-I posted this on Slayerfanfic; would REALLY like reviews. There's a seperate thread, because it's a separate story. -nodnod- Believe me, it's long enough (81 pp in Word) to warrant its very own thread.-



Edit: Oh, noes! I forgot mah disclaimer! -disclaims; the characters and places and etc. etc. belong to the all-powerful Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy, may they have much money, lalala-



Willow looked around, surveying the damage. Apparently Wolfram and Hart had their own ways of clearing away post-battle debris--the dead demons were slowly disappearing.

Gunn lay on the ground, eyes closed, blood still coming out of his wound. Angel was having trouble standing, as was Spike. Fred--or whatever her new name was--leaned against a wall. She also had a chest wound. Willow moved to her first.

"It will be fine," Fred--it--told her, snapping her eyes open. "It isn't mortal. It will heal." Willow tried not to gasp. The new eyes were icy blue, another physical change.

She knew that Angel and Spike would be fine, eventually. They had the quick vampire healing that had to be useful.

"We'd probably better go," she said uncomfortably. Powerful witch and friend of the Slayer or not, dark alleyways that had just held an apocalyptic battle still made her nervous.

What was left of Angel, Inc. (along with Willow) walked slowly into the Hyperion. No one new had bothered renting out the old hotel (which wasn't a big surprise), and Willow unlocked the doors.

Illyria walked in, already feeling stronger. Angel and Spike came in much more slowly, Angel limping behind the younger vamp. Willow followed them, anxiously looked around outside, and closed the door.

"What the hell happened?" she asked. "Where's everyone else?"

"Gunn's dead, and so's Wes," Angel told her.

"Okay, but, what about the green guy? And, what about Cordy?" Illyria looked at her.

"Do you mean Lorne and Cordelia?"

"Yeah, and what's with your hair, and your eyes--Fred, you've changed."

"Don't you know?" Spike wheezed a little, then stood upright.

"This is Illyria, Red. Big scary demon, but we've pretty much defanged her. Lorne wimped out and ran off, and Cordy is..." At that, Spike trailed off, looking at Angel. "You want to tell her, mate, or should I?"

"Cordelia's dead, Willow." Angel looked at the witch.

"Oh." She thought about that for a moment. "I'm sorry," she said softly.

Cordelia had tormented her from elementary school on up, been a snobby bitch until she became attracted to Xander, but still... She'd known Cordelia since elementary school. She was safe and familiar, not exactly a friend, but something pretty darn close. And to think that she was dead...

Most of the original Scoobies were gone. Oz ran off somewhere after he found out about Tara, Giles kept abandoning them, even some of the older Scoobies were gone--Anya and Tara. And now Cordy... Oh, goddess, when does it end?

"So, um... What happened to Fred?"

"She died when Illyria possessed her." Illyria curiously looked at Willow, cocking her head to one side.

"Okay. So, um, we need to find everyone else. Can you teleport, Illyria?"

"You do not find this strange?"

"No, well, not really."

"Yes. I can teleport."

"Can you take others with you?"

"Yes. I can take Angel or Spike, but not both."

"Okay. Um, I guess I'll take Angel."

Illyria looked warily at Spike. "Do not talk. Where will we go?"

"To Cleveland."

"What's in Cleveland, Red?" Spike asked as they started to group together.

"The Hellmouth."

"Oh, not again," she heard him groan while she teleported away with Angel.

Cleveland

"You live here?" Angel looked around the tiny hotel room.

"No... We just work out of here sometimes. Like when we teleport but don't want to be traced." Willow looked into the bathroom.

"Kennedy must be with the others already."

"Still with the little Slayer, Red?" Spike's eye glittered.

"Yeah." For some reason that Illyria and Angel didn't quite understand, Willow blushed.

"How's Buffy?"

"Oh, she's great! Sorry that she missed you--Andrew told her that you guys had been by the place while they were in Rome."

"And what did dear old Buffy think of the Immortal?"

"That he was boring," Willow said without thinking.

"Who is Buffy?" asked Illyria. "The Slayer," replied Spike.

"Oh. A Slayer. Did you love her?"

"Yes," replied Spike. Angel snorted.

"What, I did love her!" Spike protested.

"Yeah, sure," Angel said.

"I thought we were done with this!"

"Sure, why not?" said Angel, shrugging. Willow ignored them. Illyria stared at them for a moment, then turned to Willow.

"Where are we going to now?"

"To England. We'll have to teleport again."

"I am ready." Willow lowered her voice.

"You think we could just leave them here?"

"Why?"

"Never mind. You're not much with the humor, are you?"

"I--I do not understand."

"Never mind."

The four of them were in London. Faith had met them there. "Hey, Angel."

"Faith."

"Willow, we need to go. Something's coming, something big." "Faith, what--"

"I don't know, but we need to go. Giles was in the huge books again, started turning funny colors. B read the translations, and she started getting really pale. Right now, getting to shelter seems like a good idea."

"Whoa, Faith. Wait a minute. Where are we going?" Faith stared at Spike.

"Does it matter?"

"Um--"

"No," Angel intervened, cutting off what would be a stinging, sarcastic reply on Spike's part.

Spike glared. Great pouf. Always too unwilling to say anything unpopular, but too willing to try and be dusted.

"Come on. We can hole up at Giles's place."

"Wait. Kennedy--"

"Kennedy's there, too. Everyone around here is. Great big crowded place--reminds me of prison." Faith shook her head, trying to clear the thought.

"So... Giles, Buffy, Kennedy and Andrew?"

"And Dawn. She's on a break, so she came out."

"Okay. What about Wood? He was supposed to be watching her." Faith shook her head again, smiling a little.

"Didn't want to stick around for some reason."

"I can't imagine why," Spike muttered.

"You are the rogue slayer?" Illyria stared at Faith for a minute.

"No... Just one of the slayers now. What's with the new look?"

"She's a demon! Bloody hell, do I need a recording to play back?" Spike burst out, exasperated.

"Hey, calm down, Dead boy."

"Oh, good God. You've been talking to Xander." Spike threw up his hands in annoyance.

"Faith, what about the Hellmouth?"

"What?" She stared blankly at Willow for a moment.

"The one in Cleveland."

"Oh. Not exactly sure, but come on." Angel looked around. Whatever was going on, if it was enough to worry Faith, it had to be bad.

"Willow," he said to calm down the witch. It was quiet for a moment.

"Let's go," Faith said to the group in general. They all followed Willow and Faith back to Giles's house.

They all arrived at Giles's house in what seemed like no time at all.

Willow, Illyria, and Faith went in quickly. Angel knew what was coming and stopped at the door. Spike tried to follow the girls, but was bounced back.

"Bloody hell!" he exploded. "You haven't been invited, pointed out Angel.

"What? Oh... Right." Willow smiled a little, and the other three kept on going.

"Hey--what's going on?" Spike looked after them. "Are they going to get Giles, then?"

"Either that or to find some pissed off Slayers," Angel said. Ever since Andrew had told them that the others didn't trust them... He'd just been waiting for some Slayer or another to come to Wolfram and Hart and dust them both.

Spike looked around anxiously. "Sunlight's coming on fast, mate," he pointed out. Angel nodded.

Willow and Giles came back to the door, with Faith behind them. "I take it that you both have your souls," he said calmly.

"I don't want to shove a railroad spike through your head, and I doubt that Angel here wants to rip out your throat." Angel shook his head, agreeing with Spike.

"Fine. I shouldn't do this, not after everything else, but I invite you into my home." Spike and Angel stepped into the house, Spike slamming the door behind him.

"Sunrise," he explained to a startled Giles.

"Of course. I've been curious, Spike... How did you manage your resurrection?"

"Oh, wasn't that hard... Amulet went to Angel, I exploded out of it, lots of popping between dimensions, science girl Fred nearly fixed it all, but I had to save her too... Evil ex-lawyer that wanted Angel dead made me corporeal again... Nothing no one else hasn't done," he shrugged.

Giles was even more startled by all of this than he had been by the door slamming. "Yes. I--I suppose not," he mumbled to Spike.

"Right, then. Where's the niblet?"

"Dawn's in the living room," Faith told Spike. "You can go in too."

"Despite the contradiction? Undead in the living room? Fine, fine..." Spike walked off.

Angel looked at Spike. "Do you guys have anything on Wolfram and Hart besides the obvious?"

