SquidgeWorld Archive

Prolog

Buffy surveyed the Ford Taurus once more.

The motor was still running, the creeper pushing it up against a parked car. The driver's seatbelt, and the seatbelts for the front seat passenger side and the back seat driver's side, were all buckled in. But there was no-one sitting in the car, and no kind of remains.

"First horrified reactions," Buffy announced to the group out loud. "Somehow, when we... I mean, when *I* disrupted Kaliya's ritual, it just zapped away everyone except us in town."

"Just what I was hating to think," Oz said uncertainly.

"As a hypothesis, that falls quite short of explaining all the facts, Buffy," Akira Tojo commented. "Thankfully. For instance, it doesn't explain the unearthly sky overhead."

"Okay, so what's your take, Tojo?" Xander shot back.

"There is insufficient information to come to a conclusion," Tojo replied haughtily.

"Not real Sunnydale," Angel muttered, and groaned. "Nobody's dead - we were... the only ones drawn in."

"Huh?" Willow responded.

"Meta-dimensional duplication of matter - doesn't work on people," Angel croaked out, and then collapsed.

"Did you understand any of that, Will?" Buffy asked.

"Not a word," Willow admitted. "He sounds like he's delerious."

"Okay, what's the plan?" Xander asked.

Buffy looked at Tojo, but with a wave of his hand he deferred the decision to her. "Um, we need to find some cover. Set up camp in somebody's house - probably two houses. Kali's vamps can't get us in personal homes."

"Okay, we'll use my place and... uh, Willow's, I guess," Cordelia announced.

"Why?" Xander asked.

"Because they're the biggest and the best, of what we've got, anyways," Cordelia said. "Once we're set up, you'd probably better search the city for other survivors, Buffy," she added. "There might be other people the spell didn't kill." Angel mumbled something again.

"Yeah, you're right," Buffy said, stricken by the thought. If there were other humans caught in the dead city, would she be able to find them all before something else did?

* * * *

Giles lay Kaliya carefully on her bed in the hideout, then called back to the crowd of milling vampires. "Varigon! Hsartac! Attend me. The rest of you, leave us."

The two vampires he named came forward towards him, and the rest slowly filed out of the room. Michelle looked over the rest of the force - a dozen vampires, the two demon mercenaries, and the human magician Rayne.

She swallowed nervously, and then called out in English "Your attention pleese!" Everyone turned to look at her. "Thank you. While Monsieur Giles sees to the welfare of our lady, there are other matters that must be attended to. We will search the city, find any humans who still remain within it." She glared out over the vampires. "*Anyone* you find, bring them back here *alive*. If the city is as deserted as it seems, we may need to ration food until Madame is well enough to leave." Michelle turned to the non-vampires. "Rancid, Gennor, Mister Rayne?" They nodded. "Would you do me the honor of guarding this house while we hunt?"

Rancid and Gennor nodded mutely. "Sounds good to me," Rayne said. "For the record, all you with the fangs, don't get too close to me."

Michelle ignored that and led the vampire retinue out into the streets.

Act One

"Okay," Buffy said, uncertainly taking charge. "Willow, Oz, Xander?" They turned to look at her. "Get yourselves and Angel set up at Willow's place. The rest of us will up camp at the Chase estates."

Willow nodded. "I should help you search the city, Buffy. I've got a presence spell that may help."

"Okay," Buffy agreed. "I'll head over to your place when I'm ready to start the search. Xander, once you're done at Willow's, head on up to Cordelia's; I'd like the two of you to scout around more widely in her car - check the roads out of the city. Okay?"

"Um, sure, I guess," Xander said uncertainly.

"Hey, who died and made you..." Cordelia began, but then broke off uncertainly.

"The Slayer?" Buffy glared at Cordelia. "I believe it was an Israeli girl named Hannah. Any more questions?" Cordelia shook her head.

"What about me?" Oz asked.

"You keep watch over Angel at Willow's house, okay?" Buffy replied.

"Uh, got it."

