Disclaimer: Buffy and company are property of Joss Whedon and Warner Brothers. I'm just borrowing them.
Note: I wrote this story before Faith turned against Buffy.
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Part Two
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The door to Angel’s apartment creaked as Buffy pushed it open. The tidily kept apartment she remembered was now in shambles. The furniture was ripped and moth eaten, the coffee table was on the ground due to three broken legs, pieces of lamps and picture frames littered the floor and everything was covered in a thin film of dust.
"Kind of dark in here," said Willow as she walked towards the kitchen area.
"Probably part of the reason he moved here," replied Buffy.
Willow opened the door to a broken down refrigerator and quickly shut it again after a brief peek. "He must have had some leftovers he never got around to."
"Uh huh," muttered Buffy as she walked into the bedroom. The bed was unmade and dusty, but it had the same linen on it as the night when she and Angel had last used it.
"Buffy. Buffy?" said Willow as she walked into the bedroom and found the slayer standing there. "Buffy," repeated Willow as she stood next to her without arousing a response. She gently put her hand on her friend's shoulder and Buffy jerked her head around. "Buffy, you alright?"
"Uh yeah, I'll be okay," said Buffy as she gently shook her head to try and clear her thoughts.
"This must be weird for you being here since, I mean, you...you...well, you know. You did that thing that people, especially people in love, sometimes do in a bed."
"Sex?"
"That would be the thing."
"I wish."
"You wish what?"
"I wish that's all that happened to me in that bed, but it's not. When I woke up he was gone and I knew that something had changed. It was like going from one end of the happy rainbow to the other. I started at happy pink and ended up at empty, lonely, miserable blue all in a couple of hours. But I guess that's why they say it's never the same afterwards."
"You know it can be different afterwards in the sense that it can be better. Not that I really know from, like, having the experience or anything, but so I've heard."
"Maybe. This may sound selfish or petty, but after all the things he did to me I think this is the one thing I hated the most. I half expected to find my money next to the bed when he wasn't there when I woke up. I just couldn't believe that the man I loved and had made love to could do that to me."
"I would do anything to take it all back," said a voice from a nearby closet as the form of Angel slowly emerged.
"Angel?" said Buffy as she walked closer.
"Not quite the slayer I was looking for, but it's good to see you all the same," said Angel with a smile.
"Why were you in the closet?" asked Willow.
"I was hiding from you. Your future selves have this habit of trying to kill me."
"Okay, let's back the train up a little, like back to the station," said Buffy.
"He didn't tell you, did he?" replied Angel.
"Tell us what, Angel?" asked Willow.
"You two are the vampires who opened the Hellmouth," explained Angel. "That's why Xander and Giles brought you here."
"So they were telling us the truth when they said they wanted to prevent our deaths," said Willow.
"Not exactly," said Angel. "Xander and Giles wanted to kill you, Willow. As you probably remember, Buffy left you to get her books. A moment later a vampire that was waiting for a meal by the door attacks you. You turn into a vampire and not long after you bite Buffy."
"So that means if they had killed me the two of us never open the Hellmouth and this world goes away," recapped Willow.
"See, here's where I'm having a problem. Why kill us? Just tell us what we need to know to stop this from happening!" pleaded Buffy.
"It doesn't work like that. You'll lose your memory of everything you did here when you return to your time."
"How do you know all this?" inquired Willow.
"I tried to help them do it. We're all part of a fairly large resistance movement that was started after the two of you came into power in these parts. It hasn't been hard to find people to join us since the demons have increased in numbers. Faith and I were suppose to hold off demons if they showed up while Xander and Giles cast the spell to bring you here. Sure enough, some demons showed up. We held them for a while, but then they were too much for us and we had to run. We separated to make it harder for them to chase us. Faith was suppose to meet me here hours ago, but she never showed up."
"Why just the two of you? You said you were part of some big resistance movement. Couldn't you get some help?" asked Buffy.
"We've had problems with our security lately and we're pretty sure there's a spy in our higher ranks. Someone is leaking our plans out to the demons and we've lost a lot of people in our recent efforts against them because they know we're coming. We wanted to keep this operation under wraps so we only talked about it between the few of us who were left from those of us who started the movement--Giles, Xander, Faith and me."
