5 Sin nombre

Before starting up the new school year, which would be Carl's final year of college, he decided it was time to check up on a name that made a huge nuisance of himself in the show. Warren Mears. The man who almost kickstarted an apocalypse by killing Tara, driving Willow to almost end the world because of her grief.

When Carl investigated Warren, he found that Warren had recently been escalating his violence. His ex had broke up with him because she was afraid for her life. In Warren's apartment, found books on magic, as well as plans written down and scribbled on whiteboard. Plans to get revenge on his ex. Plans to enslave Buffy. Plans to make himself powerful and torture anyone who got in his way.

Carl didn't even know how Warren focused on Buffy or why. It didn't matter really, anyway, since Warren was a lunatic, a rabid dog. Carl wasn't going to give him a chance to bite those Carl cared for.

When Warren arrived at his apartment that night, what he found was his apartment stripped of anything valuable.

Before Warren could even get up a good rant about being robbed, a bullet met his head from behind. Carl didn't want to monologue. He didn't want to give the dog a chance. He simply wanted to end a threat.

After grabbing anything of value on Warren's body, he closed the door and then broke the lock and door in, making it look like a robbery that Warren walked in on and got killed.

Carl cast a spell to make sure he didn't leave any forensic evidence behind, and portaled out of there.

The mysteries of life, where in one world a soulless demon can work hard to overcome his instincts and eventually win himself a soul. But in the same world a human with a soul worked so hard to become a monster.

Carl shrugged. Such was life.

Now that Glorificus was taken care of, and Buffy wasn't resurrected by her friends, leading to some kind of "imbalance" that the First Evil could take advantage of, Carl felt that things in Sunnydale were pretty stable.

They had two slayers, a totem user that was nearly slayer strong, various techies, and a whole slew of magic users. They even had a young up and comer, the 15 year old Billie (although he preferred Bill now) who had caused the nightmares everyone suffered from during his first year here.

Carl had kept up the practice of spending several hours each weekend dedicated to Bill's training. Bill had even convinced his parents to let him spend time with the group after school during the week days, so Bill was exposed to the whole gang, knew who they were, and really looked up to them.

Bill started following their example and began gathering people he thought were good to join his own age group, and started training them. Bill had even been paying attention to the younger students, protecting them and seeing who were possible candidates for joining the Defense League, as they took to calling it.

Carl suspected he had started a tradition that would be passed down in Sunnydale High for years. Defenders of the Realm, a group of people that would put themselves between the enemy and their people, to protect their lives. He wouldn't always be here, so it was uplifting to see that the place wouldn't fall to shit after he was gone.

So now that Carl felt that Sunnydale was pretty steady, during his final year at College he started making trips to L.A. He introduced himself to the group of people Angel had recruited, and started scouting out the major opposition, the demonic law firm, Wolfram & Hart.

The three senior partners of that particular firm were three Old Ones demons, the Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart. Any employees of the firm unknowingly signed away their souls and rights of freedom, basically making them slaves. They did the same for clients who weren't in the know. They arranged for evil to flourish as the senior partners tried to make their way back into the world so they could turn it into their personal fiefdom.

Carl's next self appointed task was to investigate the firm and find ways to hurt its operations, and to eventually shut it down.

Several weeks into the new school year, Carl arrived at Angel Investigations headquarters, the Hyperion Hotel, to find it mostly deserted, except for someone shouting upstairs.

Carl made his way up, to see what was going on. There he found Wesley, an ex-watcher, screaming misogynistic rants at a closed door as he tried to bust it down with an axe.

Wesley had been an up and comer watcher for the council that the council sent to Sunnydale to replace Diana after they learned about her disability of losing her left hand. Suffice it to say, at the time, Wesley was a prideful stuck up jerk, and he didn't mesh well with the group. Things happened, Wesley was kicked from the Watchers Council, he somehow joined Angel Investigations, and had managed over the past couple of years to become a decent person that Carl could tolerate.

So when Carl saw Wesley acting completely out of character with some woman hating bile spewing from his lips, Carl didn't immediately kill him, just knocked him out. From what he gathered before he knocked Wesley out, Fred was behind the door.

"Fred? Wesley is knocked out. Do you have any idea what was controlling him to make him act that way?" Carl called out to the locked door.