"Tojo," Buffy whirled to look at the watcher, then paused to consider a moment. "Um, use your discretion - keep a close guard at Cordelia's house if that seems warranted, patrol the immediate area otherwise. Good enough?"

* * * *

"Angel? Angel?" Willow shook the vampire a little as she and Oz helped him along to the Rosenberg house, then turned to her boyfriend and Xander. "I think he's passed out," she muttered plaintively.

"Oh, for cripes' sake," Xander expostulated. "Oz, get ahold of him under both arms; I'll get the legs. We'll carry him in like a damn undead sack of flour."

Oz shifted over to comply, and soon they were moving again, Willow leading the way and getting ready to open the door for them. "Are you sure he's ali-- well, you know, okay?" Oz asked as he looked at the unconscious vamp.

"Generally, as long as a vampire's, um, all in one piece, they're okay," Willow said. "They have to sleep, just like people do, and he's probably been through a lot."

"Which brings me to something I've been wondering," Xander said. "How the hell is Dead-boy back? I thought that Buffy killed him."

"Could he have crossed over from Hell?" Oz wondered aloud. "I'd guess that most vampires go to Hell when they die."

"It's not that kind of Hell," Willow commented. "Mortal souls don't end up in Hell, they mostly float around in the ether. Hell is just another dimension, like Earth, except that it's populated by horrible demons."

"Then what about Angel?" Xander pressed as they dumped him on the Rosenberg living room couch.

"He must have gone through the Acathla vortex, and gotten to Hell physically."

"Oh," Xander said. "There anything else much I need to do here, or should I report up to Cordy's for carscout duty?" He grimaced.

"No," Willow answered him. "I'll check through the house while I wait for Buffy."

"Okay," Xander nodded. "Oz, man, I need to ask something of you."

"Yeah?"

Xander indicated Angel. "Don't turn your back on him, don't let your guard down, and make sure you've got one of these on you at all times." Xander presented Oz with a wooden stake.

"Hey, man," Oz said, glancing from Xander to Willow and back again. "There's no call for that kind of thing, is there?"

"We have to be sure," Xander insisted. "Willow, I know you've got renewed faith in your curse, but we can't afford to rely on it. This might be the bloodsucking Angel pretending to be the nice one; they might be stuck taking turns being in control like Jekyll and Hyde. Heck, for all we know the good Angel got driven insane in Hell and he's in league with the vamp. I'm not saying we stake him now." He fixed Oz with an icy stare. "But I do know that it can't start again. We'll have to kill him if it's clear that he still poses a threat. Agreed?"

Oz reached out and took the stake. "All right."

Xander strode out of the house and walked up the street. Buffy was walking down it the other way, but as she came within earshot of him she snapped "Don't even start," and kept walking.

* * * *

"Are you sure that that spell's working?" Buffy snapped at Willow as they walked through one of the seamier neighborhoods of Sunnydale.

Willow frowned. "Well, it's picking up you okay, and it registered Oz and Angel fine back at the house. I just don't think that there's anyone in range."

Buffy walked on and considered this in silence for a few moments.

"Oh, hey! Got something!" Willow declared triumphantly. "Human presence... over there," she finished, pointing her finger at a low apartment building up the street.

Buffy looked over at it. "Hey, that's my building!" She paused a second before the possibility hit her. "Dad!" She charged into the building, and Willow followed, yelling out elaborations on her presence sense. It didn't matter; Buffy knew the way to her own apartment. "Dad!" she called out again, banging on the door.

"Honey?" The door swept open, revealing Hank Summers, a frying pan raised threateningly in his right hand. "Buffy, thank God!" he breathed embracing her fiercely. "I thought... something's happened," he babbled.

"I know, Dad," Buffy agreed. "We're not quite sure what the sitch is yet. You should probably come with us."

"Um, okay," Hank agreed. "Where are you going?"

Buffy considered. "We're searching the city right now, but we've got base camps set up at Willow's and Cordelia's. Okay?"