"Um, no, but the Watchers are working on it."

"Okay. Where's Buffy?"

"Angel, I wouldn't," intervened Faith. "She's not in a talking mood."

"Why? What happened?"

"Someone tried to kill Dawn the other night," Willow said softly.

"That's happened before. What's so different about it this time?"

Angel could tell it was something, something big... "It was Riley."

Spike walked into the living room. "Hey, little Bit," he greeted Dawn.

"Spike!" she turned around. "Did Willow get you all out okay?"

"Yeah. We're all fine."

"Angel came too?" asked Dawn, suddenly suspicious.

"Yeah. Wait--Niblet--" he turned around as the young, to-be Watcher sped past him, grabbing a stake on the way.

Angel looked at Willow. "Riley did what?"

"He found out that Dawn was the key. Came back, spouting off stuff about falsified memories, screwing everyone's minds." Angel winced, thinking of Connor for a moment. "So, he came back and tried to cut her throat."

"That's not really a good reason," pointed out Angel. Willow nodded, then her eyes widened at something behind him.

"Dawn, no!" At the same time, Spike grabbed the stake that was in Dawn's hand.

"Dawn, what?" Angel turned around and figured out what was going on. "Dawn, why--"

"Because she was scared," interrupted Buffy, coming down the stairs.

"Buffy!" Dawn dropped the stake.

"Dawnie." Buffy walked over to her little sister. "Go back into the living room. I'll fill you in when this is all over." Dawn walked back, sulking a little.

"Still won't let her grow up?" asked Spike.

"You could've called," Buffy said sadly.

"'M sorry," mumbled Spike. Angel smirked. The little blonde had been so sure that Buffy would welcome him with open arms...

"You could've said something, too," she shot at Angel. The smirk faded.

"What was I supposed to say, love? Sorry I blew up saving the world, someone brought me back, and now I'm working with Angel's evil law firm. For a while, I couldn't even leave Los Angeles. "

"You guys are that close with souls?" Buffy crossed her arms skeptically.

"No. I literally couldn't leave Angel. Some spell or something. And I was noncorporeal for a while... Then some guy fixed it... Then we were busy saving the world."

"That old excuse." Buffy smiled a little.

"Besides," sniffed Spike. "You were making friends well enough in Rome. The Immortal and all..." Spike let his voice trail off, not exactly sure what he wanted to say.

"Well, um... You know, I don't have to explain myself here."

"No, love, you don't." Spike grinned. That was as good as her acknowledging that she had something to explain.

They all stood around in silence for a few more moments. "So, what's going on, apocalypse-wise?" Spike changed the subject.

Angel crossed his arms, listening. "Prophecy. Big trouble on hellmouths all over, lots of people dying, hell on earth... Nothing we haven't already fixed."

"Can we do anything about it? Take any kind of steps?" Buffy wrinkled her nose at Angel.

"You'd better stay away from California--probably the whole U.S. At least until you've given the Senior Partners time to--"

"Time to regroup? Time to kill us again?" Angel and Spike didn't even turn around. Neither one of them had heard Illyria behind them, sensed her at all, in fact. But that didn't mean anything anymore.

"Who are you?" Buffy gaped at the new person, blue streaks, cold voice, and all.

"I am Illyria. You must be the Slayer."

"Yeah, I was last I checked. One of many."

"The one that the half-breeds love."

"I guess so," Buffy agreed.

"This is Illyria, Buffy."

"Kind of already got the point." Buffy stood there, looking at them all for a minute. She took it all in--they were all so different. Spike was so different, and Angel--she wondered what had happened in LA.

"I'd better go check on Dawn. See how she's..." Her voice trailed off, going up the stairs after her sister.

"Well, now. Wasn't that interesting," drawled Spike.

"What?" Angel uncrossed his arms, turning to look at him.

"You couldn't hear it? Okay. First off, Soldier Boy tries to kill the niblet. Knows what she is, now. 'Bout the memories. Second off, Dawnie still doesn't trust you, or practically anyone that hurt her sister."

"She trusts you," pointed out Angel.

"I'm different. I'm Spike. She had a crush on me. Plus, I never left town or turned evil. I always was evil. Also, I never tried killing the girl unless I was possessed."

Angel looked down, remembering his time as Angelus. Terrorizing Buffy's family, including her little sister... "Okay, point taken." His voice was starting to lower. "What else?"

"Prophecy. Some new and strange prophecy. Plus, Hellmouths. Plural form, Peaches. Means there isn't just the one in Cleveland. And, she's worried about our safety." Spike smirked a little at that, while Faith rolled her eyes.

"Okay. So, from the half hour we've been in England, you've learned all of this?"

"Yeah, plus the Senior Partners probably want us in a hell dimension for all of eternity, but I figured that out in LA."

"Are you guys sure that he meant Dawn?"

"What do you mean?"

"Riley. Talking about the false memories... Are you sure that he was talking about Dawn?"

"He was sure, Angel. Waving a knife in her face, trying to cut her throat, screaming at her--about the hellspawn--" Faith stopped, frowned.

"But Dawn's not hellspawn."

Angel paled for a moment. "Maybe he meant she wasn't created on Earth."

"Yeah. Maybe." Faith wasn't satisfied with that, though, anymore than Angel would've been.

"Anyway, why ask?"

"Just curious. I've heard that they did memory spells at Wolfram and Hart, I was just hoping I didn't cause it."

"No, it was definitely Dawn. As far as he knew, anyway."

"Which doesn't actually prove anything," Giles entered the conversation.

"We can do research," Willow pointed out brightly. Spike winced a little.

"More books, red?"

"Well, sure." She toned her brightness down a little as she looked around the room. "Well, it could be fun," she said in self-defense.

Angel walked through Giles's house. "Good." He picked up the phone and started dialing. He punched in the numbers for an overseas call, then got through to the Los Angeles operator.

"Hi... Is there a listing for the Reilly family?" He waited, listened. "Yeah. Um, Lawrence Reilly."

He waited for a few more moments while the call went through. A male picked up the phone. "Connor?"

"Yeah?"

"It's me. Angel." Relief flooded his voice. Connor had made it out safely too.

"Dad. Where are you? The phone sounds all distorted..."

"I'm... I'd better not say. What's wrong?"

"They don't know me any more."

"What?"

"My family doesn't know me. My girlfriend doesn't know me, my family doesn't know me... The school has no record of me."

Angel was silent.

"Dad?"

"I'm here."

"What's going on?"

"I... We fought with Wolfram and Hart."

"They were the evil law firm, right?"

"Yeah."

"The one that you were working for?"

"Right."

"Okay. What's that have to do with my family? They weren't involved."

"Son, we wouldn't have taken the job with Wolfram and Hart... If there wasn't a reason."

"Yeah, so?"

Connor looked around the kitchen in his house. He knew that the memories were false--but they were his. It was his house. On some other level, it wasn't, but...

"Dad?"

"You remember what everything was like in the other reality?"

"The real one? Yeah, I remember... I was psychopathic." Angel winced.

"Um, that's a way of putting it."

"Well, I was."

"The point is, I had us take this job on the condition that you'd get a better life... A life like anyone should have."

"A normal life."

"Yeah."

"And now that you don't work for Wolfram and Hart anymore, I don't have my normal life anymore."

"It looks that way." There was silence on both ends of the phone line.

"Can you pick me up? There's nothing here for me anymore."

"I..." He didn't want to tell his son that he was a half a world away. "I'll come as soon as I can." He hung up the phone.

"Connor, huh?" Faith uncrossed her arms as Angel whirled around.

"Faith!"

"Couldn't even smell me?"

"Obviously not."

"Leave one of your boys behind in L.A.?"

"Connor... Yeah. He got left behind at his house."

"Didn't know lawyers needed their own houses."

"He wasn't with the firm."

"How're you planning on getting back? Wolfram and Hart's going to be hunting the whole city for you guys." Angel stopped. His mind had been going full speed, but hadn't even considered that.

"I was going to have Willow teleport with me."

"Willow, huh? You know, her magic blow out a few years ago is still hitting her pretty hard."

"Magic blow out?"

"Yeah. When Tara died, she went all evil apparently. Tried to destroy the world."

"Tara?"

