Disclaimer: *yawn* I don't own them, I never will.
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Part Three A
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An elderly Kalderash woman muttered in Romanian as her phantom grandaughter Janna stood on. She finished the incantation and the young woman smiled in a bathing of white light.
“Mamam, you have done the right thing.”
“Child, I know Enyos will not touch me, but he may harm you. You have given the vampire the ability to be happy. To live as human.”
“To do real good.”
“I know my little babima, I know. Let us hope it will hold until long after your Uncle is dead and this silly vengeance is put to rest.”
“I hope so. I really do.” With that, Jenny disappeared into a blaze of blue light and her grandmother wiped a tear from her cheek.
* * *
Buffy stirred in her bed and smiled. She turned and came into contact with Angel’s strong chest. He did a silly little half-grin in his sleep and pulled her into his arms, falling back into a deep slumber which Buffy soon joined him in.
* * *
“Willow! Hi, I’m Anya, can I talk to you?”
“Um, hi. I, I uh, thought you were friends with Cordelia.”
“Well, kinda but anyway, I’m here to talk to a fellow dabbler.”
Willow was immediately defensive. “In what? Who says I dabble? I don’t even consider dabbling!”
“Come on Willow! I know you’re a spellcaster. I need a little help.”
“With what?”
“Well, I lost this necklace, a family heirloom thing and I was wondering if you could help me get it back...”
* * *
Willow sat on her bed and looked over the text. She’d told Anya that they’d try it in school in the morning but there wasn’t any harm in giving it a dry run first, was there?
She sat up all the needed supplies and began to chant.
* * *
Angel looked down at his still lover and sighed. She was so beautiful, and insatiable! He smiled and brushed some hair out of her eyes. She turned in her sleep and he pulled the blankets around her bare shoulders. Three weeks like this, and it still felt like the first time. Like the first gentle and powerful fumblings into the sweet madness of love. He pulled on a pair of boxers and trousers and pulled a white tee shirt over his newly healed wounds.
Whistling quietly, he noticed that his room, now Oz’s room, was empty. He walked downstairs and saw a note. Dear Buffy, and Angel, Pizza, breakfast, be back soon, etc, Oz. He shrugged and crumpled it up. He put on the kettle and dug around for the jar of coffee he knew was there.
Back upstairs, Buffy woke up and pulled on one of Angel’s shirts, hers seemed to get thrown further, and her trusted combat pants. Walking out of the room, she felt slightly weird, like something wasn’t right. She listened carefully and called out for Angel and Oz. She ran down the stairs and crumpled as a pain shot through her head. Angel walked into the large training area and saw a spectre of Buffy, it seemed to flicker in and out of existence. He saw one of Oz in the doorway too and his head seemed to fill with blood and he fell to his knees. Oz fell flat on top of the pizza and their images coalesced for a moment, then disappeared in a blaze of white light.
* * *
Buffy woke up in an alley, one near enough the bomb sight that was the Bronze. Confused, she began to walk and saw that the town was fuller, that there were people milling around, in twos and threes and little groups. She steered well clear of the Bronze and wondered what the Hell had happened. She decided to go to the library in the highschool, Oz said he might be there tonight, looking over some old research on demons and stuff. She walked in the shadows, breaking off a tree branch along the way and kneading it in her hands.
She finally reached the library and sneaked in via a back window. She prowled around the shadows, looking for Oz or Angel. She heard a sound in the hall way and ducked behind the counter. She realised with a start that the entire place wasn’t dusty or disorderly at all, in fact, everywhere seemed livelier.
What in the name of all that swirled and churned in Hell was going on?
“And you see, I think that, these power surges may have been purely man made, not of the supernatural kind.”
Buffy peered over the counter to see the old librarian, the old dead librarian, Giles, very much alive and talking to the two vampires, Willow and Xander. She doubted that he would have been so stupid as to talk with vampires but what the hey, she was sleeping with one.
She lept out over the counter and landed between the pair of vamps and Giles.
“I thought I had gotten rid of you two but I must have missed a spot.”
“Buffy! What on earth are you doing?”
“Saving your ass!” She advanced menacingly on the two and they backed away. She smiled, “not so brave without the Master huh?”
A noise sounded behind her and she turned, a fraction of a second late. A blurry shape barrelled into her and rammed her in the gut. She fell backwards and a dark haired girl stood over her.
“B, I really don’t know what’s gotten into you but whaling on your buds won’t work.”
Buffy snarled and was up in a second. She circled the other girl and they skipped around like dancers, neither getting too close, the other girl trying to stay out of range. Buffy was confused and it hit her, she was trying to distract her. A nano-second later, a small drug laden drat hit her in the thigh and she blacked out, collapsing in a heap at the Watcher’s feet.