"Sure," her father agreed readily. He seemed to sense that, as little as Buffy knew about what was going on, she was in her element now.

Willow's presence sense spell only registered a few more times as they searched the city. The first time, she picked up two vampires and a human, but the vampires fled with their prisoner as Buffy approached. The second time...

"Oh, hey Buffy!" Willow cried out. "Your, uh, your old house! Could be your mom!" Buffy and Hank Summers shared an uncertain look, then went up to the house. Before they had even gotten there, Joyce Summers had drawn the door open, and stood just behind the threshold, looking at the three of them tentatively.

"Uh, Mom," Buffy started uncertainly. "Something's happened, as you've probably realized. We don't know exactly what it is, but we're trying to group everyone we can find together. You should come with us."

"Okay," Joyce said calmly, surprising her. "Hank?" she nodded her head far too politely at Joyce's father.

As they got back to the sidewalk before Joyce's house, the lights of the city flickered and extinguished. The streetlights, the lights of the nearby houses, even the traffic lights a few blocks down the street. Only the still- running automobiles provided some illumination.

"City generator crash," Willow called out into the eerily broken darkness. "Surprised it didn't happen before now, with no-one to monitor them. We should get back to the houses, Buffy?"

"Okay," Buffy called back. She didn't know why they were speaking so loudly, but it seemed appropriate under the circumstances. She grabbed her father's hand, and after seeing that Willow had caught the hint and had Hank's free hand in one of her own and one of Joyce's in the other, Buffy began to lead the way back to Willow's house.

Suddenly a menacing voice rang out. "Buffy!"

Buffy turned to face into the darkness that the sound had come from. "Hello?" she called out politely.

"Buffy Anne Summers," the voice continued, freighted with menace. "I come for you!"

"Well thanks for making the trip," Buffy shot back. "Who the hell ARE you?"

A human-like figure stepped into the glare of a gray Mercury's headlights. "Who the hell do you think, lover?"

Buffy jaw dropped open in a silent shriek.

It was Angelus!

Act Two

Buffy watched with horror as the shadowy figure walked towards them. It was Angelus, not Angel; Buffy had no doubt of that. The mocking tone to his voice, the arrogance of his walk and posture, the quiet pride with which he showed his vampire face, the face that Angel was ashamed of. When he was ten feet away from her, Buffy decided that she needed to do something.

"Hold it right there!" she called out.

"Or what?" Angelus sneered back, deliberately continuing his pace toward her.

"This," Buffy countered simply. She launced her right foot up in a crescent kick. Angelus tried to dodge out back, but he couldn't counter all of the forward momentum he had been building up and Buffy's foot made good, if not perfect, contact with his head. Angelus stumbled off to the side, unbalanced.

"Way to go, Buff!" Hank Summers cheered. "Who is that guy, by the way?" he asked Willow.

"That's, um, Angelus," Willow explained uncertainly. "He's, uh..."

"Oh." Hank cut her off. "She told me about him, some." He frowned.

Meanwhile, Angelus had risen to his feet, but he didn't charge again right away. "Glad to see you've been keeping yourself sharp while I've been gone," he snarled.

"Oh, always," Buffy chimed back. "If I let my edge blunt, what on earth will I do when some arrogant fiend like you needs his ego punctured?"

"That's a mixed metaphor, Buffy," Joyce called out helpfully. Buffy shot her mother a black look, and Joyce firmly closed her mouth.

"Hi Joyce, nice to see you again," Angel said, looking straight at her despite the darkness around them. "And who might you be, sir?" he continued, turning to Hank.

"Hank Summers," he replied angrily. "Buffy's father."

"Really? Well, now." The vampire nodded to himself. "This will be interesting, I think. The absentee father - no longer absent. Too bad Buffy and I won't be around to see what happens next between the two of you." As if some signal had gone off, he began to approach Buffy again, more carefully this time. Buffy backed away for a few paces, then charged forward, closing within a few feet of him and attacking with her fists. But Angelus shrugged off the powerful blows as if they were water and shoved vehemently with a forearm against her shoulder. Buffy tumbled to the asphalt and groaned.

