•••

Wil looked around Customs nervously. The rational part of his mind knew that nothing was going to happen. Wesley had been very thorough; special clothes and a rather good medical excuse had gotten Wil through various airports with no problems, and a decent glamour made the ex-Watcher look perfectly normal. Only Wil had forged documents, and they were the best that could be had. The blonde vampire couldn't help but be nervous, however. They were in a strange airport far from home. That thought made him chuckle silently; he, a Brit to the core, didn't consider England to be his home. Not anymore, anyway.

He was so lost in thought that only a sharp nudge from Xander got him to move forward. As the more logical part of him had said, Customs was no problem. They just looked over everything once and waved him through. Ah, the glories of practical magic. Getting a cab was another thing altogether, though. No amount of magic could make on appear when they needed it. At least Wesley had managed to get a flight that landed after dark.

"Whatcha think?" Xander asked as they piled into the cab. "I'll bet everything's different."

Wil looked out the window. "Not really," He murmured. Oh, the twentieth, and twenty-first, centuries had descended upon London, but the damp air and crowded streets remained. The noxious odors of humans packed too closely together without adequate sewers had been replaced with the stench of too many cars in too small an area. The Thames was still polluted, although what made it dirty was a bit different than before. No, London hadn't changed all that much. It just got electricity and cable.

Wesley ignored the conversation and directed the driver to their hotel. They were staying at a place a bit less…refined than he preferred, but there wasn't much choice. Hotels were expensive in London and he couldn't exactly invite this group to bunk in at his family's residence. That would not be well received by his parents.

"Nice to know seedy dives aren't exclusive to the US," Xander said as they pulled up to their hotel.

"It has private baths," Wesley remarked. "Be grateful." Xander shuddered. The main reason they were at this hotel was, in fact, Xander. They could have afforded a better room somewhere else if the four of them had been willing to stay together. Wesley and Wil, however, had decided that two rooms in a cheaper place were better for their sanity. They could stand to be together, two miserable, lonely Brits. Being in the same room as Xander and Oz would be the death of them. Xander had very little self control, and his sense of modesty was nearly gone.

"The water's brown," Xander said as he stuck his head in Wesley and Wil's room.

"Then don't look at it," Wesley snapped. "We'll get bottled water for your sensitive palate." Xander glared but left the room. "He's going to drive me insane, you know."

Wil nodded and continued to sort through the weapons they'd brought. "England plays tonight, right?"

"Yes. We'll need to keep an eye on Xander. He was making noises about placing a bet on the game. England's a long shot," Wesley replied. They all knew who was going to win, because of Xander's vision, and it would be wrong for any of them to profit from that. Unfortunately, the ethics of a twenty-one year old left something to be desired.

"And we can't even get him drunk to distract him," Wil remarked. They'd need him for the fight, so getting the boy snockered was out.

"We should just pay Oz to keep him in bed," Wesley decided. "It shouldn't take much."

"So he doesn't gamble?" Oz said from the doorway. Wesley blushed at being caught, but Wil simply nodded.

"He's easily tempted," Wil replied. "And has no self-control."

"And you want me to sacrifice myself to keep him from temptation?" Oz said dryly.

"The only way to get rid of temptation is to give into it," Wil said, quoting Oscar Wilde. "Give him something more tempting to distract him."

Oz nodded and smirked. "Not difficult. By the way, Xander said to tell you he's hungry." The werewolf left to allow the two Brits to decide what to do.

"You said…" Wil began, looking around blankly.

"I know where we can get you what you need," Wesley replied, referring to blood. Wil nodded and sat down on one of the beds.

"Can we feed him kidneys? I want to watch his face," Wil asked. Wesley grinned.

"Oh, yes. That would be…entertaining, wouldn't it?"

•••

"Blech," Xander said, wiping his tongue on a napkin. "I can't believe you fed me kidneys! I ate pee-filters!"

Oz covered his mouth to hide his smirk. Wesley grinned evilly and Wil just chuckled. "You didn't like it?" Wesley asked innocently. "They're a delicacy."

"So are snails and you don't see me going after them," Xander shot back.

"No, you prefer crickets and June bugs," Wil retorted.

"Bastard," Xander huffed. It was too bad his demon's body didn't like vomiting. Otherwise he'd be in the bathroom right now, losing those…ugh. It made him ill to think about it. "That was evil, guys, so don't do it again, ok? Oh, what about the soccer game?"

"Football," The other three men corrected in unison.

Xander rolled his eyes. "Football. Fine, when does the 'football' game start?"

"Not soon enough," Wil muttered.

"So, we're leaving right after we get rid of the bad guys, right?" Xander said hopefully.

