wake, and he quickly followed it, body and mind.