* * *
Oz blinked and opened his eyes. he was in front of the Bronze, not blown up but fully functional and full of humans! Humans his age. He told himself it was all a dream and walked in, ready to indulge in some goofy dream fun.
He neared the stage and a tall guy ran up to him.
“OZ! Man, where have you been? I mean, who cares but if you’ve been making out with Rose, I’ll kill you. Get on stage now!” Oz smiled and got on stage.
Hmm, Dingoes Ate My Baby. His subconscious was fun.
* * *
Angel stood up and brushed himself off, he was in a graveyard. Great. Just where he wanted to be. He peered closely at the tombstones and saw that they weren’t tipped over or defiled in any way. They all looked great, a few graves even had flowers on them.
He frowned and looked around. Where was Buffy? And Oz? He stopped and froze when he heard a light thread among the monoliths and he knew it was her. He broke into a full run, leaping over stone and flowers. He saw her walking along a path and he ran out to her, grabbing her in his arms and kissing her. She froze, melted into the kiss, kissed him back and then shoved him away, gasping for air.
“What was that in aid of?”
“What?” Angel was very confused. He noticed that she seemed angry, and very, very sad. She looked different, somehow. Her hair was different, nice. He saw that her lips were free of any scars and he ran a finger over her lips.
“Buffy, what happened to your lips”
“What? Oh, is my make up gone funny?”
“No, the scar, it’s gone.”
“What scar? I never had a scar, at least not on my lips. Angel, are you ok?”
Angel stared at her and he could see tiny differences between her and the girl he had gone to sleep beside. His heart broke in two when he realised that it wasn’t his Buffy.
“What’s going on? Why, where are all the other headstones? This place is empty! That may be a good thing, and it’s tidy! Buffy? What happened?”
“Um, calm down Angel, it’s ok. We’ll just go find Giles and the others.”
Angel’s face fell, she’d lost her mind. He frowned. “Buffy,” he said gently, “Giles’s dead.”
Buffy shook her head. “I just left him a minute ago and he was fine.”
“But, but, the Demon, Anyanka, and the Master?”
“The Master’s dead, I killed him.”
“I killed him.” Buffy frowned at Angel and grabbed his arm. She needed to get him to Giles, on the double.
* * *
Angel walked into the library in his long duster and felt less than thrilled to be there. He opened the doors quietly and saw that there was something going on. Willow, Giles and Faith stood in front of the book cage and tried to reason with something inside. He stepped into the light and was shocked to see Buffy inside, battering the cage for all it was worth.
“Buffy?”
Buffy’s head snapped up and she threw herself against the door with a huge thud and ran out towards him. Faith tried to stop her and Giles reloaded the gun. Angel just stood still as she ran into his arms and kissed him. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked on amazed.
“Um, Deadboy, doesn’t that qualify as a one way ticket to soul lossage?”
Angel seemed to ignore Xander and Buffy broke the kiss. “Where were you? When I woke up and you weren’t anywhere, I nearly had a hernia!”
Giles eyes widened at that remark and Angel shook his head, Faith leered. Buffy punched him in the shoulder and hugged him. “Don’t do that to me again.”
Angel lifted her face gently and he gasped when he saw the scar. “Buffy, what happened to your face?”
“What? Am I cut?”
Angel traced her scar and her brow furrowed. “That’s been there for years Angel.”
Willow cowered. “It wasn’t there earlier on Buffy, what’s going on?”
Just as Buffy was about to stake the vampire, the doors opened and in strode another Angel and herself, sans scar.
“What the fuck?”
Everyone seemed to agree with Faith and the four stood still. A chorus of ‘Buffy’ and ‘Angel’ went up and the scarred Buffy ran up to her lover, she knew it was him and jumped into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist. The other two came up to each other and Buffy smiled.
“Wow, that was weird.” Angel took her hand and they looked at their doubles engaged in lip lock. They finally separated and whispered to each other. They turned and faced the others.
“Could someone please tell us what the Hell is going on?”
* * *
“So you’re saying that where you come from, we’re dead?”
“Yup, Willow and Xander were vamps, a demon killed you, Anjuana or something.”
Willow’s eyes were wide and she looked between the two Buffys. “What about Oz and Cordelia? And Faith?”
“I never saw Faith back home, Cordelia either, but she supposedly made a wish or something, knew about me being the Slayer. Oz is, well, Oz. He went to get food, there was a flash of light and I woke up here.”
The unscarred Buffy frowned. “So, why is your world different?”
“Apparently because I was called to Cleveland.”
“But why’s Angel there?”
