Disclaimer: se the other bits
Author's Notes: whoops, someone went a bit over on the b part.....
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part Three B
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Buffy arrived at the mansion moments before sunrise and Angel closed the heavy drapes. She collapsed onto the couch and stared at the dead fire. Angel lit it and Buffy just sat, not registering her lover, herself or Faith or the two living ghosts.
“Hey, are you ok?”
“Fine, you better go home Faith.”
“Sure, are you sure you’re ok B?”
“Fine! Thanks Faith, but I’ll be ok.” Faith was taken aback and glanced at Angel. She mouthed the word mom and he nodded. She seemed to accept that and waved goodbye to the two doppelgangers who were standing by uncomfortably.
“Um, thanks for everything but I really should find shelter before dawn.”
Angel nodded and led his double into his own room, apologising about the general messiness of the room. Back out in the living room, Buffy stood and looked at her double who seemed to be lost in thought.
“Um, listen, thanks for everything, we appreciate it.”
“Welcome.”
Buffy sat and sighed. “What happened?”
The other Buffy sat up and looked at her with teary eyes. “I had a fight with Mom, she hates Angel.”
The other Buffy sat very still and tried to control her breathing. “Mom’s alive?”
“Yeah, what’s wrong?”
“It’s just, back home, she was killed.”
“Oh God, what happened?”
“I never told her I was the Slayer and a vampire came around asking if he could call the triple A. She let him in and he killed her. I came home and there she was, her throat torn out.”
Buffy sat still and took all this in. The other Slayer wiped a tear away from the corner of her eye. “You never realise how much you need them until they’re gone.”
The two Angels came back in and it took the pair a moment to distinguish between them. The alternate Buffy stood and took Angel’s hand and the other two sat on the sofa.
“Um, Angel said he needed to tell us stuff, important stuff.”
The other Angel looked at the unscarred Buffy and took her hand. She nodded and looked at the other two.
“The, the curse which lets Angel have his soul, it can be broken.”
“What?” Buffy grabbed her lover’s arm and their eyes were wide.
“On the night of my seventeenth birthday, Angel and I, we um, went to the next level and Angel had a moment of true happiness and lost his soul. Willow was able to give it back to him, but...” Buffy trailed off.
“Stuff happened in the interim” her Angel finished.
The other two sat down and shook their heads. “My curse must be different.”
“What?” Buffy’s heart skipped a beat.
“We’re on the next level, sitting quite happily there and nothing’s happened.”
“If it was, if I was going to lose my soul out of happiness, I would have by now.”
Buffy felt her heart crash to the souls of her shoes and she stifled a sob, could her life never be good? Was this the price of having Angel? Everyone she knew and loved dead? It was so unjust. Beside her, Angel tensed too and gripped her hand tighter.
Buffy saw her twin and the other Angel’s faces fall and her heart, not entirely hardened after all this time, was cleft in twain. “Maybe there’s some way that we can make his curse permanent too.”
“If there was, don’t you think I’d know about it by now? The stuff that we’ve been through...”
“Then we go to the librarian, maybe he’ll know.”
“We have to stay here, him and me.”
“I know, Buffy and I’ll go.”
The other two nodded and Buffy kissed her Angel gently. He smiled and hugged her. He held her and whispered to her. “Find out why, please, for them.”
“I will.” The parallel universe Angel left and Buffy waited in the courtyard while the other two said goodbye.
“There could be hope, we could, be together.”
“I know Buffy.” Angel held her tightly and sighed. “And you’ll find it.” He kissed the top of her head. “I’ve spent all my time, since I came back, praying that there could be a way.”
“I’ve spent since I first ever saw you praying there was a way. You gave it to me, bad stuff happened and all I want is to be able to know that it can never happen again, regardless of what we do.”
Angel was so proud of her, bowled over by her strength and he caressed her cheek. “I love you Buffy, never forget that.”
“I love you too. See you tonight?”
“Count on it.”
He kissed her lips so lightly that it was questionable if he was real, or some Angel sent to heal her and keep her safe.
* * *
“So, in the other realm, Angel’s curse is unbreakable?”
“Yes, it is.” Buffy stared at her Watcher and he sat down. The other Buffy stood a little bit away and played with a stake. Xander’s eyes were hard, and unforgiving, Willow’s were sad, full of pity.
“Why? What caused it? Why is it different back home?”
“I really have no idea, I don’t.”
The library doors swung open and Oz walked in. Willow brightened and smiled at him, he froze and pulled out a cross and a stake. He only saw the Buffy he knew and he looked wildly around.
“Buffy! Run! They’re vampires!” Willow’s eyes went wide with fear, and confusion, then it dawned on her.
