To Curse Anew
Everyone turned to stare at Buffy after she’d whispered her announcement. She slowly blinked and leaned closer to the computer screen that held the image. It was just as it had appeared to her and Willow on the computer screen. Not translated of course, it was still in Romanian. It also seemed a little longer than she remembered. But then, that fist time, she’d been focused on the translated text.
"Angel has a curse?" Max asked, puzzled. She was dealing with fresh territory here, no matter her previous dealings with prophecy. Now she had curses to deal with.
"The curse is how I got my soul," he explained in a low voice. He knew that she was aware of his soul, but he’d never explained to her how he came by it. "Over ninety years ago, I killed a Gypsy. Her family cursed me with my soul, so that I would never forget the people I hurt, or killed." He turned back to the computer screen, not wanting to see the disgust in her eyes. He was surprised to hear her chuckle.
"The gift that keeps on giving," she smiled, reaching out to squeeze his shoulder. He glanced up at her, startled that she took it in and just accepted. Buffy and Spike watched them, feeling a little better seeing the two connecting. They both had worried over Angel’s pain at their being together. Well, not so much Spike, but he was surprised to find that he had a little kindness in his heart to the old poofter. Of course, his cynical nature and gift for seeing to the heart of matters had never left him. He felt compelled to set limits before anything got out of hand. As he and Buffy had seen first hand.
"Better tell her the whole of it mate," he warned. Angel shot him a dark glance, but Spike just ignored it.
"Tell me what?"
Angel sighed. "There’s part of the curse that says if I experience one moment of true happiness, I’ll lose my soul again."
"Ouch, that bites," Max quipped. She wasn’t really sure how to deal with that bit of information. "No wonder you brood so much." Buffy and Spike, seeing the truth in that snorted with laughter. Angel furrowed his brow at them.
"It’s not funny," he admonished them. Buffy kept giggling.
"Well, you know you do brood a lot," she tittered. "I’m sorry, it just struck me as funny all of a sudden. I mean, if you can’t laugh, you’ll go mad." Angel stared at her, helpless against her mirth. He tried to keep his stern countenance, but after looking at the giggling Spike, his former Childe, he couldn’t help himself. There was a big cosmic joke played on him and Buffy was right. His frown slipped a little and before he knew it, he was roaring with laughter. He laughed so hard that a single tear slipped from his eye and rolled down his cheek. Buffy had stopped laughing and was shaking her head.
"Okay, it’s not that funny mate," Spike growled. It unnerved him to see Angel laugh that hard. It just wasn’t in the vampire’s nature. Angel finally began to calm down and managed to get himself under control. They turned their attention back to the computer as Buffy scrolled through the other pictures she had taken. He still chuckled every few minutes, but they didn’t comment. Buffy tried to keep her attention on the screen, not wanting to fall prey to laughing hysteria herself. But something caught her eye, grabbing her completely.
"Look!" she yelped excitedly, pointing at the screen. She was looking at one of the pictures of Max’s lower back. There had been a break, very slight, where skin showed through and then more writing. "I knew it!" she sat back, a satisfied smirk on her face.
"What is it luv?" Spike leaned over her to see better. Angel and Max were looking just as confused.
"When I first saw the whole thing, I thought it looked longer than the original curse that Jenny had," Buffy explained. "I was right. There’s more. That spot doesn’t look at all familiar to me." She turned to Max. "I wonder what it means."
"Don’t look at me," Max shook her head. "I’m just the messenger."
"Wait," Angel turned to her as well. "Buffy said that this happened to you before. What was the other prophecy?" Max turned pale and he reached out a hand to support her. "Max, what is it?"
"It was bad," she whispered. Angel rose and led her to the couch. She sank into it gratefully. He seated himself on his coffee table, before her. "I remember what the prophecy said. But I don’t…I can’t-!"
"You can’t what?" he asked gently. There was a myriad of pain and confusion in her eyes. Angel had the wild impression that it was what people saw when they looked at him.
" I don’t remember what I did…for the prophecy."
"Can you tell us what the prophecy said?" Buffy asked as she and Spike joined the pair.
Max swallowed hard. It was something she alternately obsessed over and tried to forget about. She looked down at her lap. "We translated it as best we could. It was hard, took a long time. But Logan finally found the key to it." She swallowed again. Saying Logan’s name brought up feelings of yearning that she hadn’t quite gotten over yet. "It said ‘When the shroud of darkness covers the land, the one whose power is hidden shall deliver us all’."
"What the hell does that mean?" Spike snorted. Max glanced up at him, biting her lip. Buffy gave him a silencing look.
"I have a question," Max sighed. If she was going to trust, and that was a big step for her, it was now or never. "What do you think about time travel? And other dimensions?" To her surprise, all three relaxed slightly, exchanging grins.
"We’ve had some experience in that area," Angel answered. "Not that it was really all that pleasant in most cases. But we’re not unbelievers."
"Yeah, we have dealt with a lot of interesting things," Buffy nodded, drawing out her words. "So what’s your story?" Max leaned back and sighed, wondering how much information to give them.
"You’d better tell us everything," Angel advised. He wasn’t sure if it was his desire to learn what he could of her because of what he felt for her or to avert a coming apocalypse.
"I don’t know if I can," Max admitted. She wanted to. She wanted to tell him everything. She wanted to be the one to trust him enough to spill all the gory details of her life before he forced her to. She’d never had that before. Everyone, who had ever known about her in her previous life, found out because she’d been forced to reveal something unique, unlike other humans and was better off knowing the truth. Or they’d been a super hacker with a thirst for knowledge, like Logan. She sat up and looked straight into Angel’s eyes. She wanted to do this, she needed to.
"I suppose the first thing you should know is that I was born in 1999."
The Story Of A Lifetime
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