"Then why was Faith fighting with Xander if they’re working together and why did Spike help him?" asked Buffy.
"I was afraid of this when she never showed. She might have been bit. If that's the case, then she was probably part of a hoax with Spike to make you side against Xander," said Angel.
"And we left him there with both of them," said Willow.
"But Xander is a demon! I saw his hand!" cried out Buffy.
"You're right, he is. But not all of him," said Angel.
"Not all of him, what's that suppose to mean?" asked Willow.
"He was on assignment one day when he got bit by a lizard demon that we've nicknamed a gek. Lots of the little creeps made their way out when you two opened the Hellmouth. Geks reproduce by rewriting the DNA of the people they bite," explained Angel.
"So that would make him one of these gek things, right?" questioned Buffy.
"Not exactly. You see, we found an antidote for it when Oz was still with us.”
“Yeah, what happened to Oz? He’s a werewolf. Why did he seem dead like a vampire?” asked Willow.
“Well, you two have this odd desire to make all your old friends into demon allies. As a werewolf you couldn't control him, so you turned Oz into a zombie. You put a silver bullet through his heart and resurrected him with a spell that made him your subordinate,” explained Angel.
Willow shook her head in a half stupor as Buffy resumed her previous line of questioning and asked, “You said you had a cure, but Xander didn’t look cured to me.”
“It reverses the early stages of the disease and cures the subject completely. Xander was at the very end of stage one when he finally got back to base and it did cure him, but there were a few residual effects. His arm was permanently mutated and there is definitely some demon in him. He hears the geks calling him back to the fold all the time, but he's gotten good at ignoring the voices.”
Buffy started to walk around Angel and as she inspected him carefully he asked, "What is it?"
"I just can't think of any reason why we should trust you," replied Buffy.
"I can't either," replied Angel. "But you're running out of options, especially if Giles and Xander were killed, or worse yet became one of them."
“If you were suppose to help them kill Willow then why didn’t you try to kill her when we showed up here?”
“I told them I’d help, but I wouldn’t be the one to do it. I’ve killed to many people that I’ve cared about.”
"Could you go in the other room for a minute while I talk with Willow?"
"Of course," agreed Angel as he walked out of the bedroom.
Buffy walked over to the bed. She ran her fingers through her hair and sighed deeply as she plopped down next to her friend. "They were right," said Willow as she stared at the wall.
"Who?"
"Xander and Giles. There's only one way to make sure it doesn't happen."
"We don't know that. Angel could be lying. Everyone else has been."
"And what if he isn't? I don't want to be the reason this world is here. I mean, for Oz and Xander and everyone else I want to be strong and finish what they started...but Buffy, I don't want to die." She looked at Buffy. Her eyes were dry, but Buffy could see a gut wrenching sadness there that a tear would only detract from.
"You're not going to die. We just have to find a way to send something back with us that will make us stick together that night the vampire attacks you. I'll kill it then it won't kill you."
"But Buffy..."
"Don't but Buffy me, Will. I'm not losing you to fate."
"Actually you are," said a female voice as her figure emerged in front of the doorway with a knife held to Angel's neck. She was petite woman with blond hair. She wore a trench coat with a very revealing black shirt underneath it that matched perfectly with her pants.
"Buffy...it's you," muttered Willow as Buffy and she slowly rose to their feet.
Angel's assailant grinned. "Isn't it great, Willow?" she asked. "Like looking in a mirror, which is a perk for me since it's something I haven't been able to do in about a decade."
"Yeah, I could tell from the way that makeup is thrown on your face," growled Buffy.
"Funny," replied Vamp Buffy. Buffy started to take a step towards her and she pushed the blade of the knife so it pressed tightly against the flesh on Angel’s neck. Buffy stopped moving.
“She’s bluffing, Buffy!” exclaimed Angel. “Dust her!”