"Carl?" Came Fred's tremulous reply. "Is it safe now?"

"Yeah, Wesley is knocked out and tied up until we can turn him back to his usual self. Any idea what caused it?"

Fred cracked open the door, and Carl could see one eye looking out, taking in the situation, as she was prepared to close and lock the door in a moment's notice. Carl kept his distance to reassure her he wasn't going to do anything.

"There was some guy named Billy that seems suspect. He always had a knowing grin when we saw some random guys start acting like Wesley was. Angel went after him, to stop him, but I'm afraid that he'll fall victim to the same thing. I don't want to see a scary Angel." Fred whimpered the last bit.

"Things will work out, it'll be fine. I'm going to put Wesley into another room for now, and go help Angel. You should stay there for now."

"But what if he gets you too?" Fred asked/whimpered.

Carl knew that Fred was still suffering from her time in the Hell dimension Pylea that her old professor tricked her into because he felt threatened that Fred's absolute brilliance would overshadow him. She had been having a difficult time overcoming the fear.

"Well, there's never a 100% guarantee that thing will work out. That's just the way life is. But I believe that with our hard work and effort, and a strong will, we will prevail. They won't keep us down, you know why?"

"Why?"

"Because we're like the gristle between the teeth of fate." At Fred's blank look, Carl continued explaining. "We're just too tough to chew up. No matter what fate does, we're still here. We're tough, and we will win in the end. Fate will just have to resign herself to spitting us out, because we refuse to give up. Right, Fred? I know you are one tough gristle. And you can overcome anything you set your beautiful mind to. You know that, right?"

"Yeah." Fred stated, seeming to take strength from Carl's statements. "Carl?"

"Yeah, Fred?"

"You suck at metaphors." She stated.

Carl laughed, nodding. "Yup. But, hey, you got the gist, right?"

Fred smiled back at him. "Yup. Gristle heroes, that's us."

Carl smiled back at her, then teleported Wesley to another room, and teleported in a tazer, mace, and a tranq rifle, leaving them on the floor in front of the door for Fred.

"It's dangerous to go alone, take these, Fred." Carl laughed as he left. "Be back in a bit with a totally normal for Angel, Angel."

Carl felt for the tracker he left on Angel. Just because he got his soul back, doesn't mean he couldn't lose it again. No sense taking chances.

When Carl portaled in a decent distance from Angel so he wasn't in the middle of the actions, he saw Angel confronting a young cocky man at an Airport. Carl could feel the young man, Billy, reaching out with his power, like tentacles trying to pry Angel's head open, trying to subvert Angel to his way of thinking.

A brief scan of Billy's uppermost thoughts let Carl know he was set in his ways. There was no redeeming him. So he pulled out his AR15, aimed, and shot the little bastard in the head.

Angel was surprised, to say the least.

"Carl." Angel greeted him tersely. "What brings you around?"

"Oh, just dropping by for a visit." Carl laconically answered. "Saw some whackiness afoot, thought I'd lend a hand." Pause for a beat. He then started clapping sarcastically.

Angel barely smirked, but smirk he did. There was a soul with humor in there somewhere!

"Well, thanks then. Didn't really need the help, I had it handled, but thanks anyway."

Carl shrugged at Angel's face saving. He knew the man code just as well.

"You looked like you had it handled, I just got impatient." Carl shrugged. "Comes from having portals. I can no longer stand waiting in line. I get all jittery when I'm forced to."

"Ahh, the impatience of youth." Angel still had that smirk on.

"You got that right, old man." Carl snarked back. "Well, unless you feel like carrying a body around the Airport, I'll take care of cleanup." Carl used a portal to transport the body away for later disposal. "Need a ride back via portal?"

"Nah, I brought my car. Airport parking is expensive, so I'd better move it now."

"True. See ya back at the hotel."

Carl portaled back, leaving Angel standing there alone.

"Wish I had portals." Angel whispered as he started jogging towards his car.

Carl arrived back at the hotel, and informed Fred that Billy was gone, and everything should go back to normal. He then started cleaning up the mess, and Fred came out to help. Even though she kept her tazer and mace on her, she seemed to be coming out of her cave and facing the world again.

When Wesley finally woke up and remembered what he'd done, Carl could see the shame and guilt flooding his face. When he started to shut himself off from the others, Carl decided to head off this mope fest before it got started.