"Her former girlfriend. One of the dweebs bugging them shot at Buffy and hit Tara with some stray bullet. Really pissed off Will. She tried to destroy the world--Xander had to stop her."

"Huh." He digested that.

"Anyway, she's still not all permanently happy about magic. She got better after we closed down Sunnydale, but..." Faith shook her head. "Damn. I guess it was really bad." Angel nodded.

"But there's no other way around it. Wolfram and Hart affected the memories of his parents, and--"

"Whoa. Angel, the kid's got parents? Isn't he a little young to be involved with all this?"


"Let's just say he's special."

"Special. Sure."

"Willow and I can go in and get him, be back here before anyone even knows we've left."

"Except maybe the evil lawyers that want to kill you."


"Faith... There's no way around it. I've got to get him out of there." She shrugged.

"Okay. When you consider that Xander's the youngest one around, and Giles is the next youngest, I'm all for new blood."

Angel winced. Faith and Connor?

"Let's go find Will. See what the good witch has to say." Faith left the kitchen. Angel grudgingly followed her.

Willow looked at Angel. Faith had explained all that she knew... But that couldn't be all of it. There were too many holes. Most importantly, just who was this Connor person? He had to be pretty darn important, but why?

Not that it mattered. She'd go back with him... Hopefully wouldn't go all brunette along the way.

"Okay."

"Then let's go." His face was set, determined... Whoever Connor was, he was important to Angel. More important than most of his other people.

Illyria followed them. "Angel. You go to find your son?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Son?" Willow stopped to pull around Angel. "No one said anything about a son, mister! And I thought that vampires couldn't have kids!"

"Illyria. Secret, remember?" Illyria cocked her head slightly.

"But... These are your friends. Were their memories changed too?"

"What?"

"Willow, not now. Illyria, not now. Willow, we need to get Connor out of Los Angeles before the Senior Partners do something terrible to him, okay?"

"Connor is your son?" She'd lowered her voice, but wasn't going to let it go.

"Yes, okay?"

"Does Buffy know?"

"No! No, and she can't find out."

"Connor is the child of Angel and Darla."

"Angel and Darla? This was when?"

He sighed. Willow wasn't going to let him go around this. "Wolfram and Hart resurrected Darla as a human to make me turn evil. When she was dying, they had Drusilla sire her. And... I went through a dark time. I slept with Darla. And... There was a prophecy. She had a child."

"Why do we not remember this?"

"He had a spell cast to alter the memories of everyone but himself, for the sake of his child." Willow stared at Angel.

"So Riley was probably talking about Connor, and he didn't know it."

"Yes. He got his memories back this year. Look, Willow, please..."

"So, why did Wolfram and Hart change things back?"

"That was the condition. We'd take over their firm... If they'd give Connor a normal life. Something else happened to change that."

"So, no more Angel... No more normal life."

He nodded. Illyria looked at them for a moment longer, then walked away.

"And now that nothing's there for your son..."

"We may as well help him. I don't want Wolfram and Hart working their kind of magic on him. They could. What he was before... You don't want to see that again, Willow."

"Again?" Angel cursed himself for the slip. "I've met him?"

"You and Faith. No one else from Sunnydale. Everyone else that knew him is dead... Except Lorne, of course. Wes, Gunn, Fred... Cordy."

"Okay. So, the idea is to rescue your son?"

"Yes." "Fine. But you need to tell Buffy... And everyone else."

"I will, Willow... Soon." She eyed him for a minute, not believing it. But she didn't have much choice in the matter, so she let it go. They walked outside of Giles's house and teleported back to Los Angeles.

Angel and Willow reappeared behind Connor's house. "It's okay, no one's here," she reassured him.

"Good. I'm going to go and get him."

"I'll come with you." He looked at her questioningly. "We can pretend to be his parents."

He stared at her a little more.

"Well, it's only half a lie!" He finally shrugged, getting ready to go around the house. She walked beside him.

He rang the doorbell. Lawrence Reilly opened it. "Hello. Do I know you?"

"Angel--I'm Connor's father."

"Oh, good. He came into the house... It was quite frightening. Apparently he had some kind of an accident?"

"Yes. He was in a car crash a few days ago. We haven't heard from him since then. His mother and I have been terribly worried."

"This is his mother?"

"Oh... Yes. This is Willow. Willow--" he stopped, realizing that he'd forgotten her last name. She picked up on it quickly.

"Willow Rosenburg."

"Ah. Yes. He's in the kitchen. If you'll come this way, please?" Lawrence led them through the house, though Angel could've found Connor from the doorway on his own.

"Son! I've been so worried!"

"Hey, dad." Connor leaned on the kitchen counter.

"And your mother's been worried too."

Angel shot a warning glare at Connor before turning and gesturing to Willow. "Hi," she squeaked.

"I'm glad you're okay, Connor." "Sure. Thanks, da--Mr. Reilly. I'm sorry if I freaked you out."

"It's fine, fine. Go on. You just get better. Take care of him, Mr. Angel. I can just tell that your son must be a fine young man. I'm sure you're proud of him."

"Very proud," said Angel softly, as he watched Connor's face.

Willow, Angel, and Connor all arrived in Giles's backyard.

Connor looked around, disoriented. "Where are we?"

"We're in Britain... We're at Giles's house." Angel looked carefully at his son, trying to see how he felt. The last thing that he wanted was for Connor to go back to a homicidal rage, due to his family...

Willow looked between them, then decided to leave them alone. Angel and Connor needed to catch up, for whatever reason. She'd go back into the house.

She climbed the steps to the porch, barely looking at the driveway. She was so tired.... Goddess, she just wanted to sleep. But if Riley came back, she wouldn't be able to wake up again fast enough.

She opened the door and walked in. The house was dark, and quieter than it had been. She frowned a little. Her danger senses might not be as highly tuned as those of a slayer, but they were still pretty good.

She started to call out Buffy's name, but thought better of it. She flipped on a light switch--the room was empty. Her frown got larger as she walked through the living room.

Then she relaxed. There were voices coming from the kitchen. She started to walk through, when something belatedly kicked in. One of those voices was Riley Finn.

Her eyes narrowed, and she kept going forward. It was Riley, all right... Riley and someone else... Faith?

"Look, I can't do much, okay?" Willow leaned against the wall and listened. "I don't know where they went, and even if I did, I wouldn't tell you."

"Look, Faith. I don't like you."

"Really? And here I thought that I was tied to a chair because you wanted kinks."

Willow tried not to laugh. It was pure Faith--but if Riley got irritated by her, there was nothing to prevent him from doing something about it.

"All I want to know is where Dawn is."

"She's not here. They all left. I was getting ready to go somewhere else when you came."

"I don't believe you." Riley stopped for a moment, then yelled, "I don't believe you!"

Willow winced. Whatever she'd seen the other day, added with this.... Something was seriously wrong with Riley. And as much as she wanted to help Faith, first she had to hide Angel and Connor. Then she'd be back for Faith... And then she'd have a long talk with Riley Finn.

Connor and Angel looked at each other in an uncomfortable silence.

"So... You beat that guy," Connor finally said.

"Yeah."

"That's good."

They stood there for a few more minutes.

"What happened, exactly?"

"I went home, like you told me. It took a while to get there. And I thought that I lost the key, but I guess that it just disappeared..."

He trailed off for a moment, shaking his head. "The door was locked, so I had to ring the doorbell. Da--Mr. Reilly came to the door, and opened it. I knew something was wrong when he asked me who I was and why I was there."

"So, then what?"

"I asked a few questions, just testing him. He didn't remember a thing. I told him I'd been in some kind of an accident, and asked if I could use his phone."

"So, you went to the phone?"

"Yeah. Only you called before I could figure out how to get in touch with you."

Angel nodded uncomfortably. He hadn't known that taking out the Black Thorn would destroy why he'd taken the job in the first place--Connor's normal life. Then again, was it worth it? Connor was still well-balanced, and could remember the past. And they'd managed to hurt the Senior Partners....

"Guys!" Willow came rushing back out of the house, breathless. "I've got to take you somewhere else."

"What's wrong?" Angel was curious.

Connor, on the other hand, looked at Willow. He could remember her from when she had come to Los Angeles in order to re-ensoul Angelus. She didn't know that, of course. And at the time, he'd behaved like a real jerk to her. But now that he could see her again, and remember what she was like... She seemed really cool. And she was powerful, too.