Vamp Buffy smiled and put enough pressure on the knife to make a small wound on Angel’s neck. Blood trickled down from the cut, staining the white T-shirt Angel wore under his jacket a dark crimson. “This is fun,” said Vamp Buffy in an upbeat tone that Willow and Buffy had heard hundreds of times before that now seemed disturbingly out of place. “I’ve always wondered how long it takes for a vampire to bleed to death.”
“What do you want from us?” asked Buffy.
“The same thing you do,” replied Vamp Buffy. “I want to send you back home.”
“Don’t do it, Buffy!” yelled Angel.
“Oh, she will. You always were my Achilles’ heel, Angel,” replied Vamp Buffy. She called into the living room area and eight vampires walked into the bedroom with chains in their hands. “Now cooperate with my friends here and he doesn’t get a new windpipe.”
“Let him go first,” said Buffy. “Or I fight back.”
“Even you couldn’t handle this many vampires,” answered Vamp Buffy.
“Maybe not, but you risk her getting killed during the fight,” explained Willow. “You don’t want to take that chance do you?”
“Fine,” replied Vamp Buffy. She kneed Angel in the stomach and hit him in the back of the head with the handle of the knife. Angel fell to the ground. “He’s free to go.”
“Angel, get out of here,” commanded Buffy as a vampire restrained her from going to his aid.
Angel struggled to his knees. “No!” he said. “I can’t just abandon you.”
“You die here and I’ll kill you,” replied Buffy.
“What?” asked Angel.
“Buffy, your logic isn’t reaching him right now. He just got hit in the head, remember?” said Willow.
“Angel, just go already!” pleaded Buffy.
Angel rose to his feet slowly and glared at Vamp Buffy. “This isn’t over,” he promised. He walked past her and left the room. The vampires quickly chained up the slayer and her friend while blindfolds were placed over their eyes. Buffy and Willow then heard footsteps and a soft chanting that soothed them, putting them both into a deep sleep.
* * *
Amy closed up the file she was looking at. She was tired of having to pencil in deceased on the transcripts of former allies. She rose from her chair and put the file into a gray cabinet behind the counter. Resting her head for a moment on her arms, Amy looked around the room she was in. It had served as a GAP clothing store not long ago, but now it was her main office. The mall had been one of the only large buildings that the vampires hadn’t taken over and as result each store had been renovated to serve the needs of the resistance movement. Amy was about to pull out another file when the door opened and Giles was escorted in by two guards. “Giles, thank the Goddess that your back,” exclaimed Amy as she ran to meet him. “I was starting to worry.”
“It’s good to see you, Amy,” replied Giles. “I hate to omit the pleasantries, but I need whatever information you’ve accumulated on the activities of Willow and Buffy during my absence.”
“Great timing, I just got back from my rounds as a rat at the vamp base a few hours ago and something big is going down. Buffy and Willow were both called away on this one so it must have been important.”
“They must have found them.”
“Them who?”
“I’ll explain later. Right now I need you to assemble three of your best people to accompany us.”
“Accompany us where?”
“To the vampire base. What they’re planning on doing must be stopped or else all is lost.”
“Okay, I’ll just consult with Xander and we’ll get going.”
“That won’t be possible.”
“What? What you mean?”
“The vampires...they were dragging him off when I left him.”
“N...not Xander. He wouldn’t have let himself get caught.”
“Yes, well when one is fighting both Faith and Spike simultaneously it becomes much easier to believe.”
“Faith? She’s one of them now?”
“It appeared that way.”
“Giles, what the hell is going on.”
Giles sighed. “Angel, Faith, Xander and I didn’t go out on a investigative outing as we had you believe. We used a spell that snatched Buffy and Willow from that moment in time when Willow was about to become a vampire so we could dispose of her ourselves and prevent them from opening the Hellmouth.”
Amy let out and exasperated breath and asked, “How did this happen without me knowing!”
“Because we made it a point not to inform you of what we were planning. You are aware of how security has been around here lately. We needed to leave someone behind who we could trust. I hope you understand.”
“No, I don't understand! How could you just leave me in the dark all this time!”
“As I recall, you're the one who suggested such a maneuver to me in private on one occasion in the past.”
“Yeah, but I didn't mean, that is...”