“You must be the other Oz! We were looking for you.”
“What?”
The other Buffy stood up and moved into his filed of view. He frowned and squinted. One Buffy had a black sweater and baggy overalls on, she had a scar and braided hair, like he knew her to. The other had a blue tank top and a short skirt on, along with the compulsory high boots. Oh, and there was Giles, in tweed. Weird. And the vampires were in the sun, without any leather.
“Did I miss something?”
At that moment, his counterpart walked in wearing a green bowling shirt and blue jeans. He raised his eyebrows and looked at himself.
“Did I miss something?”
Much later, the entire situation had been explained, except why the universes had split.
“Well, I can field that one,” Pseudo Oz said, “Cordelia Chase made a wish, she said she knew the Slayer so Giles said he’d call her. Cordelia was killed, by you two.” Willow and Xander gasped. “Then, there was a fight in a factory, you know the rest.”
“But what on earth did Cordelia wish for?”
“That I never went to Sunnydale, I guess.”
“But if I, you, we, am I the only one way confused on the names?” The other Buffy rolled her eyes.
“Ditz, listen, that’s the explanation, I think. But we have other things on our minds right now.”
“Like me turning into a werewolf tonight?”
“We’re a werewolf?”
“Yup.”
“How?”
“Jordie bit me, he’s a puppy.”
“Wow. Interesting, I’m not a werewolf, am I?”
“I doubt it.”
“Anyway,” Willow said, “what about Angel’s curse? Why isn’t it breakable in the other realm?”
Giles stuttered, much as he wanted to help, this wasn’t something he wanted to listen to. “H, how do you know that the curse can’t be broken?” The two Buffys gave him identical dirty looks, exactly the same look Buffy had given him when he figured out she and Angel had gotten physical. “Oh, well, um.”
“Ok, lets skip that, how do we apply this to my Angel?”
Buffy only received confused looks and the library door opened. Cordelia strutted in and held up her hands. “I. Don’t. Want. To. Know. I only came here to demand a cross, it’s not safe to go out without one.”
“Who the Hell are you?”
“I’m Cordelia Chase, scar face!”
Buffy was up in a second and was half way across to Cordelia by the time alternate Oz had jumped between them.
“Buffy, don’t.”
“Bitch! I’m gonna pound your fuckin’ face into a pulp!”
“Oh get a grip, so, what now? Two sets of identical twins? Can I have one, I need my history homework done.”
Cordelia calmly walked around the library and Oz managed to subdue the wild Slayer.
“So, why have we two, three Slayers and two Ozs? Is that Ozi?”
Xander rolled his eyes in defeat and wanted to put his hands on her shoulders and calmly explain what was going on, like before he messed up.
Giles coughed, trying to ease the tension. “The demon? With the necklace?”
“Annie, Anya...” Buffy was stuck and Cordelia, the smug bitch she decided to kill, cut her off.
“I wouldn’t exactly call her a demon.”
“Who?”
“Anya, she does have a pretty cool necklace though.”
Oz stared off into space, the other Oz, the one who only knew Willow as a vampire. “Hey, did you ever wish for anything around her?”
“That Buffy never came to Sunnydale, that all men, except the really, really pretty and really stupid, would disappear off the face of the earth, that Xander would never again know the touch of a woman...”
“Hey!”
“She, she asked me to try and find her necklace. I, I opened up a portal, just to test it.”
“Willow? When?”
“A couple of hours before the doppelgangers arrived.”
“Aw shit, so, what now?”
Giles sat down and ran his fingers through his hair. “Oz, was there a teacher in your school, a Miss Calender?”
“Um, yeah, computer teacher, was is the operative word.”
“What?”
“She helped one night, a month or two after the harvest, she knew magick. She landed on the wrong side of a vampire’s fangs. Why?”
Giles took a moment to compose himself. “Willow, much as I hate you playing with magick, but we need to try and hold a seance.”
“What?”
“To contact Jenny, a spirit can do much more than a human.”
The Slayers, and Slayerettes nodded and Oz glanced at the clock. “Only a few hours ‘till sundown.”
“Giles, we need you to help with research, Xander, you’re with me, Buffy, other me, we’ll have to patrol.”
Xander jumped up and down. “You mean I get to patrol?”
“No, I want you to take sister here and her Angel to Willie’s bar.”
“Can do captain. When do we leave?”
“Now, stop by the butchers on the way and collect some blood.”
Her sister in Slaying came up close to her. “Cow blood?”
“It’s his favourite.”
“Will the similarities never end? See you guys soon.”
The two walked out of the library and Giles looked at the others. “Where will we hold the seance? And what about Oz?”