"Riley's back."

Angel crossed his arms and began to glower. "Is he, now?"

"Yeah. Faith's the only one still here. I'll come back for her. But you two need to go."

"Who's Riley?" Connor looked between the two of them.

"One of Buffy's ex-boyfriends," Angel told him. "He doesn't like me."

"Why?"

"I'm a vampire."

Connor thought on that for a moment or two. He could kind of understand how Riley felt on the matter--he'd felt the same way, a long time ago. Didn't make it any dumber.

"Maybe I could talk to him."

"No." Angel's tone was about two octaves lower than it had been earlier, and Connor knew better than to argue with him about it.

Willow looked between the two of them. She wasn't sure exactly what was going on, and she'd have to ask one of them about it later. Or maybe Illyria, since she seemed to know a lot about Connor.

She shrugged. Now wasn't the time.

"Let's go."

"Where to?"

"Buffy's old place in Rome."

"Buffy.... She's the other Slayer, isn't she?" Connor asked immediately before they shimmered away. When they came back, in Rome, Angel answered him.

"Yes."

"Well, there's actually a lot of Slayers now... But hey, when did you hear about Buffy?"

Angel and Connor exchanged a quick look.

"From Angel," he said quickly. "He just won't stop talking about her."

Willow nodded, not that she believed a word of it. From what she'd seen, Angel still cared about Buffy--but not in the way that he used to. She wasn't sure who was best for Buffy anymore... Angel had grown away, Riley was, well, kind of insane. And Spike? She hadn't even known that he was alive for quite a while.

Of course, the Immortal was completely wrong. But Willow was next-to-positive, from what Buffy had said before, that she was just using him again. Kind of like she'd used Spike after she came back from heaven. Willow buried the tiny twinge of guilt she felt at that. They hadn't known--they couldn't have known.

"I've got to go and find Faith," she announced, teleporting back to England. And maybe when she came back, she'd finally be able to get some sleep... Then again, all things considered, probably not.

Buffy looked up as her door swung open. Behind her, Dawn raised a crossbow. It was Angel and another, younger, male. He looked about Dawn's age.

"Took you long enough." She stood up, pushing down Dawn's crossbow.

"Got a little sidetracked." He stepped in through the doorway, the boy lingering behind him.

"That's Connor?" She pointed.

"Yeah."

"Out of curiosity, Angel, why didn't you need an invite?" Angel winced. Spike had probably remembered that Buffy didn't know they'd been here, and faked it. But Andrew had invited them in, and obviously hadn't bothered revoking permission....

"Um."

"Can I come in?" Buffy shifted her attention to Connor.

"That depends. Are you a vampire?"

"Of course not." He looked disgusted by the idea.

"Then--" Buffy was interrupted by Dawn brushing past her. She held a cross up against Connor's face.

"Dawn!" She was shocked.

"If he's really not a vamp, it won't hurt him."

Connor stared at the cross, at the pretty girl in front of him, then at the cross again. Smiling a little, he grabbed the cross from her hand, holding it in his own.

"No sizzling," he told her. She nodded, still unconvinced.

"Prove it. Prove it some other way."

From behind them, she heard Buffy sigh exasperatedly. She was getting sick of Dawn's preoccupation with "vamprevention," making sure that no one was a vamp before they came into the house.

Connor stared at the girl for a moment. She was smart. He could still remember once, in some other reality, when Angel had been able to hold a cross, even though it burnt like hell... "Could you please move?" he asked her. She stepped aside.

"Here." He walked into the apartment.

"That doesn't prove anything. Angel just came in with no invitation."

"Actually, I've been here before. Andrew let me in." Dawn turned around to glare at him, before switching the glare to Connor.

"Fine. Obviously you aren't a vamp. What if you're a vengeance demon?"

Connor stared at her. "A what?"

"A vengeance demon."

"Oh, this is ridiculous. I wish Connor wasn't a vengeance demon," said Buffy.

He just stared at them blankly.

“See? Not a vengeance demon.�

He glanced at them warily once again, before stepping around them to Angel. “Are they always this weird?�

“No. Usually they’re worse.�

Dawn shut the door and stalked off to her room in a huff. Spike heard the door slam and came out from—somewhere.

“Ah, the great pouf has returned! Along with the boy wonder. Well, can’t talk long, gentlefolk. I’m going to go and comfort the niblet. You’ve upset her, so now I’ve got to find her a stake. Just the right kind to shove through your heart when you go inevitably evil again.� With that, he left the room again.

“He’s in a good mood.�

“I’ve seen him in better ones. Spill it, mister. When were you and Andrew here?�

Angel winced. This wasn’t going to go well… “I was actually here with Spike.�

“Okay… Why were you and Spike here?�

“We heard about the Immortal, and thought that you could use some help.�

“What!?� Her voice started rising, along with her temper.

“Well, we’d tangled with him before, and thought that he might be hurting you.�

Her expression softened, just a bit—but he still noticed it. At that, he relaxed—just a bit.

Willow teleported back into the house, making sure to avoid knocking over any lamps.

"Look, soldier-boy, I don't know where Dawn is. I don't know where your key is. In fact, I really don't know where anything is in here. This is Giles's place. Giles. The Watcher. The G-man, get it? Not mine."

"Shut up! If you can't find Dawn, you're useless to me! I need the key!"

Willow heard hitting noises coming from the kitchen and thought fast. Riley was in there, and he was pretty strong--and pretty pissed off. But she was a pretty powerful witch! She could deal with anything Riley through at her--she hoped.

She dashed around the corner, hitting Riley with a spell that blew him over backwards. Faith tried to look around at her.

"Will? Please tell me that's you."

Willow resisted the urge to tell her that it wasn't her. All the badness between she and Faith was in the past... Just not far enough, as far as she was concerned.

She moved quickly to Faith before Riley could get up. She started untying the rope that Riley had hurriedly shoved together, trying to take care of Faith before she tried to make a run for it.

"Go! Wait for me. I know where to go," she hissed. Faith didn't need much more encouragement--she dashed out of the kitchen, figuring that if anyone could handle him, Willow could.

"Willow."

Riley carefully stood up. "Stay there, mister!" Willow pointed at his corner angrily.

"Look, I don't know what's wrong with you--"

"Willow. Listen to me. There's something going on here. Something--" he stopped, staring at the ground. Then he looked back up and cocked his head to the side. "The little soldier's trying to fight me. You know how hard that is."

Willow backed away instinctively. The accent, the attitude--it all screamed Drusilla. Wicca or not, she didn't want to tangle with the crazy vampire. She silently cursed Angel--Angelus--for driving her insane before siring her.

"I've got him under a spell. He's mine now. Killed his pretty little bird, I did. She tasted like cherries... And now I want my key. She'll open hell worlds, bring me my playground." Riley smiled.

"The little soldier shouldn't have tried to fight me. Made it worse, he did. Ooh--and now it's all such a nasty song, and such a horrible dance. I can't bear to watch! But I'm leader."

"Dru... Dawn only opened the hellworld for Glory. She isn't a key anymore."

"The Slayer's sister? Not a key?" Riley backed up suddenly and hissed at Willow.

"Then it's all for nothing, and why do I want the soldier? Not like my brave knight. Not like my Angelus. But they all crawl before the Slayer, all cower to please her..." Riley stopped, then smiled again.

"The key talks. She's changing it all. Ooh... She's going to make everything beautiful again, going to bring my family back together." He clapped his hands.

"I'm done with the little fighter. You can have him back now," whispered Riley. He started to slump over, but Willow still heard him breathe, "Ooh. Here he comes."

Willow looked at him for a moment. He was crumpled in a pile on the ground, unconscious to the world. She wasn't sure if he'd been trying to impersonate Drusilla, in order to get her closer... But it was worth the risk. If it had been Dru... And what she'd said had been true...

She walked to Riley, then felt a sharp pain in the stomach.

"Faith! I need your help! Come back here!" she yelled, her voice echoing inside of her head. Faith came back to the kitchen--swam back through the swirling kitchen--and everything was spinning--

"Take hold of Riley," gasped out Willow. "I'm going to get us to Buffy.... Riley was possessed by Drusilla..." Faith looked like she was in as much pain as Willow, but obeyed. Willow's hair was turning darker, and her skin was turning paler.