"Buffy!" Hank cried out, horrified. But the Slayer propped herself up on her elbows, shook her head violently, and slowly climbed to her feet. Angelus was staying where he had been when he hit Buffy, watching her, smiling.

"By the way," Angelus continued in that damnably lilting voice of his, "I'd expect you to have asked me by now. I'm sure that the question has *got* to be on your mind."

"What question?" Buffy growled, moving along to stand between Angelus and the others.

Angelus chuckled to himself. "What question, she asks. Just exactly as if it wasn't obvious. THE question, Buff my love. How could it possibly be that I'm here?"

Buffy stood stock still for just a moment. "Oh, I see," Angelus continued. "You were too busy worrying about what to do with me to get to the harder questions. My mistake." He chortled visciously, closed on Buffy again, and swung a powerful roundhouse punch at her. Buffy parried.

"Has the curse been broken?" Angel continued. "Was it cancelled out, or muted, by the interference of some horrible hellish power?" With a foot-sweep,he dumped Buffy to the ground again. "And, if so, what did I do to that sweet young werewolf boy who was watching me?" Willow gasped in horror.

Buffy sprang up with a drop-kick that tagged Angel in the hip, making him cry out and fall to the ground too. "Okay, if it'll please you so much, I'll ask," Buffy snarked, getting back to her feet. "How is it that you're back?"

"I've been set free," Angel declared delightedly as he rose to his own feet, "by the all the powers of Hell. And I am going to take you as payment for them."

"Try *not*," Buffy grumped again, charging towards him again with a right jab to the head. She delivered a blurring round of punishment, but again, he seemed to reject it by force of will and knocked her away with an offhand shove.

"Buffy!" Willow called out from the shadows.

Buffy froze in place, not letting her eyes leave Angelus. "Yeah Will?"

"I've just realized... he doesn't register as a vampire!"

"What?" Angelus answered her jokingly. "I assure you that I've registered... I'm a card carrying member of AEVIA." He waited two seconds, then spelled out the acronym. "Associated European Vampires In America."

"Go on, Will," Buffy prompted.

"What, not even a giggle?" Angelus muttered. Buffy shot him a warning glance.

"The presence sense spell - this 'Angelus' has got a presence, but it's not a vampire's presence. You can tell - there are slight differences in the way different kinds of things show up."

"So," Buffy urged her friend. "If he's not a vampire, what does that make him? Human?" She scoffed softly.

"Um, no, I don't think so," Willow agreed. "He seems, more than anything, like some kind of..."

But Angelus was already charging again, and this time there was no playfulness in his attack. But Buffy was ready, and met his attack with a skillful defense. "...spirit," Willow finished lamely as the combat progressed.

After Buffy and Angelus had been sparring for about thirty seconds, Willow grabbed up a chunk of asphalt from a break in the road and moved silently towards them, weighing the impromptu weapon in her hand. But as she approached, Angel once again broke off the combat, this time to glare at Willow balefully.

"I am required by the Strictures to warn you, Rosenberg" he muttered. "This is between myself and Buffy. If you interfere directly, however, by even the smallest amount, I am empowered to take you both! Immediately!"

"No!" Buffy cried out, launching herself at Angelus.

"That's it, Buffy!" Willow called out.

"That's what?" Buffy yelled back, now sparring again with the vampire, or spirit, or whatever.

"The Strictures - I remember that from studying with Mister Tojo. Buffy, he's not really Angelus!"

"What?" Angelus dealt Buffy an open palm blow that nearly knocked her off balance.

"He's a Horror - an insubstantial Hell-spirit who's taken the form of Angelus to attack you."

"Okay," Buffy replied, fending off a viscious series of kicks. "How do I kill it, though?"

"You can't kill them," Willow reported. "But you can back if off, drive it out of this particular form, by facing it with the prospect that would most horrify Angelus. Since it thinks that it's Angelus, that one great horror will be too much for it; it'll discorporate and not bother anyone again until it can find a new form."