“You go to your house, make sure you know everything that there is to know about inter dimensional demons and stuff, ok?”
“Don’t you think I should help Willow with the ritual?”
“The, um, the one I know best involves three virgins.”
Buffy looked to the floor and scuffed the floor, Giles did the same. “Well, I’d best be off then.”
He left, befuddled watcher he was and Willow looked around the library. “We should have kept Xander, I know for a fact that he’s a virgin. That leaves, me. Faith?”
Buffy just laughed. Cordelia coughed indignantly. “Are you all just gonna assume I’m some ho?”
“You?!”
“Well, tell anyone and I’ll kill you but, yeah.”
“”Well, will you help?”
Cordelia looked at the floor. She finally looked back up at the Slayer. “I should hate you, logic dictates I should but, once I thought about it, you guys were really the only ones who ever looked out for me, actually gave a damn.”
Buffy twisted her mouth, half smiling. “We’re good for something.”
“Look, I don’t like you guys, and I know my social standing will drop but hey, I’ll give it a shot.”
Willow glanced guiltily at Cordelia and the cheerleader glanced back. “I’ll just do what I always do, blame it on male hormones.”
Buffy and Willow laughed, the Ozi looked on, bewildered. “Hey, I can help.”
Willow was astounded. “But, I, you as well?”
“Me? In another dimension?”
“Killing demons doesn’t leave much time for relationships.”
Pseudo Oz nodded wisely at the real Oz and he mimicked the gesture. Willow coughed and everyone looked to her.
“Ok, I need to make a trip to the magick store, and I need someone to find some coltsfoot.”
* * *
“Thanks Willy.”
“No problem kid, keep your nose clean.”
Xander nodded, unsure of what to say and walked out of Willie’s bar with Buffy and Angel, the other ones, in tow. “So, what now?”
“I guess we wait, should we go back to the library?”
“No. If Willow’s trying a spell, it’d be better if she could concentrate. The Bronze?”
“Is that a joke!?!” Xander shrank in fear at the tone of Buffy’s voice and stammered.
“No, why? Is it not a good club where you guys come from?”
“Like Hell, it’s the vampire HQ.” Xander opened his mouth and closed it again.
“I’m sorry, I had no idea. If it’s any consolation, it’s not here. It’s a club, like any other, the only one in Sunnydale.”
“Ok, then we should probably go there.” Angel glanced around and nodded in agreement. Soon, they stepped inside the noisy club and claimed seats. Xander saw Faith enter and he went over to her. Buffy moved closer to Angel and kissed his throat gently. He kissed her back and the two indulged in some major smoochies.
“Eh hem!” Xander and Faith were standing over them, scolding and laughing respectively. “We need to go to Gile’s place, me and Faith. The others said they’d be here soon so, do you guys wanna wait?”
“Sure, see you two later?”
“Sure, b’ bye.”
“See ya B, Angel.” Buffy and Angel waved as the pair walked out and Buffy smiled at Angel.
“So, how long do you think we’ll have to wait before we can, y’know, get home.”
“I know what you’re thinking.”
“Do you?” Angel slipped a hand around her waist and stroked the small of her back. “Oh, you do know.” Buffy pouted slightly and Angel kissed her again.
At the door, Angel stood watching the two kiss gently, like he and Buffy used to kiss, before all of this. He sighed and prayed that the seance would be a success.
* * *
Angel and Buffy kissed passionately, making tiny noises of rapture and moaning softly.
“So, how you two doing?”
The two separated as Buffy sat down and smiled sadly at them. They sat up straight and tried to avoid sending Buffy into even more melancholy.
“Any word from the seance?”
“None, Willow said she’d come here when it was finished. Have you seen Angel, the other one?”
Angel nodded and gestured to the doorway. His counterpart stood there in the shadows, unseen by all except him. Buffy squinted and he moved into the light. Their gazes met and Buffy stood up, walking over to her one time lover. The other two stayed on the sofa and Angel draped an arm around Buffy.
“Do you think there’s a chance for them?”
“I hope so.”
On the dancefloor, Buffy smiled at Angel and he took her hand, squeezing it. Her smile left her face as he touched her and she breathed in hard. He dropped her hand and she started.
“No, no.” She was embarrassed. “I’m sorry Angel, it’s just hard.”
“I know, I know.” He stood still, the rest of the world going on without him. He didn’t care, the entire universe could have been swallowed up by a black hole (Impossible, but hey) and he wouldn’t have noticed, not when she looked at him like that.
“May I have this dance?”