She grabbed Riley's arm in one hand, and Willow's arm in the other... They shimmered away, leaving behind Giles's wrecked kitchen. Willow got them to Rome, right before everything faded to black....

Xander walked into Buffy's house. They were never going to guess who he'd found... "Huh." That was strange. The door was locked. Luckily, he still had his spare key.

"How's Willow doing?" He didn't turn around to look at the other. This was the first time that he'd mentioned Willow... Not that he was very talkative...

"She's doing well."

"She happy with Tara?" Xander turned around just as the key twisted, opening the door.

"Tara's dead." Shaking his head at the other's incredulousness, he turned back to the doorway.

What was stranger, the room was dark. From what Buffy'd said in the phone call, he'd expected it to be full of people--and demons of the souled variety--running all over the place, preparing for a battle.

He reached over to flip on the switch beside the doorway. The room lit up, showing Angel, Buffy, and some other boy--Codfish? Nah, no one would name their kid Codfish... Connor! That was it--lying unconscious on the ground.

"Buffy?" Xander rushed over to her, feeling for a pulse. Deadboy was obviously still--well--dead, or rather, undead, otherwise he'd be in ash form. Who knew what Connor was? Buffy was alive.

"You said an apocalypse was coming?" The other stepped into the room, taking in the sight before him.

"May have come and gone by now. But it'd be a shame if we missed it." Xander stood up.

Oz stared around. "Just like Sunnydale."

Oz walked through the house, not really knowing where he was going. He stopped when he saw someone starting to move around.

"Xander? Dawn," he called. He stepped around the other, motionless body on the floor--looked kind of like Spike--to get to Dawn.

"What--Oz?"

"Xander, she's waking up!" he yelled into the other room... Whichever other room Xander happened to be in. He heard footsteps coming quickly.

"What happened?" Xander was in the doorway, staring at the odd picture in front of him.

"Um... I cast a spell, and then my stomach hurt really badly, and then I got knocked out somehow."

"What kind of a spell? Dawnie, spells don't go well for us, remember?"

"I... I didn't want something to happen to me again like it did with Riley! So Spike and I cast a spell to try and be able to tell which of our friends was evil." She looked at the vampire lying on the floor.

"I guess... I guess he got knocked out, too. And why's Oz here?"

"I found him."

"Was this the spell?" Oz looked at a nearby book and bent down to pick it up.

"Yeah. It's from one of Giles's books. My translation was pretty good... I think."

Oz read through the spell, then looked up. "The spell's to change people into their worst selves."

"Whoa, what?" Xander reached over to grab the book from Oz. He tried to read it, then gave up.

Dawn turned about two shades paler. "Then... Then who..."

"This isn't going to be good."

"No, it really isn't. Hey, wait--why didn't you and I get hit?"

"You're always good," Dawn told Xander.

"And Oz isn't my friend. You haven't been around for five years. For all we knew, you were dead. Obviously I didn't think of you."

Oz was quietly impressed. (How else would Oz be impressed?) Dawn had grown up pretty quickly--then again, as a Scooby, growing up at a normal rate wasn't really an option.

"Dawnie. Is there anyway to undo the spell?"

"I'll need someone to help me... And I'll need to find the undoing spell." Spike started to stir.

"Dawn, can I suggest we move? Bad Spike with no chip is not something I'm in any mood to contend with again. Is there a faster way? Something we can smash?"

"I don't know," she confessed.

Oz read through it quickly. "To break the spell, all you have to do is go to page twenty..." he flipped through the book. "Which has been torn out."

"Is there any other way?"

Oz looked back at it. "Yeah, but..."

"Spill, Oz! Now isn't silent time!"

"Kill the caster."

At that, Dawn turned paler.

"So we'll find page twenty. Who's book is this?"

"It's Giles's... But Willow has a copy."

"Dawnie. Right now, we need to face the facts that Willow has probably turned brunette again."

Dawn's face was quickly turning white. She remembered the last time that Willow had been bad... She'd nearly destroyed the world.

Xander suddenly stopped, looking out into the living room. "Dawnie... For God's sake, tell me that you don't consider Angel to be a friend."

"I... I don't know."

"So we've got Angelus, William the Bloody, brunette Willow, the Ripper, maybe psycho Faith, your sister on a mood swing, and whatever Codfish out there is on a bad day? Dawn, please tell me you haven't made friends with any other demons."

Dawn eyed him, deciding not to bring up Anya.

"On the plus side, no werewolf," pointed out Oz.

"That's true..."

Spike moaned. Dawn looked at him, then jumped away.

"And now is when I say we leave the building, ladies and gentlemen," Xander announced.

"Where are we going to go?" Dawn's voice started rising.

"Angel and Spike can track us... They know our scent..."

"Dawn. There's my van, outside. They don't know it. It's new. We can take that."

Oz looked to Xander for approval. He wasn't quite sure who was in charge, but it probably wasn't him.

"Then let's go, before Spike version 5.0 wakes up. Or Angel version whatever he is by now."

The three of them ran outside. After Oz got the van started, Dawn asked, "Why is it Spike 5.0?"

"Well, first he was whatever he was... Then he was a vamp... Then he was neutered... Then he was souled and neutered... Then he was just souled. And by now, he may be back in version two, but badder than ever. And that isn't someone I want to see at night."

Oz silently agreed, getting ready to head anywhere away from Rome.

Knowing Angelus and Spike... He didn't want to be anywhere around when they woke up.

Willow groaned. She slowly woke up, headache growing with every second. The instant she was fully awake again, she was hit with the grief and loss all over again...

"Tara...." Her eyes flashed red, the way that they had before Tara's death.

Her next thought was of Warren, but then she remembered the Warren filet she'd made only hours after Tara had collapsed. Jonathan was dead too, and Andrew redeemed...

Redeemed? What was she thinking? The boy was in league with a murderer, and had later killed his own best friend. There was no redemption for Andrew. He was a killer.

But so was she...

"No." She firmly stopped herself. Warren had deserved it. And Jonathan, well, Jonathan had kind of gotten stuck in the middle of everything. Just like Tara...

Her eyes blackened, and her hair darkened into black. Her clothes were already of the navy-and-raven colored variety, and her fingernails were well on their way along the same route.

Andrew should die, she told herself. And anyone who stops me is against me.

Then she heard a scream from the other room. "Buffy," she said aloud. The Slayer. The one who had gone out of her way to stop Willow from handing out vengeance. But...

On some other, buried level, Buffy was her friend. Her best friend, who always wanted to save her--from Faith, from vamps, even from herself. Buffy deserved her help.

Although Willow couldn't tell, her hair was gradually lightening to a dark brown.

She strode out to the other room. Once she got there, she found Angel and Spike fighting. Buffy was lying on the floor, glaring at them both.

"Boys shouldn't fight like that." Willow brought her hands together, then forcefully pulled them apart. Angel and Spike slammed into opposite walls.

"It's naughty," she told them.

"You know, Will, you really do go in for the whole goth thing. If you're trying to be like Dru, well, forget it. She's the real thing in crazy. You're just a shadow."

Willow smiled, almost shyly. "I haven't seen you lately, Angelus."

"Oh, I've been around." Angelus smiled and stood up, Buffy's eyes narrowing as she realized the truth.

"Practically out in the open. The Manilow lover was going to have to let me out for a visit sooner or later. Besides, we all know how much I love good old Buffy. The Slayer--man, I miss that. I've had a good taste every few years or so. She'd die to save me, Faithie'd die to save me..."

"Back it up, bozo." Willow heard Faith in the doorway behind her.

"I'd die to kill you. Nearly did, too. But hey--one less scumbag walking around, I've done the world some good. Hey there, B." She addressed her sister Slayer on the ground.

"Faith. It's funny, but--I'm getting a new scent off of you. Back to your old tricks? Insanity becoming your get out of prison free card?"

"Or out of bad with B, sure."

"So... What is the all-powerful Buffy going to do about that, huh? What is she going to do? You know, I think that your old knife is missing.... Maybe she gave it to the Immortal. Kind of a fiftieth anniversary gift."

"I've got it. Been saving it for a rainy day. And we haven't been together for fifty years." Buffy, who was up by now, sent a dagger-filled look at Angelus.

"I meant fifty times. I know what he does to sweet, innocent little girls, Buffy." Angelus smirked. "I've done most of them myself."