"Yes!" Angelus hissed, knocking Buffy to the ground once again with a backhand slap. "But you've just lost your chance to figure that out, Buffy." He reached a hand out towards Buffy's head. "The Strictures now allow me to take you, Buffy. You've just run out of time!"

Act Three

"No!" Buffy said. "You've just run out of luck, Angelus!"

Angelus looked skeptically at her, but said nothing. Buffy continued on anyway. "Because I *know* what it is that you can't face, Angelus, and it's already happening!"

Angelus scoffed. "You're grasping at a straw."

"The curse!" Buffy hissed. Angelus recoiled in sudden fear. Buffy chuckled. "That's right, Angelus, I know you can't stand the thought of that. The mere idea that the human being that you replaced could be brought back, could be restored and given back control of *your* body, his to do what he pleases with, to use as a living weapon against other vampires, trapping you inside, helpless to do anything but watch." Buffy stood up and leaned into Angelus' face. "It's happened again, Angelus, and there's NOTHING you can do to stop it!"

"Aargh!" Angelus screamed, then suddenly flew apart in a burst of wind. Nothing was left of him, not even dust.

"That Horror won't be bothering us again for a bit, Buffy," Willow said. "Good work. Now we'd better get moving again."

* * * *

The nine of them gathered for a war council around the darkened living room of the Rosenberg house.

"All of the roads just uh, kind of 'stop' around the city limits," Xander reported. I tried walking further out once the road stops; you go a few hundred feet through weird plants and clearings and then there's just this big black wall - I'm not sure how high it is."

"I don't think we're in California anymore, Ozzo" Willow commented in a faint try at humor.

"But how?" Buffy asked out loud. "This is still Sunnydale. There's no mistaking that."

"Sunnydale without the people," Hank Summers observed.

"Which brings us to the question," Buffy said. "Where are they?"

"They're fine," Angel said weakly. All heads turned to look at him.

"What did you say?" Buffy demanded incredulously. "How do you know?"

"Because *they*," Angel paused, whether for emphasis or to catch his breath, no-one could tell, "are still in the REAL Sunnydale! We are the only ones who are in trouble."

Tojo was quick to explore Angel's theory. "So, you're saying that we are caught in a duplicate copy of the town, a kind of imitation?"

"Sort of," Angel wheezed. "The town was duplicated in an interdimensional limbo, when Buffy and I broke the dimensional barrier." Even Tojo looked slightly blank at that, and Angel shook his head impatiently and began again.

"When Buffy and I touched across the Hellmouth barrier, it was an intrusion, a possible threat to the integrity of the barrier. As strong a dimensional gateway as the Hellmouth is, it also has some very stong natural barriers to that connection, which is what makes it so hard to open. When the barrier is tampered with, its natural reaction is to isolate the intrusion, to trap it - like it did with the Master. But because the contact was simultaneous from both sides of the gateway, and because it was happening in the middle of Kaliya's spell, things happened a bit differently.

"From the Earth side of the Hellmouth, a quantity of protomatter was drawn into the nexus; a similar quantity from Hell. People and beings who were remarkably close to the point of contact or unusually attuned to the Hellmouth were swept in too, as with all of us. From the etheric void, as well as from both dimensions, came information, energy, and spirit, and all of this stuff just globbed up in the middle of the Hellmouth nexus, half-way between Earth and Hell, suspended in the ether. And Limbo was born.

"Most of the matter assumed the prevailing structure most interestingly available - the town of Sunnydale, sitting right around the Hellmouth on the Earth side. But only a few of us were drawn in from Earth, and other things were sucked in from Hell - Horrors like the one Willow and Buffy ran into, Hellhounds, a draco... a bunch of other things I can't identify yet. And so here we are."

Silence followed Angel's lecture for several moments. Then Willow spoke up. "Um, Angel, uh... not trying to sound skeptical, but how the he-- uh, that is, how on ear-- gee, I guess that's not right either..." She frowned for a second, and then started again. "How in Limbo do you *KNOW* all this?"