She nodded and the two stepped out onto the floor and into his arms. She laid her head on his chest and held him tight. He wrapped his arms around her and wanted so much to be with her, so much it hurt. They stayed locked in a painful, mutual embrace and Buffy raised her head slightly.
“Angel, if we find a way to work it out, what happens then?”
Angel stopped for a moment and looked her in the eyes with devotion and trust. “Whatever you want, it’s your call.”
“It’s just that, I dunno.” She sighed and Angel hugged her again. “Angel, every time I see you, all I want is what I know we can never have and it’s killing me. Even if suddenly, we could,” a pause, “I don’t know what to do, I’m, I’m so scared.”
“Of what?”
“Everything, myself, what my mother’ll say, what everyone else will think, what you’ll think.”
“What do you mean?”
“I, I sent you to Hell, I turned you into a murderer...”
Angel silenced her with a tiny kiss. “You never did anything bad to me that wasn’t totally necessary Buffy, I love you.”
“I love you too, and I want you so much, I, just don’t know if...” her voice dropped and Angel had to lean into her to hear it. “If you want me.” He was shocked and raised her face to his.
“I’d do anything for you, walk over Hell if I need to, and I’ll love you for forever. Even if you kill me.”
Her face was sweet, immensely sad and heartbreakingly innocent at the same time. “Really?”
“Forever, that’s the point.”
Buffy froze and looked up at him with large, teary eyes. Her breath was coming too quickly and she pushed Angel away from her. “I, I, have to go now.”
Angel grabbed her elbow as she turned away and boldly, he pulled her into his embrace and kissed her. She didn’t resist and a few minutes later, they sat down beside their doppelgangers, hopeful.
* * *
Buffy snuggled into Angel’s shoulder and sighed, the song was touching, too touching.
“It’s Iris, by the Goo Goo Dolls.” Angel said, the Angel that had an irrational fear of matches.
“U2 did it a while ago, didn’t they?” His counterpart said.
“I think so, they sounded whinier though.” The Buffys looked at each other and shook their heads.
The four were quiet, contemplative. There were dark things on each of their souls that would never be removed, no matter what and the song reminded them of it.
True, the world never would. They would always be part of the shadows, beings that flicked in and out of existence faster than muons. All they had was the one they loved, and for one pair, they weren’t even sure if they did.
“We can never be sure.” Angel and their relatives from the other world looked over at her. “We can never be sure of what we have and don’t have.”
“We have life, we’ll have death. We can be sure of that.” The other Buffy fingered her scar without thinking about it and her lover wrapped his arms around her gently.
“We’ll have each other.”
Angel looked at the pair and at his only love. He cupped her face and kissed her. She responded and they stayed locked in a fiery kiss. They broke it and she let her head rest against his. “The curse, we can’t.” She breathed deeply and fought to keep down tears. Angel held her face with soft fingers.
“I’d need to be happy for that to work. I’ll never be happy if you’re not, remember that.”
They kissed again, as did their companions but their kiss had a reminder of the pain in it, a bitter taste that was as familiar to them as the taste of each other.
* * *
Willow ran into the Bronze followed by Cordelia and Oz.
“We found it. I mean, it was so obvious! I can’t believe we never thought of it before!”
“What?” Buffy stood up and grabbed her best friend by the shoulders, shaking her.
“We need to make the curse permanent, make it unbreakable.” Buffy nodded, it made sense. “Jenny, she told us that in their world,” she gestured to the other two, “she did this already, with her grandma.”
“Yeah, it was freaky, but she gave us the spell. We can cast it as soon as you want.” Buffy smiled and a tear slid down her cheek.
“Thank you guys so much.” She pulled the three into a hug and Angel stood up, smiling. Buffy turned and kissed him. “They can do it, make your curse forever.” A frown, “that sounded bad.”
Angel kissed her gently but sensuously. “No, that sounded about right.”
The other two stood up and smiled. “Hey, can we help?”
Willow shook her head. “No, this is a pretty powerful spell, I think you should leave it to me.”
Buffy’s face was crossed with concern for her best friend. “Are you sure it’s safe?”
“Yeah, it’s not as bad as the one that gave Angel his soul back.”
The Slayer stood tall and with hope shining in her eyes. “We better move then.”
* * *
The group sat in a circle, most of the guys waist naked, Willow said that fire may be involved, and the girls wearing mostly sports wear. After much cajoling, they had convinced Willow to let them help. She stood, waving a snuff stick and murmuring in Latin. The others looked at her with nervous eyes. Willow looked at them, all so hopeful and all there for Buffy and Angel. She nodded at the pair and they sat in the middle, the others forming a circle around them, Xander, Oz, Angel, Buffy, Oz, Faith and Cordelia. They gripped hands tightly and Xander couldn’t help but sigh at her touch. She looked up at Willow and made a nervous face. He stroked her hand with his thumb and she smiled at him, then remembered herself and turned away.
