Bel had kiiiiinda forgotten about class on Monday. He blamed Phoebe distracting him Sunday night, and come to think of it, she'd probably done it on purpose because she really didn't approve of him antagonizing Anakin with his class. And to tell the truth, there was nothing he could come up with that would top Jamie's puppet show or getting Anakin gremlin-bit.
At any rate, he figured he ought to at least show up for the last week of classes. He hadn't really established any office hours at the start of the summer session, so he just wandered around until he found an empty office and parked himself inside, feet up on the desk as he fiddled with his phone. Maybe he'd order a few dozen pizzas and have them sent to Anakin's office. Because he was 12.
Merely unleashing his students on Anakin with bantha bells wasn't enough. Bel decided to up the ante by once again breaking into Anakin's office so he could fill it top to bottom with fluffypinkbunnies.
A quiet Sunday night had been rudely interrupted when Phoebe had gotten a premonition of a demon attacking someone, so Bel had shimmered her to the location in her vision so they could stop it from happening.
"You sure this is the place?" he said, looking around the alley. He didn't see anything, but he did get the feeling they were being watched.
Bel was standing in the hotel lobby, staring at the bags Phoebe and Piper had packed for their impromptu trip to Fandom that week. (Really, they were all bored, LA was being too quiet lately, and they just wanted a change of scenery. What better place than Fandom?)
"I might have to make two trips," Bel complained. "C'mon, we're just going for a few days. Do you really need all this stuff? What, do you have McDonald in one of these or something?"
Bel had gone out seeking a food truck to score some dinner. He was on his way back to the hotel (even nice enough to bring back food for Phoebe and Anders) when he had the feeling he was being watched. He couldn't spot anyone nearby, and demon activity had been relatively low lately, but all the same, he stopped and called out, "All right, quit following around. Show yourself."
Two men appeared in front of him, one older with a short grey beard, and the other reminded him of the guy in Candyman for some reason. Both were dressed entirely in black. "We've been waiting for this moment, Cole," the first said.
"Yes, welcome," not-Candyman added in a gravelly voice.
Bel tensed, ready to summon up a fireball if he needed to. "Only Phoebe gets to call me Cole," he said. "Who they hell are you?"
"We are the Avatars," the first man said.
"Avatars of what?" Bel said. "If it isn't bacon, I'm not interested."
"Force and power," not-Candyman said. "And we don't have to limit ourselves to choosing between good and evil, we can drive them both."
"What's that got to do with me?" Bel demanded. "I gave up evil. If you're looking for recruits, I'm not interested."
Not-Candyman took a step closer. "There are only a few of us now," he said, "but we are preparing to wield the power the likes of which this world has never seen."
"And we want you to be apart of it," the grey-bearded Avatar said.
"Good and evil are such useless categories," not-Candyman said. "Endlessly in battle, neither side ever winning. Gets rather boring don't you think?"
Bel summoned up a fireball (in the hand not holding dinner). He didn't like the sound of this at all. "Let me make myself clear," he said evenly. "I want nothing to do with you."
"The power inside you has grown," the first Avatar said. "Soon you will have nowhere else to turn except to us."
"Yeah, turn this," Bel said, throwing the fireball. To his surprise, it vanished as it struck them, and they remained unharmed.
"You can't fight us, Cole," the grey-bearded Avatar said. "It is futile to try. Sooner or later you will join us. It is inevitable."
Both men vanished, leaving Bel alone on the street with just his bag of food and a really bad feeling about this.
[ooc: Dialogue swiped from the episode "Sam I Am" (yes, really), but modified because Bel isn't, you know, completely crazy.]
Bel still hadn't really talked to Anders since the whole turning into his alternate universe self. How they managed to not see each other while living in the same room and even sharing a bed was anybody's guess. But Bel was tired of the silence between them, so now he was laying in wait to corner Anders so they could finally talk.
Bel had safely stashed Phoebe in another room in the hotel, up on one of the higher floors away from everyone else. She hadn't been entirely happy with him locking her up there, but he wanted to keep her safe and hidden from Veronica and Piper or anyone else that might try to take her away.
He'd shimmered out to locate his volatile vampire and found her with Lindsey and Piper. Having Phoebe back certainly hadn't instantly restored him to good guy status since he never quite got there to begin with in his world due to her death, so he hadn't exactly stepped in to stop them. He was more than happy to let veronica distract herself with Piper, and getting rid of the witch would make sure that she wouldn't try to take Phoebe from him. He'd just totally blame it on Veronica and Lindsey, and what Phoebe didn't know wouldn't hurt her.
Of course, torture always got him worked up and horny, and Veronica was doing her best to seduce him, and even with Phoebe back he still had a thing for vampires and he hadn't progressed past his jackass days (and still hadn't, if you asked Logan or Anakin), so he didn't exactly fight to hard about being dragged to bed with Veronica. And Lindsey. Piper having to witness the debauchery was just icing on the proverbial cake.
Come the next morning, Piper was still tied to a chair, and Bel was in the bed tangled up in post-coital bliss with his vampires. Except they weren't vampires anymore, and he was back to being his true self. And waking up to a very girly scream from Lindsey.
[For the orgy pile and the disgusted witness. And possibly anyone looking for them. ;) ]
As Bel began to wake up, he realized he was warm. Well, as a demon he was always warm, but when it was a vampire who was in your bed, they tended to leech the heat away. Not only was he warm, but there was more than one body in the bed with him. His memory was foggy enough that he couldn't remember exactly whom he'd slept with last night. Veronica? Lindsey? Tyler? All three? Not that he discriminated much about sharing his bed. Whoever it was, they must've left to feed and returned. Hence the warmth.
He opened his eyes, but it didn't register right away that there was a window in the room, and sunlight was streaming through the curtains. Instead he was staring at the woman curled against him. The other occupant of the bed was forgotten in his shock. It wasn't possible.
"Phoebe!" he said, pulling her into his arms as she made a sleepy noise of protest. She was alive. He didn't understand or care how, but she was alive.
[For the other occupants of the bed. Up early in case I sleep late. In case?]
It being Logan's birthday, Bel had to be especially annoying to him today.
Which was why he was lounging in one of the hotel's common areas, watching one of Aaron Echolls's movies. You know, the one with the gods and the giant scorpions and RELEASE THE KRAKEN. If anyone asked, he'd completely forgotten that Logan's father was in this movie. He was just watching it to compare it to the remake that was coming out soon, honest!
[Open to the hotelmates, of course, or any phone calls.]