“Amy.”
“Alright, I grudgingly understand. Now tell me, are you the only one who made it back?”
“Perhaps. I’m not sure as to what happened to Angel. He might still be alive, but I’m certain that we’ve lost Faith. She’s the one who probably led them to us. She knew that was one of our best hideouts.”
“You said you saw Xander dragged off.”
“Yes. Our plan didn’t pan out exactly as we anticipated and to sum up, we were attacked. As I said before, Spike and Faith were there as well as a large party vampires. I had gone upstairs to check our rations and to find something for Xander and myself to sleep on. Xander went in to check on Buffy and Willow. A short while later I heard noises and I came down the stairwell to investigate. I cautiously looked into the room from around the corner and realized that the girls were missing. Xander was surrounded and grossly outnumbered by vampires. I knew that they’d find me if I remained there, so like a coward I ran. I know we couldn’t have won, but I should have stayed and fought with him. We should have died together comrades in arms.”
She put her hands on his shoulder and looked straight into this eyes. “Giles, get your head on straight. I don’t know what happened, but if they had killed you too it wouldn’t have helped anything. You did the right thing.”
“The right thing. Oh how I’ve come to loathe that phrase. I abandoned my dearest friend because logic dictated it and now I’m off to kill another and this makes me a righteous man. It’s a sad state of affairs when you can’t tell those who commit murders from those trying to prevent them.”
“Did you say kill a friend?”
“I’ll explain on the way.”
* * *
Willow groaned as she open her eyes. She was still bound in chains, but thankfully the blindfold that had been covering her eyes had been removed. She appeared to be in some kind of jail cell. The ceilings and walls were made of huge blocks of granite and large vein shaped cracks gave the impression that the room was alive. “Buffy?” cried out Willow. She received no answer and repeated her plea, but only the silence responded. A tear rolled its way down her cheek. “So, this is the way it ends. All alone.”
“Not quite,” said a voice from a dark corner of the cell.
“Who’s there?”
“Am I too late for that session on history?”
“Xander! Is that you? I can’t see you, it’s too dark over there.”
“I would have said something sooner, but I was afraid you were the other Willow.”
“How could you mix us up? I’m in a chain jacket.”
“I wouldn’t know. I...” He laughed bitterly. “I can’t see anything.”
“You’re not talking about a blindfold, are you?”
“Remember how you saw my arm and ran off?”
“Yeah.”
“Well now my whole body is like that. When you left with Oz, Faith and Spike brought me back to you and Buffy. You guys couldn’t turn me into a vampire because some other demon had already got a piece of me and partially made me into one of it, so you decided that the best way to torture me was to finish what the other demon had started. They brought one of those little green bastards to me and let it bite me as they held me down. Then they chained me in here so I could finish changing. I’m entering the last stage now.”
“How do you know that?”
“I’ve seen it happen before. Your eyesight goes away, you fall asleep and when you wake up you aren’t you anymore. I’ve been asked too many times by friends to kill them when they got to the last stage so that they didn’t hurt anyone once they crossed over. I just wish one of them were here to return the favor now.”
“Xander, no,” sobbed Willow. “Please don’t give up.”
“Hey, don’t cry, Willow. It’s alright.”
“No. Alright is the food they serve at school. Alright is a 75 on a math quiz. This is not alright!
“Actually, for me a 75 would have been refrigerator worthy.”
“Xander, you know what I mean.”
“I know. This isn’t alright, but in some sick twisted way I’m kind of glad this happened.”
“Glad! How could you be glad!”
“Because now I don’t have to hurt you.”
“But you should have! You should have! Damn it, why couldn’t you have finished what you started for once!”
“Look I tried, but it’s over Willow. They already took Buffy to send her back. They’ll be here for you in a few minutes.”
“Why haven’t they bit me yet?”
“Huh?”
“Well, aren’t they going to turn us into vampires before we go back?”
“No, they wouldn’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“They don’t want to risk putting a different demon into you. The vamp that bit you put a certain demon into you. If they bit you now the chances are that it would be a different demon that would infect you and they don’t want that. They’re what I like to think of as the last of the rugged individualists.”