Carl hustled Wesley off to a different room to have some private words.

"Aright, what's the deal? Why are you feeling guilty?" Carl demanded of Wesley.

"I was so full hate towards Fred. How can she stand to look at me after what I said? I can't stay here, she's so fragile right now, how can she break out of her fear if I'm around to remind her?"

Since Wesley didn't look like he was getting off his guilt filled obsession anytime soon, Carl simply slapped him. Pow! Right in the kisser. The shock and stinging pain focused Wesley on something other than his guilt.

Holding his hand to the cheek Carl had slapped, Wesley glared at him. "What was that for?"

"You awake yet?"

"Huh?"

"I asked if you were awake yet? You're so set on blaming yourself for being mind whammied, you weren't looking around you at what was really going on. Now come here and tell me what you see." Carl opened the door and gestured for Wesley to look out.

"Fred is cleaning up." Wesley blankly said.

"Yup. She's moving out of her cave. She's being brave, and facing the world. She knows that it wasn't you in control. She knows you don't believe any of those things you said while you were mind whammied. But if you don't get over yourself and your need to feel guilty, you'll basically be saying that you don't trust her to be able to figure these things out herself. That you don't believe in her or her intelligence. Now that is the kind of behavior that will undermine her." Carl emphasized.

"So you need to get over yourself, stop the pity party, and act and behave normal around her. For her sake, if for no other reason. I mean, aside from the fact that you weren't in control. Or do you still believe the things you said while mind whammied?"

Wesley sputtered for a moment. "What? NO! Of course I don't!"

Carl simply nodded, smiling. "Good to hear it. So, can you do that for her? Fake it till you make it, so she knows you believe in her, in her intelligence, and so you don't undermine her growing confidence?"

Carl could see the moment Wesley made his decision. His shoulders squared up, his back straightened, and his facial features set in a mask of determination. He nodded firmly.

"Good man." Carl clapped him on the shoulder. "Now get out there and help your girl clean up."

Carl simply laughed as Wesley sputtered denials, moving to join Fred and Gunn in cleaning up.

At about that time, Angel made his entrance. Fred took one look at him, and stated loudly with a straight face. "Hail, hail, the gristle hero returns!"

"What?" Angel blankly stared at Fred, totally discombobulated.

Carl couldn't help it after looking at his face, he burst out laughing. "The look on your face." He wheezed between his laughter as everyone looked at him askance, except Fred. She knew exactly what she'd done.

Wesley and Gunn then looked at Angel's face for a moment, before they too started chuckling.

"You got to admit, dawg, your face was funny." Gunn commented with a grin.

Angel just sighed "no respect" with a small grin as he enjoyed watching his friends have a lighthearted moment, even if it was at his expense. Turning back to look at Fred, "Gristle hero?" Angel queried.

So Fred launched into a long, involved explanation of why they were Gristle Heroes, that not even fate could chew them up.

Carl simply smiled.

Several weeks later when Carl was again visiting Angel's crew, he was surprised to almost get shot on arriving via portal.

"Whoa, what's going on?"

"Darla's pregnant and Wolfram & Hart and some vampire cult are coming for her and the baby." Was his answer from Fred.

"Run that by me again? You mean, like Angelus' sire, Darla?" Carl was a little shocked at the suddenness of it all.

"Yeah, Darla came back as a human. Drusilla turned her into a vampire."

"Wait, Drusilla is back too?" Carl asked. Were all his vampire kills going to be coming back? Angelus, Darla, and Drusilla. Would the next one be Spike?

"Yeah, Wolfram & Hart have been busy." Gunn commented.

"I'll say." Carl muttered.

"Yeah, so Angel and Darla had sex. After Angel had done some trials to save Darla that didn't work because she'd already been brought back once. But it allowed her to get pregnant. She's sharing a soul with the child, so she's good at the moment. But everyone seems to want the baby because of some prophecy. So we have to prepare to defend against a vampire cult and human mercenaries sent by Wolfram & Hart, and just random demons after the bounty."

"My head is spinning. Okay, I guess that's what I get for not showing up for a couple weeks. Right, first things first: the fight. I'll be right back with more help. Would it kill you people to pick up a phone and call for backup once in a while?" Carl grumbled.