Angel smiled up at her. "I'm not quite sure. I just *know* somehow. It's as if a copy of 'All you ever wanted to know about Limbo but had no damn clue who to ask' got jammed into me." He grimaced.

"An uncomfortable feeling?" Willow asked, concern in her voice.

"One of several dozen I'm experiencing at the moment," Angel told her.

"Okay, well," Xander piped up. "Taking this mysterious knowledge at face value for the moment, what do we do now?"

"Scavenge neccessities from the abandoned town," Buffy said. "Food, water, power generators if we can get some over here. And anything else we need or can use. Meanwhile, those of us who are Watchers can try to figure out a way to get us out of Limbo."

"I think rest is a higher priority at the moment, Buffy," Tojo said. "We have been going on the adrenaline all night at least, and the human body needs time to recharge."

"Okay, sounds good to me," Buffy said. "Mom, Dad, you okay staying with Tojo, Cordy, and me at the Chase's?"

Joyce and Hank Summers shared a worried look. "Maybe you'd rather stay here, Mrs. Summers?" Willow offered.

* * * *

Meanwhile, at Kaliya's hideout, the hunters had returned.

"Quatorze!" Michelle expostulated, looking at the motley group of prisoners that had been gathered in the open room. "Fourteen humans between us. It weel not be enough for long, paticularement eef Madame weel need more blood to recover her strength."

"Actually, it should do fine," Rupert Giles broke in. Michelle jumped in shock; she had purposefully moved away from the vampire troops to do her ranting, but she hadn't realized that she had moved within earshot of the vampire ex-Watcher. His true face was showing, and without thinking Michelle let her own manifest as well.

"Qu'est-ce que tu dit?" she asked, then remembered to speak English. "What was it that you..."

"More than fine, in fact; I don't think we'll be needing all of the prisoners for feeding purposes," Giles continued. Michelle's mouth dropped open in shock at such utter nonsense. "Do you thirst right now, Michelle?" She started to answer him, but he cut her off. "I imagine you would enjoy a kill, and a good drink of blood, but do you really FEEL the blood-lust?"

"Ehh, non?" Michelle hazarded.

"Neither do I, and I fasted for a day before casting Kaliya's spell. That's significant. Many legends say that in Hell, a vampire's hunger is sated without blood, that the evil energies alone can sustain us. Surely the energies of Hell are with us also in this place."

"So," Michelle turned to gesture discretely at the prisoners, "if we do not need to feed at all, what shall we do with them?"

"A good question," Giles said, smiling and letting his fangs show. "We should leave them be for another day or two, until my hypothesis is proven. A few can be kept as special treats for Our Lady, or to be shared amongst ourselves. As for the rest..." he flicked his head briefly towards the outside of the hideout. "We will need more soldiers, ere long."

Michelle smiled too, at that. "Your friend Ethan is making a nuisance of himself with the troops, Monsieur Giles," she reported, changing the subject.

Giles considered a moment. "Well, he's worried. It's understandable. He didn't expect to get caught in any of this, and he's very aware of what these vampires could do to him." He noticed Michelle's frown. "I'll talk to him, Michelle. Reassure him that none of the troops are going to hurt him, or try to change him without his agreement." He fixed Michelle with a cold stare. "And they're not going to, are they Michelle?"

Michelle shrugged. "How is Madame doing?"

Giles's face became pensive again, and shifted into human semblance. "It is a puzzling and inexplicable weakness that has seized her," he admitted. "Unless you accept her belief that it is a consequence visited upon her by the demon Samael, which I confess I am beginning to. Regardless, I can only hope that she will show more strength soon."

"And?" Michelle inquired softly. "If she does not?" Giles paused in sudden shock, and then turned to look at her, a contemptuous expression on his face.

Act Four

Several hours later, (though the bizarre sky of Limbo was no brighter than it had been when they arrived,) Buffy walked up the stairs to the Rosenberg house, took out the spare key that Willow had given them, and went inside.