"Or had them done to you. How else would you learn?"

"Score one for B!" Faith looked impressed.

"You know, Faith, these girls are starting to bore me. What say we go and find some real vamps?"

"Screw, stake and run?"

"In any order," agreed Buffy.

"Sounds good to me, but you're the boss-lady."

"That's good. So let's go." Buffy walked out the door, followed closely by Faith.

"So... Insano-girl's back."

Angelus looked out the door, then back at Spike. "You know, it's funny, but I can't smell your soul on you."

"It's been misplaced."

"So why protect the Slayer? Even I never go that far."

"She is my Slayer, that's why. Big bad is back, and if anyone decides to kill the bitch, it'll be me."

Willow looked between the two of them, not loving what she was hearing.

The two vampires that had nearly brought Sunnydale to its knees--and many other cities before that--were back. For that matter, Drusilla was probably looking for them.

That was enough to make her desire for vengeance swell down to what it'd been a day ago--non existent. Sure, she wouldn't have been upset if Warren were still alive and got drained by a vamp, but at least she no longer desired to do the deed on her own.

"Fine. You want the Slayer? You can have her. I'm not like that wimp, Angel. I'm not going to fight with you for the Slayer. There are millions of other Slayers in the world now--I could be drinking Slayer blood every night for years before I got to Buffy. Go get her, Spikey."

Angelus grinned before turning to Willow. "But I myself want a nice little witch for an appetizer."

Before he could get anything else out, Willow pushed them both out of the house, slamming the door behind him.

She called up the non-inviting spell ingredients and performed the spell quickly.

There were things to be done, things that couldn't be overlooked.

Oz pulled into the driveway of a hotel. "This is it," he announced.

Dawn and Xander got out. "This is your place?" Dawn asked skeptically.

"I wasn't planning on staying long. Saw Xander, decided I might stay longer."

He walked into the Holiday Inn. Dawn and Xander exchanged nervous looks, but followed him anyway.

Oz walked in, not breaking his stride, going straight to the elevator. He punched the "Call" button--it was already there.

Dawn and Xander got in behind him. The doors slid shut after a strawberry blond got on.

She eyed them all with more than a little anxiety, seeming to recognize at least one of them.

"Do we know you?" Xander finally responded to her scrutiny. Not that he minded strange women watching him.... Just that he minded strange women watching him.

"What? No. No... I thought I recognized you, but--no..." She shook her head, turning away. She stared at the wall, seeming to find that more interesting.

Xander didn't buy it. After hanging out with Buffy and the Scoobies for nine years, more than enough people--and demons--recognized him and Dawn with ease. Some of them might even still recognize Oz. Too many of them for his taste. And based on her reaction, it might be check out time.

Dawn looked at Xander. She'd known him since she moved to Sunnydale, always one of Buffy's friends.

Now he was her friend, practically her older brother. She knew him pretty well--well enough to know that this woman was making a bad impression.

Oz, on the other hand, didn't seem to care. He ignored the other occupant of the elevator. Then again, Oz rarely seemed to care. It was hard to tell what Oz was thinking.

The elevator stopped fairly quickly (elevators usually do), and the three of them stepped off. As soon as the doors slid shut, Xander turned to Oz.

"I don't like her." Oz shrugged.

"You don't like a lot of people," he pointed out.

"Yeah, but she was strange."

"Most people are strange."

"So are lots of demons," shot back Xander. Dawn winced, thinking about Anya again.

"I know what you're saying. Just let me get my stuff," said Oz.

He walked to his room, Dawn and Xander following him closely. He pulled the card through the door, opening it when the light color changed.

Dawn and Xander followed him into the dark room. Oz flicked on the light, paying little attention to the other two.

The room looked nearly empty--he hadn't unloaded much yet. Oz walked into the bathroom, stopping when he looked in the mirror.

"Xander?" he called quietly. Xander followed him in, looking around.

"What?"

"Look in the mirror of the bathtub." Xander turned to look in the bathtub. "No--in the mirror, at the bathtub."

Having found the bathtub empty, Xander turned around to look in the mirror--where he saw Anya's body lying.

"Anya?" He whirled around to look back in the bathtub--to see the body, to see anything. But it was still empty.

"What is this?" He glared at Oz.

"I don't know. Do you know her?"

"She's my ex-fiancée. She died in Sunnydale. We destroyed Sunnydale, but she'd already died there."

Xander shook his head. He'd gotten over her--he still missed her, like some part of Willow would always miss Tara. But she was dead, and he'd accepted it.

Dead bodies aren't supposed to live in hotel mirrors, though. Or, rather, stay dead in hotel mirrors.

"I... I'm going back outside. Just.... Hurry up, okay?"

"Sure, man." Oz nodded.

Xander turned around and left the room. Oz picked up the stuff he'd had time to get out, trying to ignore the picture in the mirror.

"Xander?" Dawn looked at him as he came out of the bathroom. "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing, Dawnie."

His voice was weaker, like it had been only a few times that she'd ever noticed. The last time that he'd used it was when Anya died--the time before that when Warren the psycho shot Buffy and Tara.

"Xander. What is it?" She repeated her question.

"It's Anya."

"Is she alive?" Dawn looked almost-happy. Dead bodies very rarely stayed dead--unless they were good people.

"No. She's definitely dead. She's also in the bathroom mirror."

"What... What do you mean?" Dawn frowned.

"I mean her dead body is in the mirror's bathtub. But not the real bathtub."

"Or maybe it is and you can't see it," said Dawn.

"Dawn!" Xander didn't even want to consider that possibility.

"Sorry." When she considered the words, she didn't like that idea very well either.

"Come on." Oz came out of the bathroom, shoving his stuff into the mostly full suitcase on one of the beds.

"We need to move."

He jarred Dawn and Xander out of their respective trances. Dawn nodded, and Xander followed them. He looked around behind them, turning out the light.

Oz drove as fast as the speed limits allowed--faster, actually. Dawn kept glancing nervously over her shoulder, remembering the car chase on the highway after Tara died--when Willow was hunting down Andrew and Jonathan, demanding vengeance.

God, she'd been worse about it than Anya--and who was the demon? Of course, there was no telling what an evil Willow would do this time around. She might still be pissed at Jonathan--or she might be pissed at someone else.

"Could you drive any faster?" Xander leaned over to look at the speedometer.

"Well, I could, but there are other those other cars." Oz returned to his silence. Xander and Dawn returned to their worrying.

Oz screeched to a halt. Everything else had stopped--and Willow stood in front of him. A very different Willow than the one he'd left on the Sunnydale Campus. Longer hair, less conservative clothes.... And much more powerful.

"Um.... It's...."

"Willow!" Dawn shrank down in the backseat, remembering when Willow had tried to re-elevate her to "key" status.

Xander got out of the van. He'd talked her out of her homicidal instincts once, he could do it again--maybe.

"Xander!" Willow rushed to him, hugging him. "Thank God you're okay!"

"Yeah. Um, Will, not that I mind, but when did you become a traffic cop?"

"Well, I wanted to find you guys. And I did. It's just that I wanted to talk to you also. See? And I am!"

"So... You aren't all scary, black-haired, killer Willow?"

"Well, for about five seconds.... But not now!" She hurried to correct any misimpressions.

"That's... That's good. Wait. What about everyone else?"

"I don't know. Everyone else seems.... Angel and Spike lost their souls again. And I need to talk without the time thingy, so I'm going to take us all to my place."

"Okay.... Dawn, Oz, van and all?"

"Oz? Oz is here? When did he get here? And... And why didn't you tell me?" Her face went from serious mode to frown.

"I took him by the house when we found you guys all unconscious. Dawn cast a spell... A spell to let you see your true enemies. Only it backfired, hitting all of her friends and making them their worst selves. Oz translated the full thing. We've got to reverse the spell, Will."

"Xander.... It'll be hard. That's really strong magic. And I'd kinda like to do a soul restoration first, before Angelus and William the Bloody go back to their regularly scheduled slaughtering."

"Willow. Oz came back to see you." He knew that he was changing the subject, but this seemed important too.

"He did?" Willow was confused. Yeah, she was over him--lesbian and all that--but Oz was something different... Someone different from most guys she'd ever met. It was hard to describe how she felt about him. He was.... Special.