They were both quiet for a moment and then Xander said, “I hope I’ll get to see my family again now.”
“You mean your parents?”
“Actually I was thinking more about my wife and son.”
"Wife? Who’s your wife?" asked Willow.
"Cordelia, at least she was before she died.”
“Cordelia?”
“Yeah.”
“As in Cordelia Chase, the one that caught us kissing?”
“Sounds crazy, but she really came through for me. I was pretty depressed after you two crossed over to the other side and she helped keep me from doing something stupid like forgetting to put on my shoes or...putting a bullet in my head."
"How did, well, how did she..." asked Willow.
"She was turned into a vampire."
"Poor Cordy.”
“Yeah.”
“And your son?" inquired Willow.
Xander took a deep breath. "He was killed by Cordy the same night she crossed over. His name was Jesse.”
“Jesse, huh?” said Willow with a sad smile.
“I know it’s not a very lucky name, but you’d have liked him, Will. He was really smart. He was walking and saying mama and dada by the time he was a year old."
"I wish I could have been there to know him," muttered Willow.
“Me too.”
They were both silent for a moment and then Willow said, “Xander, I just want you to know before you...that is, I just want you to know that you’ve always had a special place in my heart and in that place I’ll always love you.” She stopped talking and listened carefully. A slow, heavy, rhythmic breathing was coming from the direction that Xander’s voice had been just moments ago. “Oh God,” said Willow as she bowed her head in self-pity.
“God isn’t available right now, but will an Angel do?” asked a female voice as the door to the cell opened. Willow found herself staring at her future incarnation with Angel by her side.
“Angel, what’s going on?” asked Willow.
“This is the fun part,” cooed Vamp Willow.
“Yeah, remember the look on Buffy’s face when we told her?” laughed Angel.
“You’re with them?” said Willow.
“What can I say? I told you there was a spy,” answered Angel.
“Wait, that means...you! You’re the one who told them where we were!” accused Willow. “I knew that you were doing something nasty in that closet!”
Vamp Willow looked at Angel with a wide smile. “Something nasty in the closet?”
“A call to you on my transmitter,” explained Angel.
“Oh,” said Vamp Willow disappointedly.
“But I cursed you!” exclaimed Willow.
“And then you uncursed him,” replied Vamp Willow.
“Oh no,” cried Willow weakly.
"Willow," called a distinctively English voice as Spike walked into the cell.
"Spike," squealed Vamp Willow in delight as she wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a deep long kiss.
"No way...I'm frenching Spike? What happened to Drucilla?” asked Willow. “I thought she was the corpse he loved.”
Vamp Willow suddenly broke her kiss with Spike. She walked over to Willow and slapped her in the face. "Don't ever say that bitch's name in my presence!" she exclaimed. "She didn't deserve him!
"That's why you killed her, love," reminded Spike. "Then you tortured me until I realized it too."
"That must have been a fun week," commented Angel. "I wish I had been around."
"I bet," replied Spike bitterly. "Anyway this has been fun reminiscing and all, but if I could have a word with you, pet," said Spike as he led Vamp Willow out the door.
"What is it?" asked Vamp Willow when they were no longer in ear shot of the occupants of the cell.
"Buffy says that there's been an uprising at our base near the school. The watcher thinks that's where we took your old selves and has ordered a full attack on it. We had to send Faith with reinforcements there to keep them out," explained Spike. "All we have left here is a skeleton crew."
"This is perfect. By the time they realize that they've made a mistake I'll have already have sent myself back to get bit."
Angel walked out of the cell with Willow draped over his shoulder and the other two vampires followed close behind. She wiggled and squirmed to break free, but the chains were too strong for her. “So Angel, you and Spike kiss and make up?” asked Willow suddenly.
“Hardly,” replied Angel.
“Oh, then has Spike decided to settle for playing second fiddle again?” prodded Willow.
“My, my, aren’t we a little bitchy today?” replied Spike coldly.
“Like your ex, Drucilla!” exclaimed Willow as loudly as she could.