Angel was still spread out on the sofa. Oz was lying in the recliner, eyes closed, perhaps asleep. Angel opened his eyes and looked at Buffy as she came into the living room.

"Oz?" Buffy called softly. "Oz?" she repeated again, a bit more loudly.

"Yeah," Oz answered, eyes still closed.

"Um, are you awake?" Buffy asked.

Oz nodded. "That's affirmative, at this point." He opened one eye to consider Buffy.

"Um, I hate to ask this," Buffy said, "but could you, uh, leave us alone here for a few minutes?"

"Hmm." Oz considered. "If I don't, will you beat me up?"

Buffy laughed. "Uh, no. Just move you out of the living room as gently as possible."

"Well, as I understand my mandate, you're gonna have to."

"Fine." Buffy headed over to Oz's chair, quickly levered him out of it, and out into the den, where she let him lie down on an unoccupied sofa. Feeling somewhat silly, she headed back into the living room.

"So..." Buffy was at a loss for words. "How're you doing, Angel?"

"Feeling pretty strange," Angel answered her. "That's probably appropriate. You?"

"Um, surprisingly normal, come to think of it." Buffy laughed. "I guess after so many years of weirdness, it just ceases to seem weird for long." She smiled at Angel.

"Don't!" he snapped at her suddenly. Buffy blinked her eyes in surprise. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to startle you. It's just... when you smiled just then, it felt for a second like nothing had happened between us."

"And..." Buffy said uncertainly.

"I can't *afford* to feel that way, Buffy," Angel said slowly. "We can't just pick up where we left off, or anywhere even near where we left off. You do see that, don't you?"

"I guess," Buffy said. "But how can we just, just turn off these feelings. We tried to before, when you first came around, when I first found out you were a vampire. We couldn't do it. What makes you think we can this time?"

"We've got to!" Angel shot back. "Can you tell me that you can look at me and not see Angelus in me, not remember his threats to you, to your friends? Can you see me and not help but wonder what HE would do, right this second, if he got control again?"

"Uh, I guess not..."

"You've got to hold on to that image, Buffy," Angel continued relentlessly. "Remember Angelus, and that the best chance we have to stop anything that could bring him back is right here." Angelus paused, considering. "Did you see anyone else while I was gone?"

"Um, well, there was this one guy, but he turned out to be a demon assasin..." Buffy trailed off.

"And?" Angel prompted.

"I... well, that's none of your business!" Buffy said.

"It's Xander, isn't it?" A sudden blush invaded Buffy's face. "There was something between you as we came up out of the caves, something that wasn't being said. You had a fight, didn't you?"

"Well, yeah," Buffy spluttered. "I guess..."

"Make up with him," Angel whispered suggestively. "There's nothing between the two of us any more, that's for sure. There can't be. Enjoy life, Buffy." Angel grabbed her fingers in his own and looked into her eyes briefly. "Enjoy love. It's what I would do if I could."

"But," Buffy tried protesting again, "we're not really together li--"

"He's in the spare bedroom upstairs," Angel told her unperturbably. "Get on with you now!"

Buffy rose and headed out of the living room again. At the doorway she froze for a second. "Hi, Willow."

Willow smiled weakly back and waved at Buffy as she headed towards the staircase. Willow went into the living room, sat on an armchair, and considered Angel silently.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I think that was the most noble thing I've ever heard," Willow said.

Angel scoffed. "Hardly. I'm just doing what I have to do, to literally save my soul. There's no nobility in that."

"I disagree," Willow commented.

* * * *

Buffy knocked on the guest-room door. "Come in," Xander said.

She did. Xander had already gotten up and dressed again, and was in the middle of putting his shoes on. "Good morning," Xander said noncommitally, then did a double-take. "Except that it's not really morning, or evening, or... hmm."

Buffy smiled. "Good Limbo!" she declared exultantly.