"Um. Okay. But, we've got to get out of Rome. Now. Buffy and Faith are roaming together--ha, roaming in Rome--and they're back to full bad Slayer status."

"So not a sight I want to see again. Or get squeezed out of me. Lead the way, oh Wicca Will." The two of them got back into the van. She teleported it away--really freaking out Oz and Dawn--back to her house.

Angelus and Spike walked down the street.

"You haven't changed much, William. Not even in the hundred years I've had my soul. You were the same then, you were the same in Sunnydale, and you're the same now."

"I wouldn't say that."

"What--you had a chip? You went out to get a soul? You fell in love with a Slayer?" Angelus sneered. "You can't do anything I didn't do first."

"You never had a chip."

"I was tortured enough by that bastard Angel. God, he's so pathetic. I was so happy to be free of him, especially in Los Angeles."

"When did Angelus come out in Los Angeles?"

"You don't know? Oh, that's rich. I forgot." He laughed.

"Now what're you talking about?"

"Angel managed to impregnate Darla. They had a child. Connor."

"That's who the boy is."

"Yeah, only one of my enemies took him to a hell dimension. He came out all psychopathic. It would've been great if I hadn't have been his main target."

"Vampires can't get pregnant, Peaches. Or make anyone else pregnant."

"There was another prophecy."

"Figures."

"And Connor had a daughter. Nearly brought peace to the world, but ate people. That disgusted the fool more than anything. But before that, his daughter's minion terrorized the place. He'd met me, but everyone else had been mind-washed and couldn't remember him."

"Everyone but you."

"Yup. So they had to let out old Angelus. Only, Cordy and I managed to make them out. She was possessed by Connor's daughter--before she was even Connor's daughter--and turned evil. God, that was a fun time! I got pushed back inside by that wannabe psycho slayer bitch."

"You mean Faith."

"Yes, I mean Faith. Willow was responsible in the long run, but it was Faith's fault." He snarled.

"So, now what're you planning on doing?"

"Shedding as much blood as I can before the witch re-ensouls me. Hopefully including hers."

"Huh. Sounds like fun." Spike had stopped walking and was behind him, slowly raising a stake. Angelus whirled around in vampface and grabbed him.

"What kind of a fool are you, boy? I could tell what you were doing before you knew you were doing it."

"Don't know what you're talking about, mate." Spike pulled away, straightening out his duster.

"Course not. That stake in your hands just magically appeared there, didn't it?"

"With little red around, it's very possible," sniffed Spike.

"Boys, don't fight."

They both turned around at once to see the original girl that they'd fought over... Years before Buffy.

"Dru."

"Hello. My boys are back again. That nasty Angel-beast is gone, and my brave knight is finally returned without his chains."

"Hello, Dru, love."

"Spike." Dru moved to him, dancing between the pair of them. "The witch didn't tell you I was here? Tried to use the soldier boy and take the key, but that Slayer stopped me."

She turned, pouting, to Spike. "Kill her, Spike. Kill her for me?"

Spike recognized the words--they were almost the same words that she had spoken in Sunnydale, seven years ago. "No, Dru, love." He backed up and started walking away. "I can't."

"Spike?" She sounded so lost.... It was all he could do to keep from running back to her, telling her that he had been joking.

"Sorry, pet." He kept walking.

"Forget about him, Dru. We're going to hunt Slayers." Drusilla perked up at Angelus's words.

"Ooh. Really?"

"As many as we can find."

She giggled, walking down the street beside her sire. Angelus would not abandon her like Spike had. Her star had told her so, speaking through that new woman--the one that hated Angel, the one that had loved Lindsey, the boy with Wolfram and Hart.

Connor came to and looked around. It was no surprise that his stupid father had abandoned him--for the third time.

No matter what Angel said, he'd abandoned him to Quar'toth. If only for that, and for wrecking everyone else's memories, he should die. Well, that, and the fact that he was a vampire.

He always treated Connor like he was nothing, like he was just a child. Or a lunatic. But not anymore. He was back, and he was going to show his dad what he was made of. Whatever it took--fire, a stake, or beheading.

He looked around, trying to see where everyone else was. The Slayer was gone, too. The witch had already left, and it seemed like nearly everyone else had gone....

Wait. He caught a smell from the other room. It was someone new, but still someone. He walked toward the smell.

When he got there, he discovered someone lying face-down on the ground, groaning and starting to come to. Connor grabbed him by the collar and yanked him up.

"Who are you?" he demanded. The dark blond shook his head, trying to figure out where he was. Connor recognized him a little. Not his name, but what he was like.

"Name and rank, soldier!" he demanded.

"Riley Finn, sir!"

Riley. That was the guy that had tried to kill Dawn. Dawn hadn't seemed too bad. Sure, she didn't like Angel--but then again, neither did he.

It was probably because of his dad's omnipotent act. His whole, 'I'm going to show up, and aren't I doing you a big favor by doing that?' act that usually led to him running away again for at least one year.

Not that it mattered. Dawn wasn't here, and neither was Angel. He was stuck here with this Riley person.

"Why did you attack Dawn?" he asked sharply.

"Drusilla.... Do you know Drusilla?" he asked Connor, still pretty groggy.

"I've heard of her."

"She pulled some psychic thing on me, controlled me, and tried to use Dawn to open some hell dimension. I--ah--" he winced "--don't know why."

Connor sat back and nodded, then stood up. All that he had to do was track Angel. He could find Angel, and probably Drusilla. Or at least Spike, who should know where Dru was. From what he knew, they all tended to stick together.

"Stay here," he ordered Riley. Riley just nodded.

Buffy and Faith walked down the street together. "Man, this is the life!" exclaimed Faith.

"Yup. We're the slayers. We're--"

"The law! And you know it, don't you? You did then, all those years ago, and you do now. We are better."

"I know." Buffy's face smiled again. "And everyone else just has to accept that."

"What about the watchers?" Faith watched Buffy closely, looking for some sign that she was still the prude....

"Screw the watchers council. They couldn't even protect themselves from a hasbeen priest..... How would they know what to do with real slayers?"

Faith preened. B was finally accepting what she'd known all along--they were the law. And those years of penance--of redemption--weren't wasted if they both knew that now.

"Buffy." They saw Connor on the street.

"That's Angel's brat, isn't it? The one that he had to get from L.A.?" asked Faith.

"Yeah. Wonder what he's doing?"

"Don't know."

"Where's my father?" Connor's face was angry.

"Whoa. Your what?" The slayers stopped. Buffy's face started to frown.

"My lying, worthless father." Connor turned from Buffy to Faith. "Angel."

"Hate to break it to you, little guy, but Angel's a vamp. Can't be anybody's father. You're just delusional."

"No. The prophecy, and Darla, and all the rest of it. And then he never even told me...." Connor trailed off, shaking his head.

"How 'bout we go somewhere and talk? You tell us your secrets.... We'll show you ours." Faith smiled a little. B wouldn't care--and on the off chance that this kid wasn't just babbling, they were going to find out something pretty important, too.

"Okay, so spill it." Faith crossed her arms, looking at the boy in front of her.

"Angel is my father," Connor muttered.

"Okay, you seriously don't know what you're talking about here. Angel is a vampire. He can't be anybody's father. Unless he sired you. In the past hour or so."

Connor looked at Buffy, grinning bitterly. "No. There was some kind of a prophecy, about a vampire who would screw another vampire, and they got a mystical kid."

"So Dawn was right. There is something wrong with you." Buffy stared at him, wondering what he was exactly.

"No. Nothing's wrong with me..... Maybe it's wrong with everyone else."

"Wait. Angel screwed some vampire chick? Since when?"

"Oh, yeah. Couple of years ago, he got really dark--did Darla. Then apparently, well, I don't know what happened. But long story short, she got pregnant. Had me."

"Angel screwed Darla." Buffy was hurt. Yeah, she'd been with Spike--but that was different. Wasn't it?

"Yeah. Not Angelus, but Angel." Connor watched the two slayers. Faith looked pissed. He'd known--back when she'd brought back Angelus, back in L.A., he'd known what Angel meant to her. She'd made that clear to everyone.

Not that she was any different now than she had been. Bossing people around--especially him. Seemed like that was all anyone ever did, boss him around.

And in that new world--the fake world--they hadn't. It had been nice. He'd taken it for granted, mostly, until he found Angel again. Even then, he'd barely noticed it. Not thinking about reality. Well, that had been his fault.