“What did I just tell you you little...” sneered Vamp Willow. She aggressively started to move towards Willow, but was stopped by Spike’s hand. She snarled at him with her vampire face.
“Think for a moment, love,” said Spike.
“About what?” replied Vamp Willow.
“What do you think she has left for options? She’s one of those unfortunate souls that would rather die than kill people and she’s hoping that one of us will be the one to help her.”
“Clever little witch,” said Vamp Willow as she returned to her human face. She took out a small bottle and wafted the odor of the contents in Willow’s face. A moment later she was sleeping soundly. “Let’s see you be clever now.”
* * *
Giles watched from the corner of the room. Large crates littered one wall and a forklift close by provided his cover. The other three walls were fairly plain with only an occasional outlet or curtain covered window breaking up the monotony of the bare white paint that covered them. Vamp Buffy was pouring a salt like substance on the ground to create a circle in the center of the room. A circle like that was used in many spells, but Giles knew that this was to be a time travel spell. He’d seen Buffy vanish before his eyes less than half and hour ago and knew that Willow would be next.
“What do we do now?” asked Giles companion who was crouched next to him.
He turned to the rugged little man with a beard and said, “I don’t know, Chad, we should have rendezvoused with Amy and her group by now.”
As he said this the vampires walked in with Willow. They removed her chains and placed her in the center of the powder circle. Vamp Willow and Buffy joined hands and started chanting a spell in a Latin vernacular that Giles couldn’t quite make out.
“We can’t wait any longer,” proclaimed Giles. “Get ready to fire on my signal.”
Giles aimed his crossbow on the unconscious auburn haired girl as Chad did the same with the pistol he was carrying. “At least she’s sleeping,” whispered Giles quietly as Vamp Buffy suddenly stopped reciting the spell.
“What is it?” asked Angel.
“Someone is talking about us,” said Vamp Buffy with a smile as she walked directly in the line of fire of Giles and Chad. “Isn’t that right, Giles?”
“The watcher, but I thought...” muttered Spike.
“Exactly what he wanted you to think,” finished Oz. “What he wanted us all to think.”
Giles released the arrow from his bow and sent it whizzing directly at Vamp Buffy’s heart. She caught it in her right hand, inches before it pierced her chest. “Nice shot,” praised Vamp Buffy. Chad opened fire on her. She took two bullets in the chest and one in the shoulder, but she refused to move so that her assailants could reach their true target. Angel and Spike flanked her a moment later as Vamp Willow hid behind them and continued to cast the spell she had began with Vamp Buffy. Meanwhile, Oz snuck behind the forklift to where Giles and Chad were concealing themselves. They were so consumed with trying to figure out a way to shoot past the vampires that they neglected to pay attention to their own situation. Oz quietly positioned himself behind Chad and pounded him in the back of the head grabbing the gun away from him. Two gunshots went off and Chad fell to the ground in a pool of blood. He then pointed the gun at Giles. “Drop it!” commanded Oz. Giles hesitantly complied and walked out into the middle of the room under Oz’s prompting.
Vamp Buffy steadied her injured body on Angel as they walked to meet him. “The game is over, Giles,” said Vamp Buffy. “Vamps 1, Humans 0. I’m impressed that you went the whole 9 inning stretch and all, but unfortunately you traded too many of your best players to the other team. Better watch that next year. Oh, silly me, I forgot. There isn’t going to be a next year.”
“You can kill me, but someone will stop you,” replied Giles.
“Like Amy?” asked Angel.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, you mean she wasn’t with you? Guess we should have asked before we killed her,” said Angel.
“Your lying.”
“Maybe,” said Spike with a shrug. “But I’ll tell ya this, so many of these rooms have such lousy ventilation that when someone passes a little gas it can be hard to get away from it.”
Giles clenched his fists. “Bastards!” yelled Giles as he rushed at Spike and punched him in the head. Spike blocked the next punch and hit Giles in the stomach and kicked him in the head. Spike then grabbed his arms and held them behind his back. “Take a good look, watcher,” said Spike as he pointed Giles towards Willow. Tears ran down Giles face as his friend dematerialized before his eyes.
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