He portaled back to Sunnydale and quickly gathered the gang. He made with the explainy. Everyone was onboard with helping Angel's Crew, so they loaded up on equipment, and Carl portaled them all to the hotel to help Angel's group protect the baby.

While everyone and their dog was focused on the action at the hotel, Carl felt it was the perfect time to take advantage of low security at all the Wolfram & Hart properties he had scouted over the past few months. He had had a lot of time to scout out the defenses and prepare items to overcome their security spells.

Property after property he broke into, looting everything of value, installing viruses that would infect their systems and steal their data and online accounts. Libraries, items of power, even employee contracts.

Wolfram & Hart as an organization was going to be crippled after this.

Meanwhile, with two and a half slayers, an army of mages, and high tech weaponry, the battle at the hotel was almost a cake walk. What would have been a close, nearly losing, battle, turned into an absolute rout of the bad guys.

In the end, to save her child, Darla staked herself. Carl didn't know what to think about that act of self sacrifice. But he wasn't going to second guess his choices to stake vampires. Yes, under special circumstances some of the vampires can rise to the occasion and become better than they were. But they need special circumstances. Leaving them to run free and murder people is not the environment they need to be capable of bettering themselves.

Angel named his son Connor. Carl could tell how taken he was with the boy.

Angel was a complicated man that had gone through many trials in life. Most of those times were downs, rather than ups. He has lived for hundreds of years with a blood demon in his head. As a vampire he knew with a certainty that he would never have a chance to have the simple joys in life that humans take for granted. Like fatherhood. Like love. True love.

And now, he has a chance at a bit of that human experience. Something he long thought denied him. This opportunity, in a way, was an even bigger chance at having a piece of being human than falling in love with Buffy was.

Anything that endangered his son, or his chance at being a father, would be met with a towering rage that would eclipse anything the vampire Angelus had ever been capable of feeling.

Which is why when, a few weeks later, Carl caught a snippet of thought from Wesley about sending Connor away to a different dimension, he had to act to prevent monumental mistakes from being done.

Carl grabbled Wesley, and teleported them away. After interrogating Wesley for a bit, who didn't want to tell him what was up, he finally loosened up and explained. Wesley had already been caught, if he could get Carl on his side, his mission would get easier.

"There is a prophecy about Connor. I finished translating it, and it said 'The father will kill the son'. I care a great deal for both Angel and Connor. It would destroy Angel if he did anything to his son. So to protect them both, I need to send Connor away." Wesley explained, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Carl just sighed at Wesley's stupidity. Carl then glared at Wesley. "Are you an idiot? You must be. Have you ever heard of the story of Oedipus? His biological father was the king. The Delphi Oracle told him that any son he bore would end up killing him. So he gave his son to a servant to leave the boy on the mountain side to die of exposure."

"Instead of doing so, the servant gave the boy to a shepherd, who passed the child to another and another, until he ended up in the hands of the neighboring country's king and queen, who couldn't have children. After growing up, Oedipus heard from the Delphi Oracle that he was destined to kill his father and sleep with his mother. Thinking that the oracle meant his adoptive parents, he left his adoptive parents behind, going far away. After some convoluted story happened, Oedipus ends up killing his biological father and sleeping with his biological mother. Self fulfilling prophecy confirmed. The Delphi Oracle puts another checkpoint on her tally of successful prophecy."

"Is this story perhaps sounding familiar to you? Certain individuals up high want certain plans and stories to happen. They need people to act a certain way, but they are restricted by rules they have to follow, so they leave an 'ancient prophecy' lying around so the targeted schmuck, in this case you, freaks out and acts in such a way so their convoluted plans can go forward. I guarantee you, if you successfully send Connor away, he'll come back as an adult and for whatever reason will be trying to kill Angel. Angel won't have any clue that this adult is his long lost son, and will defend himself, killing his son. All because you danced to the tune of self-fulfilling prophecy."

"So I ask you again, are you an idiot, or what?" Carl angrily glared at Wesley, who was looking sick at what he almost did.

"R-right. I think I'm going to be sick." Wesley collapsed to the ground.

After some time Wesley finally got himself back together. Looking at him, Carl gave some final advice.

"Just forget the whole prophecy. Despite thinking it, you never actually acted on it, so just enjoy your life. Take Fred out on a date or something. Enjoy watching Angel be the best dad ever. And just…live."