Buffy, the one we all know as our illustrious Slayer, looked at the two Angels and her one coughed. “Buffy, I came to Sunnydale to watch you, to look after you. I was told to be here, that you’d come if I waited.”
“Yeah, same with me. Except Buffy never came.”
“So what happened?” Giles asked, very confused.
“The Master caught me, tied me up and let his favourite, Willow, torture me.”
Willow baulked. “I did that?! Wow, I am so sorry!”
“Did I?”
“Yeah, you did.”
“Good. Deadboy, no matter what parallel universe you come from, you deserve punishment.” Xander glared at both Angels. Angel frowned and the non-alternate reality Buffy and Willow smacked him. “Ignore him.”
Faith stood up. “So, the Master rose?”
“Yeah, and killed most of Sunnydale’s teenagers.”
“And us if it hadn’t been for a well timed earthquake.”
The doors opened and Oz strode in. He looked at the two doppelgangers and shook his head. “Has the water supply been spiked?”
“Oz?”
“Yeah?”
Willow went over to her boyfriend, at least she hoped it was her boyfriend, or could be once he’d forgiven her. He froze, he still hadn’t forgiven her totally. “Do you remember me?”
“Yeah, you’re Willow. Megalomaniac extraordinaire. Why are there two Buffys and two Angels?”
“Um, we think there may be another one of you.”
Oz raised his eyebrows and nodded. “Does that make sense?”
“Not really, I’m afraid I’ll have to look it up. Would you mind helping?” Giles knew that there was tension between him and Xander, and Willow.
Oz steeled himself, this could involve him. He nodded and sat down. Giles glanced up at the two identical, other than the scar, Slayers and their two boyfriends. Faith rubbed her temples. “You two need to find shelter before daybreak, you’ve got about half an hour.”
Angel nodded. “You can stay in the mansion, I think Spike’s room is pretty clean.”
The other Angel did a double take. “They, they’re here?”
“It’s a long story, come on. Faith? You wanna come?”
“Totally lacking in the books so yeah. See you guys later.”
The group walked out of the library and Giles got his helpers working.
* * *
“Oh, wait, um, do you need clothes?” Buffy looked at her twin and nodded. She was still wearing Angel’s shirt and her not too clean trousers.
Angel looked at the sky. “It’s nearly dawn. Faith, bring him on to the mansion, I’ll follow in a minute.”
“Wait, I’m not leaving him alone during the day, you guys may be us or whatever but I have a ‘trust no one’ frame of mind.”
“Good way to be. B One, I’ll take these two to the mansion, you get clothes or whatever.” Buffy nodded at Faith.
“Ok, Angel?” Her Angel nodded and followed her to her house. The others walked away down the dark streets.
They reached her house and jumped in the window. Angel stood and looked around, little had changed since he’d been there last. He watched Buffy as she gathered up some clothes and shoved them in a bag.
“Buffy?”
“Yeah?”
“They don’t know.”
“Know what?”
“About the curse.”
Buffy stopped what she was doing and looked at Angel with sorrowful eyes. “We should tell them. It’ll break her, my, our heart but it’s the right way.”
Angel nodded. “At least they won’t have to go through what we did.”
Buffy sighed and sat on the edge of her bed. Angel sat beside her and held her hand. “What are we going to do? Not just with them but, with everything. Sometimes, I wish I’d stayed dead.”
“Buffy, don’t say that.”
“But all the stuff that’s happened since, it could have been avoided. Willow and Oz would be happy, possibly Xander and Cordelia, you would never have lost your soul, Jenny would be alive, Giles’d be happy. You wouldn’t have gone to Hell. Everyone would have been happier.”
Buffy stood up and sighed heavily. Angel stood and held her shoulders. “Buffy, if you weren’t in my life, in any way at all, I wouldn’t be happy. I’d be dead. Look what happened just because you never came to Sunnydale, everyone suffered.”
“Yeah well, I can’t be much use for much longer.”
“Buffy...”
“Don’t, just don’t. You know as well as I do that maybe I did some good but all the bad stuff, it kinda outweighs the good.”
Angel held her arms and she refused to meet his eyes.
“Buffy, I love you. I always have, since the very first time I saw you, I still love you. I’ll never stop and I know we can’t be together the way you want and I understand that you probably hate me for that, for not being able to be with you in the ways you need. I hate myself.”
“I don’t hate you. I was stupid, to ever think I could be happy, that I could have a normal life. I still wouldn’t trade it though, knowing you for a normal life. It’s, hard.”
“It is, it’s easier for me, to not be happy. I only have to think about what I’m doing to you, what I’ve done.”
“At least I’m good for something.”