"That's the plan," Wesley replied. Of course, none of them really thought that would happen. After all, they had the luck of the wretched and damned.

"Wesley?"

The ex-Watcher turned in his chair. "Oh, shit," He whispered. It was one of his old colleagues from the Council. "Wil, go to the loo. RIGHT NOW." Wil didn't even hesitate; he just stood up and practically ran to the back of the pub.

Fortunately, the Watcher approaching Wesley didn't notice the blonde moving away. "I had no idea you'd returned to London," The man stated, staring down a bit disdainfully at Wesley.

"Only to visit. I am accompanying some acquaintances. They wished to see England and requested my presence," Wesley replied stiffly, indicating Oz and Xander. The pair simply nodded and remained silent. Both of them could tell that this was a tense, uncomfortable situation that needed to end quickly.

"Ah. And how does that…investigation firm you're working for suit you? The one with the vampire?" The Watcher asked.

"Very well, thank you," Wesley gritted out. Did they have to know everything about him? "Angel has proven to be a most devoted servant for The Powers That Be."

"Hmm," The Watcher hummed. Wesley knew that the Watchers' Council disapproved of his alliance with Angel, but they had no jurisdiction over him anymore. They had fired him, after all; besides that, even the Watchers' Council wouldn't interfere too much with someone known to be working for The Powers That Be—they wouldn't dare. That meant that Angel and Wil were safe, at least in theory. In Los Angeles, they had the advantage of home turf and the distance between themselves and the Watchers' own home in England. Here in London, however, the Council had more direct power and control, and all it would take was one egotistical Watcher to set the hounds after Wil, consequences be damned. That was why the vampire was sitting in the loo right now, probably peeling paint off the walls with his cursing.

And of course Wesley couldn't help but think of what the Council would say if they found out that he was no longer human. Wil they might actually avoid due to his alliance with the 'good guys,' but one of their own becoming such a creature? He wouldn't make it out of England alive. They might have fired him, but he would be a Watcher until he died, even though he might well outlive every other Watcher in existence.

Fortunately the Watcher was meeting someone and had to leave. Once he was safely out the door and up the street, Wesley went to fetch Wil, who was indeed entertaining all he entered the restroom with his colorful profanities. "He's gone," Wesley murmured during a brief pause in Wil's ranting.

"Who is he?" Wil asked harshly.

"Alan Norton," Wesley replied. "We trained together."

"Will he be a problem?"

"I don't know yet. Maybe," Wesley replied. "We should get back to the hotel. It's late."

•••

"We did ask him to keep Xander occupied," Wesley said, wincing as the bed pressed against the other side of the wall they shared with Oz and Xander's room thumped yet again.

"Keep telling yourself that," Wil replied, turning the volume on the television up a little. At least Wesley didn't mind watching the football match; Angel was no fan of the sport. Actually, Wil wasn't either, but it was better than the American stuff. Wesley grimaced and slumped further down on the bed. He was interested enough in the game, but their neighbors were beginning to get to him as well.

"Give them another fifteen and we'll hit the streets," Wil murmured. The match was halfway over, but neither team had scored. They needed to get to their location early, in case they could catch the demons before the crowds hit.

Xander wasn't impressed when Wil and Wesley interrupted him and Oz, but he got dressed and left with them anyway. "I don't see anything," Xander said as they got to the clock tower. At Wil's gesture, they split up and began to walk around the area, looking for places the demons might be hiding.

Wil's search was fruitless, so he met up with Wesley, who had also found nothing. "This place is deserted," The watcher commented quietly.

"Not for long," Oz said as he fell into step with them. "England just scored. Five minutes left in the match."

"Shit," Wil swore. He was about to suggest they start searching again when a flash caught his eye. It moved again, and he squinted, trying to follow it. All of a sudden, Xander appeared right in front of them.

"Found the demons. Lots of them. Big. Mean. Teeth," Xander panted. Wil looked around.

"Where?"

"Oh, right over there," Xander said, pointing. The other three men turned to see a horde of demons running over the green. "They don’t like me."

"They're Uika demons; they hunt Raphe," Wesley murmured. "I told you that in Los Angeles."

"Can we get out of here?" Xander asked, ignoring Wesley. "Cause they look really unhappy."

Wil looked around. "We have to get them away from here; the game's almost over." Already he could hear fans cheering at England's imminent victory.

"Where?" Oz asked.

"Thames," Wesley said suddenly. "Easier to get rid of the bodies."