Carl teleported them back. For Wesley the matter was dropped. But not for Carl. He knew this was part of Jasmine's plan to get born. If Connor had been sent away, he would have grown up in an instant in a time dilated dimension, come back, and gotten into Cordelia's pants, making her pregnant with Jasmine's new body.

Carl was beyond sick of this Jasmine bitch's plans. He only needed a couple more things before he could counterattack. He redoubled his efforts to procure the needed items.

Carl looked at the demon trapped in his ritual circle. It had taken a lot of time and effort to get the items needed for the ritual that he'd designed. It had taken just as much effort to get Skip, servant of Jasmine, trapped in there. But now his efforts were going to pay off.

Carl started the ritual. Mystic energies started swirling around the trapped demon. Carl just ignored all of Skip's babble about being a servant of the Powers That Be and they won't let him get away with it. It was just so much hot air, as far as he was concerned.

He had defenses in place. The defenses, the current ritual, and the one following it were all powered by the energy he had siphoned off of Glorificus. So there wasn't much Jasmine could do to stop it, at this point.

The mystical energies in the circle started tearing Skip apart, rendering him down to his constituent elements and energies. Including magical energies. Including the link between Skip and Jasmine.

"Gotcha." Carl exclaimed with a grin when he saw he had the link contained in a crystal. He continued to watch as Skip was rendered for every erg of energy or matter he had, torn apart into nothing.

Once the ritual had completed, Carl moved to enact the next ritual. He set everything up just so, and then placed the crystal containing the link to Jasmine in its place. Using the energy form Glorificus, he started the attack/drain spell. He felt when the spell hooked Jasmine like a fish.

Once the spell was hooked into the higher being, nothing they did could stop it, short of tearing themselves apart to get rid of the hook.

Carl grinned as he watched the energy pour in. He could faintly hear screams of terror from Jasmine as her energy, her very being, was being siphoned away. She didn't even have any defenses set up to retaliate in case of dying. She never thought she would be killed by a mere mortal.

Eventually the last bit of Jasmine was sucked into the prepared crystals. Carl was feeling pretty good about himself right about now.

"Shouldn't have messed with my family, bitch."

Carl graduated with a History degree. Ever since he chose to be a magic user in this world, he had never looked back. Everything was geared towards making him the best magic user he could be. Exercise was to ensure he stayed alive long enough to learn magic, and because he learned that the more fit he was, the more magic he could channel.

He studied ancient and obscure languages so he could learn more perspectives on magic, more spells, more knowledge, so he could be more efficient in casting, harder hitting, and faster casting.

He organized groups to learn, because he knew only with excellent peers forcing him to up his own game would he grow. And it also helped to keep everyone alive. And he liked them. His decisions weren't all cold blooded benefits. But everything was geared towards being the best mage he could be.

And the history degree allowed him to study more knowledge that was beneficial to his magic studies. Even little nuggets of hidden or hinted knowledge among non-magical history accounts gave him ideas and hints on what else magic can be stretched to accomplish.

Because magic is the ultimate multitool. If he can contort his mind to understand a concept, or think in a certain way, he can make his magic do miracles. If he can understand the underlying mystical principles, he can design rituals to kill gods, or bless a generation with prosperity. Magic will do nearly anything. The user just has to figure out how to bend magic the right way.

Over the next year Carl continued his attacks on Wolfram & Hart. Every time they showed their ugly mug, he would follow the thread back and take more of their resources, and destroy more of their operations.

Meanwhile he continued to train and spend time with the gang and Angel's crew. He was really enjoying watching everyone. They were so much happier than they had been in the show. Angst drama was almost nil. The threats they faced were negligible with their powers. Carl also got to see the other side of Angel. The human side. Angel was finally coming out from under the shadows of being a vampire. He was becoming a real boy! Carl laughed to himself at his own joke.

Another notable happening was that Carl and Fred had grown much closer during that time. Apparently she had been beyond frustrated at how the rest of Angel's crew treated her with kid gloves. The two possible love interests on Angel's crew for Fred, Gunn and Wesley, had taken too long beating around the bush. So Fred took things into her own hands, and decided to join Carl's group, ambushing them on their bed one evening. The resultant games and her enthusiasm had solidified her place among Harmony, Amy, and Marcie as Carl's girls. Buffy still joined them, but he could tell she wasn't emotionally invested.