Angel hugged her close and whispered to her in a very soft voice. “You made me feel like I was good for something, you loved me. That’s worth so much to me Buffy. I love you.”
“I love you too.” Angel couldn’t help it, he couldn’t stand to see her so miserable, he couldn’t stop the gentle kiss that he gave her, he couldn’t help deepening it, or running his fingers through her hair. She was breathing hard and fast, pulling him towards herself, kissing him as if the world was ending. They were lost in the kiss, all else fell into a little, not important category. Angel couldn’t help himself, his heart broke as he kissed her, he wanted to give her so much more, be with her until the end of time without hurting her. He kissed her throat and face, her eyes closed in abandon and rapture. The hands on his shoulders were holding him tight, digging into his flesh. Her head was thrown back and he held it, her hair under his hand soft and smelling of shampoo. The hand on her waist touched flesh as her shirt became untucked and he gasped at the shock, at the feel of her skin under his. She moved her head to the side, his hand making her flesh burn. She turned his head to hers and kissed him, her eyes still closed and her gut burning with the power he held on her, her innards cramped in bittersweet ecstasy as fires were kindled and burst into flame. Their lips met and stayed in a long kiss. It seemed to go on forever and they drew apart very, very slowly.
“Angel,” she said, her voice breaking.
He was about to point out their mistake when Buffy heard a noise in the doorway. Her mother was standing there, having witnessed the entire thing they jumped apart as if electrocuted and stood as Joyce Summers stared, open mouthed at the scene she had just seen.
“Mom! I, I can explain.”
“Can you? This should be good.” Joyce was beyond irate, transcending furious and passed pissed. “What are you doing?” Buffy looked at her mother guiltily and Joyce threw her hands up. “Wait, I really don’t want to know. What are you thinking? That, that demon tried to kill you, and everyone else you know and love!”
“Mom, please. Not now.”
“Why not Buffy? Why not now? He is a demon! I don’t care if he has got his soul, he’s a murderer, and unstable to boot! Get out of my house, now.”
Angel went to leave and Buffy stopped him. “No, Mom, he’s not a murderer or unstable.”
“I don’t care, he isn’t welcome here.”
“Yes, he is. This is my room Mom. He’s welcome whenever he wants.”
“What? So you two can have a repeat of what happened the last time?”
“Mom! We’re not going to do that, we can’t.”
“Buffy, he’s a vampire! You’re a vampire killer, it’s not a difficult thing to figure out. No wonder you never mentioned him to me, you knew what you were doing was wrong.”
“Mom, I never, mentioned him because I knew you wouldn’t be able to deal, and lo and behold! I’m right!”
“Or was it shame?”
Buffy was quiet, a dangerous silence. “Mom, I have never been ashamed of Angel, I’ve been annoyed with him, I’ve loved him and feared him and I’ve hated him but I have never, ever been ashamed of him.”
Joyce stared back at her. “You could have at least had the common decency to keep your hormones in check when I was in the house but that’s right, he doesn’t have any! He’s dead!”
“Mom...”
“No, Buffy Summers, you’re grounded, and I forbid you to see this monster anymore.”
“I need to slay Mom, and there’s something going on right now that I need to see to.”
“Is that why you’re packing that bag? I should have known that he’d ruin your life, again. Why, why hasn’t someone killed him yet?”
“This stuff isn’t for me. It’s for a friend.”
“Why do I have trouble believing that? You will not leave this room until I say so, and he may never, ever come back in here.”
Angel stood, watching Buffy, waiting for her to tell him what to do. She just stood and seethed. He looked at Joyce and she shot him a look of pure hate. Buffy saw this and, tears in her eyes, lifted up her bag and zipped it shut. Shr picked up her, Angel’s, leather jacket and slipped it on.
“Mom, I have to go.”
“No, you’re staying. I don’t care what it is.”
“This is important.”
“What is it?”
“You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you.”
“Then you’re not leaving. He can, you can’t.”
“Mom, this is not something you can just do! I need to go.”
“You’re not leaving.”
“I. Have. To. Go.” Buffy spoke each word slowly and deliberately. She grabbed Angel’s hand and pushed by her mother.
“Listen to me young lady, you’re not leaving.”
“I have to go Mom! Slaying stuff has to be taken care of.”
“If you leave...”
“Don’t came back, I know.”
“No, if you leave with him, don’t ever bring him back. Ever, under any circumstances.”
“Mom,” Buffy stood and looked straight into her mother’s eyes with a resignation and weariness beyond her years. “Mom, leave me alone, I can’t deal with this.”
“And he can help you deal?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, he can, he does and he always will.”
Buffy left and dragged Angel after her. Joyce sank to the sofa in the living room, tired beyond belief.
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