Xander smiled back at her. "Good Limbo to you too, milady." He tied his last shoe with a flourish, rose to his feet, and then bowed chivalrously. "So, is this just a social call out of politeness, or do you have something to say to me?"

"I, uh, I thought we should talk about things again," Buffy started lamely.

"Hmm," Xander made a show of considering. "Well, the last talk we had didn't go so well for me, but what the hell, I'm a glutton for punishment. Lay it on me."

Great. Buffy struggled vainly with the words for a long time, and then, finding no better phrase, finally stumbled out with "Xander, do you... still, uh, like me?"

"What?" The word was like a gust of wind. "Of course I do... how could you even think otherwise?"

"Well, Cordy..."

"Do you really feel threatened by Cordelia??"

Buffy thought about that for only a heartbeat. "Well, yeah!" Xander looked at her in disbelief. "I mean, she's gorgeous, and the two of you have been known to share an irresistible mutual attraction, that you obviously followed to its natural conclusion the other night, unless I completely misread that situation. And I love you too, but I'm... me, and we've shared none of that. Of COURSE I feel threatened - why the hell wouldn't I?"

"Buffy! Oh, my god Buffy, were you really worried about that?"

"Yeah! And why not?"

"Because nothing's happening between me and Cordelia! Nothing that wasn't set in motion by her magic, that is."

"What?"

"What happened with Cordy, I didn't choose that, I didn't want it. She did... did something, I'm not sure what, but I didn't remember you, I was convinced that I loved her..." he broke off. "Listen to me, I must sound truly pitiful. 'The Hellmouth made me do it!'"

"No," Buffy allowed grudgingly, "you're actually almost sounding believable, which is an achievement considering how mad I am at you. But why did you go up to that hotel room in the first place?"

"Not to make time with her," Xander asserted firmly. "Probably because I was mad at you, and wanted to do something that you wouldn't be pleased with. Pretty stupid, huh?"

"Well, yeah."

"But you don't need to worry about Cordelia and me any more, as long as she doesn't bewitch me again. The natural attraction between us - it went away the day you told me you loved me," Xander said.

"Aww." Buffy smiled, then did a triple-take. "Wait just a second... the first time I told you I loved you was today."

"Uh, really?" Xander gulped.

"Yes! Except for a nightmare which does NOT count."

"No?" Xander squeaked.

"No." Suddenly Buffy laughed. "You lose your brownie points for that line, which were considerable, let me tell you."

"Okay," Xander said, sighing. Then he turned serious. "What do we do, Buff? About you and me... and, you know." He mimed Cordelia throwing a bolt of deadly something.

"I don't know," Buffy admitted. "We can't keep trying to sit on our feelings for each other, that's obvious."

"So, we sneak around and steal kisses whenever Cordy isn't looking?"

Buffy groaned.

"What else can we do?" Xander persisted.

"Okay," Buffy submitted. "I'm not strong enough to say no to you."

"Oh?" Xander grinned mischievously, "In that case, kiss me, Buffy!" He swept his arms around her, kissing her emphatically.

* * * *

Giles was sitting at Kaliya's bureau, paging through an arcane codex on dimensional sorceries, when Kaliya called out "Samael?"

Giles closed the book, about to go over to her when she continued "Samael speaks to me. He prophesies!"

Curious now, Giles quickly grabbed a pencil and a sheet of white paper. Kaliya didn't say any more for several second, but soon, she began reciting verse in a queer tone, and Giles quickly noted it down in shorthand:

In the town between worlds, it has begun;
He will birth untouched by the light of the sun.
From human's touch and vamp's body does he rise
And the future will show itself to his eyes.
Protected in youth by the chosen one,
But his childhood will go before fairly begun;
He'll grow to his age in the Vortex of Time,
And learn of the future contained in this rhyme.
For when he comes to Earth, he'll confirm in his power,
And lead a crusade 'gainst mortality's flower.
At his whim will evil's minions roam the land;
And the sun itself will dim at his command.

Giles picked up the sheet, shivered slightly, then stuck it in a narrow drawer and stood up to attend to Kaliya.