When Cordelia found out he had yet another girl in his bed, she couldn't stop making sarcastic comments to him for two weeks. Carl just snarked back at her, waiting for her to get it out of her system. He could almost believe she was jealous of the other girls? Nah, probably not. He was still her brother at the end of the day.

After months of work at stomping on Wolfram & Hart, Carl finally found the links to the three Elder Demons he needed. At this point his ritual to attack and drain power from higher beings was almost routine.

The only surprise for him was that halfway through the power drain of the Hart, the Hart tore himself apart, rather than die whimpering from being drained of power. With his essence being scattered to the winds, there was nothing substantial to hook into, and the ritual wound down. But it was still a success. If the Hart ever pulled himself back together, it would be millennia from now. He was no longer a threat.

Looking at the combined energy he had of a Hellgoddess, a Power Thats Been, and two and a half Old Ones, Carl began planning his next ritual. A few items were definitely needed before hand. Couldn't do the ritual with some of the people as they currently were.

Carl was in a happy mood. He had just acquired the last item needed to do the ritual he was planning. He just arrived at the Hotel that Angel's crew stayed at when he saw Fred reaching out to touch a sarcophagus full of something that just felt wrong.

Desperate to keep her from touching that nastiness, Carl dove for her, tackling her to the ground away from the bad thing.

"Carl? What are you doing?" Fred asked as she lay on top of him.

"Well, Fred. I like you the way you are. Not all hollowed out and lived in by whatever nastiness is in that sarcophagus." Carl replied.

"Oh. Well, thank you for that."

"Anytime."

Their moment was interrupted by a cough at the door.

"Am I interrupting anything?" Wesley asked with a hint of jealousy. It was his own fault he had been too timid to ask her out. He lost his chance.

"Just making sure Fred stays Fred." Carl stated as the two of them got up. He eyed the sarcophagus before portaling it away for now. "There, that's better. That thing is nasty."

"So, what brings you here?" Wesley asked.

"Right. Invitations." Carl stated, handing a stack of invitations to Fred. "Everyone is invited. Attendance is mandatory. Tell Angel that just like the Halloween invitation a few years ago, he will forever regret it if he doesn't attend. And he is to bring Connor too. The meeting is about a good thing. A very, very good thing. That no one is allowed to miss. I can't emphasize that enough."

"Right. I'll make sure everyone gets their invite." Fred stated with a bemused smile on her face.

"Thanks. Well, I'm off to make more preparations. Thanks, Fred." Carl gave her a hug and a deep kiss before leaving just to tweak Wesley. And because Fred was gorgeous, flirting with her was never a chore.

Carl looked at the sarcophagus that was a link to the old one demon Illyria. "You should never have tried to eat Fred. That was your last mistake." Carl said, even though Illyria couldn't hear him.

Once more Carl enacted his tried and true ritual to hook and drain creatures of great power. After some time, he once more had a load of demon energy.

He worked on purifying all the demonic energy. It wouldn't do to use it in its current form for his next ritual.

Carl welcomed the last of his "guests" to his "party". Turning to look at everyone as they sat at the dinner tables, Carl was happy at the numbers.

From the Sunnydale gang was Rupert, Jenny, Joyce, Buffy, Dawn, Faith, Diana, Willow, Xander, Cordelia, Harmony, Amy, Marcie, Tara, Jonathan, Andrew, Jesse, Bill and his seven recruits, Oz, and Veruca, and Sophronia and Lavinia Fairweather, Giles' aunts.

From Angels crew was Angel, Connor, Gunn, Lorne, Fred, Wesley, Doyle, the Groosalugg, Kate Lockley, Desdemona, Laura Kay Weathermill, and Nina Ash.

After everyone had eaten, Carl stood, getting everyone's attention.

"Everyone is here because I like you guys." Carl smiled through the jeers and catcalls. "You're good people. You fight the good fight. Often outnumbered, sometimes outgunned."

"That's not true, there's only one real Gunn!" Some ham in the audience yelled. Carl barked a laugh.

"I have recently acquired the necessary materials for a blessing ritual. I want everyone here to receive the blessing and protection. Like I said, you're good people and you deserve the blessing."

Naturally the magic users in the crowd had to understand the ritual before they participated. It would be the height of folly to jump blindly into something like an unknown ritual.