"Right," Wil said, taking one last look at the quickly approaching demons. "This way, Wesley?" He said, cocking his head to one side. The faun nodded and the four men took off; three of them running as fast as they could to escape the demons that were almost upon them. Xander restrained the urge to simply sprint ahead; he was needed to attract the demons, and he didn't know where they were going anyway.

The group kept the demons at bay as Wesley wound them around London. When they reached the river, he stopped. "We're here."

"Great, how what?" Xander asked, eyeing the approaching demons nervously. Wil pulled out a sword and passed it to the Raphe.

"Aim for the head," Wil stated, taking out another sword for himself. Oz and Wesley armed themselves and the foursome spread out a bit. This was going to be really messy—but at least the game had been delayed for a few minutes. Wil could see fans perched on the edge of their seats as a referee dealt with some sort of penalty. He really didn't want to do this with thousands of screaming fanatics wandering around.

The demons arrived in a wave. There must have been fifty of them, all with bloodlust in their eyes. Xander was quite the treat for this species of demon and they all focused on him. That was their downfall; Xander quickly ran up the side of a nearby column and perched on it, far above their grasping claws. Oz, Wesley and Wil began to systematically hack the demons to pieces. They looked ferocious, and were probably quite strong, but they had a strong pack mentality and weren't very intelligent one-on-one. Xander returned to the ground when there were about a dozen left, lending a hand in the slaughter. He followed Wil's lead and worked the demons toward the water, so that as they died they could simply be pushed in.

"That didn't take long," Xander said as the last demon fell into the river.

"We need to get back," Wil replied. The game was about to end—really end, this time. "There might be more."

Xander sighed and handed his weapon back to Wil. They took off at a run again, hoping to make it back to the clock tower before the game ended. The made the green just as England won. Xander held onto a tree as swarms of people flooded the streets. "Help me," He whimpered, sure he was going to get trampled underfoot.

Wil jumped up into the tree and looked out over the crowd. He was searching for any more demons…or other suspicious-looking things. He and Wesley had been concerned about this attack ever since the Watcher had determined the type of demon that was going to do the damage. They weren't the type to just initiate a massacre of this sort, which told Wil that someone was organizing it. Perhaps those organizers would show up to watch…if so, Wil was going to find them.

Much to everyone's relief, there was no sign of additional demons. After about half an hour of mayhem on the part of crazed football fans, Wil jumped out of the tree and stalked off. "Hey! Where are you going?" Xander called out after him. When Wil didn't reply, he made to follow him, but was stopped by Wesley. "What?"

"He'll be back," Wesley said, holding on to the Raphe. He figured that Wil had seen something suspicious, and it was better for him to just investigate it without Xander present. The Raphe hadn't mastered subtlety yet.

Wil melted into the crowd surrounding him. When an England jersey flew into the air and landed on his head, he snatched it up instead of letting it fall to the ground. Ducking into a group of taller people, he quickly pulled the thing over his head. With the colorful shirt on, he looked much more like a raving football fan than a librarian. That would help him figure out what a couple of well-dressed professional types were doing standing around like cardboard cutouts while half a city of raving lunatics partied in the streets.

The vampire circled around until he was behind the two people he'd spotted. They were standing in the deep shadows cast by a nearby building, watching the crowd expectantly. They screamed wrongness, and had he been in L.A. Wil would have fingered them as lawyers for his least favorite firm. One of them turned to the other and said something, but Wil couldn't hear it over the screams of the crowd. The speaker jogged off down the street, while the other man stayed where he was. Their separation made Wil's job easier, so he snuck closer.

The well-dressed man didn't make a sound as Wil grabbed him and slammed him into the wall. Adopting as strong a Cockney accent as he could muster, Wil began spewing random profanities at the man while rifled through his pockets, taking everything he could find. He took the man's watch for good measure, and to make it seem like a run-of-the-mill mugging. The man didn't struggle; he simply stood and quivered while Wil roughed him up a bit. The vampire made sure he used only the force that a human would. Once he'd gotten all that he could off the man, and had tested his scent for traces of demons, Wil shoved him hard onto the ground and disappeared into the crowd once again. To anyone who had witnessed it, and to the man himself, the event was simply a petty crime committed by an overzealous fan.

Wil pulled the jersey off and let it wash away in the sea of bodies around him. He shoved his hands in his pockets to keep a real criminal from taking what he'd lifted off the man. Wesley and the others were waiting by Xander's tree when he got back. "Nothing's going to happen here," Wil murmured. The others nodded their agreement and began to force their way out of the crowd.

"What did you go off for?" Xander shouted at Wil.

"Loo," Wil replied sarcastically. He hoped that Xander got the hint that they weren't going to talk about it in public. He must have, because the confusion on his face cleared and he shrugged good-naturedly.