“Ok, I’m just gonna tie you guys together, ok?” They nodded and Willow wrapped red silk ribbons around everyone’s hand, securing the hands to each other. In the centre, Buffy and Angel sat with hands intertwined and bound in white silk. They smiled at each other and closed their eyes when Willow told them to.
She chanted in Latin and a mighty wind rose, whipping around them and sending hair flying, they all held on tightly to the ones next to them. Suddenly, the wind left, and a wet mist came, soaking them but Willow kept chanting, and they kept their eyes closed. Then came the fire, they could hear it roaring in the centre of the circle, touching but not burning the pair of lovers who sat there. Xander gripped Cordelia’s hand and Angel held onto Buffy’s. Just as they though the heat could get no more, they were all rolling in sweat, Willow plunged a dagger through Buffy and Angel’s hands. The blood ran onto a chalk circle, seemed to boil and vaporised.
They gasped in pain, in ecstasy and gripped the other’s hand with an unnatural strength. Where the knife touched, they felt themselves become one, their hearts beat in time (Angel’s heart beats a bit, not much but enough to supply blood to various body parts) and they moaned. The others squeezed their eyes shut and could practically feel the power flow through Willow as they loaned her theirs.
She pulled the blade out of their hands and they fell back into the others. Willow untied them and they all stood up, rubbing heads.
“Hey, Will, I, I don’t feel so good,” Xander sat back down.
“Me neither,” Cordelia sat beside Xander and he pulled her into his arms, too tired to resist, she lay on his lap and fell asleep, he did too.
“What’s with them?” Buffy, dagger through the hand Buffy, asked. As she spoke, the Ozi and Willow collapsed, followed by Faith and the doppelgangers. Angel looked at her and shrugged. Too exhausted to move, they lay on the ground beside Angel’s couch and slept.
* * *
Epilogue
* * *
The next night in the Bronze, the Scooby gang, plus some, sat down drinking caffeine filled beverages. The spell Willow had used had been similar to the one Jenny’s Grandmother had, but not identical, such was the need for the blood. The curse could now never be broken and Buffy and Angel could be happy.
“So, any word on what’s happening with getting us home?”
“I, I don’t know what I did last time, it’s going to take more research. I’m going as fast as I can.”
Beta Buffy, as Faith had lovingly named her, stood and smiled, pulling her Angel with her. They stepped out onto the dance floor and she smiled at Willow.
“You don’t have to rush, I’m sure Kendra and Faith are around in my time.”
Willow smiled and her lovely Oz planted a small kiss on her forehead and pulled her up to dance. Xander smiled and brought Cordelia up with him too, her didn’t want to let her go, not yet. Faith grinned and sipped a mocha blast.
“So, love is in the air?”
“Yup, I can smell it.”
“What?”
“Oh, sorry, I think it has something to do with the Werewolf Oz, I’m gaining his senses a bit, and the full moon’s tomorrow night.”
“Oh, I’ll keep the gun handy. Rabbits?” Oz looked at her blankly and she nodded, he passed inspection. They went to the bar to refill mugs and Buffy and Angel snuggled close to each other.
“I love you Angel.”
Angel smiled and inhaled the smell of her hair. “I love you too, and I’m never going to get tired of saying that.”
“You know, Mom’s not around tonight...” Buffy trailed off and traced small circles on Angel’s chest, coyly lowering her eyes and then bringing them up with a suggestive look in them.
“Are you suggesting what I think you are?” Buffy nodded and he smiled, kissing her. “Good, it was just what I was about to say.”
The End..., for now anyway, if I get loads of nice feedback, I might do more. Hint hint.
Join the Buffy Bringers peeps, we need to get our sites back! *strikes a heroic pose* You can strike all the heroic poses you want, mail me for details
|
|
|
|
Rave
Barbie Girl (Becca)
biscuit07
Filmtheory (Jim)
Malice (Jess)
MebbtheScribe (MichaelB)
Reset (Allie)
Shay (Marrisa)
somnambulist29 (Shea)
Stephanie Loss
Wendyness (Wendy)
Questions?Contact Us
|
|
All stories on this site have been archived with the authors' consent. Do not copy these stories for your own uses without the express consent of the author themselves. Buffy the Vampire Slayer TM and Angel TM are © UPN, WB, Fox and its related entities. All photos on the site are © UPN, Fox, Warner Bros, and/or their respective owners. No profits are being made by use of these images.
Powered with the assitance of eFiction.
|
|
|