Carl showed them his documentation while the non magicians in the crown entertained themselves.

After some time spent studying the ritual and running the numbers, the magicians came together to present their findings. Lavinia was chosen as the spokesperson.

"Your numbers for the ritual are spot on, and it would do what you say it would. Only, there's no way to power it. It would require more power than our group could provide." Was the group's conclusion.

"Ahh, well, don't worry. I've got the power angle covered. If you would follow me down to the ritual room." It took a bit to get such a large group moving in the same direction. Seriously, if it was a battle the entire crowd would suddenly turn into a single unit and demolish the enemy. In such a laid back situation though, it was like herding cats.

The group finally arrived at the prepared ritual room. Every magic user, once they entered the protection wards, went wide eyed at the power radiating off the numerous quartz stones that held the power of three and a half old ones, a Hell Goddess, and a Power That's Been.

"Where did you get so much energy? How?"

"Oh, some interfering busybodies and some old ones volunteered. I've sent the energy through quite a few purification rituals so they won't have a negative effect here. Please, double check my work though. This isn't a ritual that we want to make a mistake on." Carl stated, then let them analyze to their hearts content.

Eventually the consensus of the group was: The ritual would work!

"Now, before we kick this ritual off, there's something that needs to take place first. Angel, front and center!" At Angel's sarcastic look while not moving, Carl sighed. "Fine, be that way. Catch." Carl tossed a vial to Angel. "In there is Mohra's Blood. It'll turn you human. Yes, you'll lose your vampiric strength, but if you are still a vampire, you'll get your ass fried sitting in on this ritual. So take it, get the damn blessing, and enjoy a long life as a human."

After Carl said that, he could see Buffy and Angel eyeing each other across the room. 'Well, if they both still feel that way about each other after all this time, it must really be love.' Carl sighed a little bitterly. He'd enjoyed partaking in the bedroom games with Buffy for the past couple of years, but he'd been fully aware that he didn't have her heart. That it was just to scratch that itch. So if those two could end up with their happy ever after, who was he to stand in their way?

Angel downed the vial and went through the painful process of turning human. Carl may or may not have felt some schadenfreude from watching the process. When that was done, everyone took their places in the circle. Carl started the blessing ritual.

Carl had long pondered about what he could do for the people of this planet after he left when the 10 years was up. Too often the fighters who kept the rest of mankind safe were isolated and overwhelmed by numbers. A slayer can easily kill half a dozen vampires at a time. But what if they were facing a dozen? Two dozen? Three? More slayers die from being outnumbered and worn down by cannon fodder than anything else.

He eventually came up with the idea of this ritual. It would bless everyone here, and the blessing would be passed to their children, and their children's children and so on. They would gain increased stamina, speed, and strength. It wouldn't be anywhere near a slayers speed. But with the ritual a "normal human" would be maybe half as strong as a vampire, instead of only one fifth as strong. That was a decent boost that would help keep them alive.

The ritual would also protect everyone from a vampires bite. If a vampire bit them, the vampire would immediately start to burn. They could no longer be turned by the undead.

Then there was the luck aspect. Luck was one of the more ephemeral aspects of life. It could come and go at the drop of a hat. But with this ritual, there was one aspect of luck that would more often than not turn in their favor. If they were to be faced by overwhelming odds that would likely kill them, chance would turn in their favor and backup help would feel the urge to come to their assistance.

It wasn't a 100% chance. Like Carl told Fred before, there is no 100% guarantee. But it was so much more likely to happen that everyone had a good chance of surviving ambushes and overwhelming odds.

Eventually the ritual ran its course. Everyone was exclaiming in happiness at the feeling of the blessing energy and extra strength. Carl was pleased at everyone's reactions. He even managed a smile when he saw Angel arrange a baby sitter for Connor so he and Buffy could sneak out to renew their relationship.

Carl really couldn't complain about them getting back together. Would have been nice if she'd talked to him first though. But at least he had a few very enthusiastic women in his bed later that night to thank him for what he'd done for them, and taking his mind off the blonde slayer.

Several weeks later, Carl got word from Giles that the Watchers Council had been killed to the last man. Giles' aunts survived, they were visiting him at the time, so they were nowhere near the slaughter. They also received reports that someone was killing the potential slayers.