And Buffy? He didn't know the other Slayer, not really. He had known that Angel once meant something to her--from what everyone else had said.

They had never actually told him anything. The only one that had told him much of anything was Holtz, and how much of that had been lies?

He knew that Holtz did most of what he'd done to him to spite Angel, or Angelus, or maybe both of them. But he was sure that somewhere in there, Holtz had cared for him. And he had at least tried to explain things, tried to tell him the truth.

He pulled his eyes off of Buffy.

"Angelus is back," she said. "He'll talk."

"He might not know," Connor told her.

"Why not?"

"You think it's just a coincidence, that you don't know?" He looked over at Faith. "You knew, once."

"What're you talking about, Junior?"

He had to smile again at that--she'd called him that, too.

"You came to L.A. See, the best part about me was that my purpose seems to have been to create this evil goddess with Cordelia."

Buffy inhaled sharply, but stayed quiet, thinking of Glory.

"And she had this guy--really evil. Called the beast. He killed most of Wolfram and Hart--"

"Served them right," Faith muttered.

"And then came after us. And apparently, one of us knew him. Turns out, it was Angelus. But Angel didn't, because a memory wipe had gone on. Since Angelus was in Angel at the time, he still remembered the guy. So Angelus came out, told us about the beast."

"How did he come back?" Buffy's face was hidden, so neither of them could see her expression.

"A shaman. A friend of Wesley's."

"Figures that he has some kind of a friend in that trade," Faith muttered.

"Yeah, well, then Angelus tricked us--or maybe not. But either way, Cordy let him out."

"Cordelia always was good at letting the evil roam," Buffy said, remembering Vamp-Willow.... And how Cordy'd told them later about letting Willow out of the book cage.

Connor looked up, angrily. "She was being possessed."

Faith looked between them--there was something underneath. Boy wonder was protective of Cordelia, probably some reason she and B wouldn't find out.

"You were talking about Angelus, kid."

"She let him out," he repeated. "He went after us, went after the whole town. And Wes didn't know how else to stop him. I did--I figured staking him would be fine. But Wesley got a slayer."

"And this was pre-Sunnydale," Faith realized.

"Yes. He got you out of prison somehow--I don't know how."

"Yeah." She wondered why her memories of that time, Willow coming to get her, were way too vague.

"And you came. Took charge. Got Angelus. Got on some drug.... It knocked you both out. But you met me. Then Willow came, shoved a soul back into dad."

He glossed over the details--him nearly killing Angel right before the soul came back, and everything else.

"Okay. Next question. Why don't I remember you? Or why didn't Willow?"

"Angel joined Wolfram and Hart. They did a spell to give me a normal life. Changed everyone's memories--Angel was the only one to remember me. But I was strong, so my parents took me to Wolfram and Hart. I got my memory back--so did Wesley. And.... Illyria, I guess she is now."

"Chick with the blue hair?" Faith checked. Connor nodded.

"So.... Let me get this straight." Buffy stepped forward. Faith was pretty sure that she wasn't loving this whole thing either. "Angel--not Angelus, but Angel--slept with Darla. And royally screwed up everyone's memories."

"Yup," Connor agreed with her.

"Faith, let's go."

"B, what--"

"Let's go find Angelus. I want to make him talk."

"About what?"

"Not talk so much as scream."

She started walking out of the coffeeshop Faith had chosen for their talk with Connor. Faith was immediately behind her. And Connor behind her. He was, after all, fine with making Angelus scream.

Willow looked at them all. Apart from missing Giles--and obviously Buffy--this was almost like a Scooby meeting. One of the later ones, but still before they blew up the mayor and the high school.

Except she was now much more powerful, and gay, and Xander only had one eye.... Dawn was loads older... They were all much older. Angel, no, Angelus, was off somewhere. Cordy was dead now--and Oz had come back. No telling if he would stay this time.

"Okay. So, it's a basic spell to repel the spell." Dawn giggled a little at the rhyme.

"Yeah, okay. That makes sense. But how do we do that?" asked Xander.

"I'm not too clear on it... It involves Dawn, and a mirror.... And the reverse. Like, reading from right to left."

"Like in subtraction," Dawn put in.

"Or multiplication," agreed Willow.

"You don't read left to right on those?" asked Xander. They all turned to look at him. "Kidding, I'm kidding!"

Yeah, almost like in high school, Willow thought again.
"Um.... Is it dangerous?" asked Oz. Willow shot an anxious look at him. She'd kind of been avoiding him, he noticed.

"Shouldn't be," she replied. "I mean, I've read about it, and it may take a lot out of the person--but it shouldn't be dangerous."

"So, I need the original spell. Do you have the book?"

"Probably.... Only one question now...." They all looked at the huge bookshelf. "Which book is it?"

**

"Found it," Oz finally said. The rest of them walked over to the chair he'd been sitting in. They'd all gone in separate areas--and had been going through Willow's books--for hours, it seemed like. Probably only a few hours, but still....

"Okay. So, Dawnie, go and sit in the mirror--and start chanting. Hopefully we can get this thing over with before anything else happens."

"Sit in the mirror? Will, how is that--"

"By the mirror," she corrected herself.

"Okay." Dawn picked up the book, walked over to the huge mirror in the door of Willow's bathroom. She sat down, not looking up, and started to read. Finally, she looked into the mirror--behind her.

"Guys, this is--oh, my God." She stood up, staring at herself--and at Amanda, hanging, just like Chloe had. When the First had killed her. Just like its uber-vamps, the Turok-hans, had killed Amanda. She'd gotten to be a Slayer--but it hadn't lasted.

"Oh, no." Xander looked at the mirror from across the room.

"Xander?" Willow came up beside him. "What's--yiii!" she yelped.

"It happened. Earlier. In Oz's hotel room. Anya was in the bathtub. But just the mirror of the bathtub."

"Willow? Is she supposed to be there?" Dawn turned around, not finding her dead friend.

"Just--just do the spell, Dawnie. Try not to look." Willow turned away, shaken.

Dawn looked back down at the book. She kept going--she messed up, stumbled a little. But she'd done that with the original spell, too. As long as she didn't look back in the mirror....

Angelus walked down the street with Drusilla. They'd already found one slayer and drained her--and were on the hunt for another.

"I like Rome," she said hungrily. "Much better than last time. All the pretty ponies, just prancing for me."

"And we'll soon find another one," Angelus reassured her.

"I can smell her. Like the frozen boy I once ate," she murmured. "All scared..."

Angelus looked at her. God, but he loved her. His crazy girl. And now that Spike was all mad about the Slayer--the original one, the little blonde one--he was out of the way for good. It took someone all monster for his Drusilla.

"What was the other one like?" He'd tasted her, too--the one screaming that Willow would help her.

*

"No!" Kennedy struggled as Angelus held her down.

"Yes," Drusilla told her. "My--you've been naughty," she told the girl. "Playing with the little witch--the one who always gives Angelus back that nasty soul."

"Wait. He--you're Angelus."

"You've heard of me." He preened.

"Heard Buffy can kick your ass to hell and back and you still get re-ensouled."

He struck her.

"Yeah--and just so you know? You can kill me. But there are more of us, now. And you can kill as many of us as you like. But when Willow finds out I'm dead? You'll wish she'd given you your soul back." She sneered at him, taunting him.

"So?" He laughed, grabbing her by the neck, pulling her away from Dru, ripping into her throat.

"Want a taste, love?" He'd held Kennedy, while her life drained away.....

*

And now they were on the trail of another one. Man, he'd told everyone back in Buffy's house that they could have Slayers every night--and he hadn't been lying. They were going through them already.... And there were more. He could tell.

"There she is." Drusilla pointed down a dark alley, an alley with only one end. They both started down, when suddenly Angelus fell to the ground.

"Hello, lover," Buffy told him.

"Hey, Dad." Connor's voice was almost harder than the Slayer's.

"Oh. Hello, there." Drusilla turned away from the Slayer in the alley, walking to Connor instead.

She came forward--Buffy couldn't remember her name--raising her stake to Dru's back. She was quiet, and cautious--and down for the count, as Dru snapped her hand behind her, knocking out the girl without turning around.

"You're his. You're grandmummy's. You're my little brother. Oh--" she looked at the sky. "Oh, no! He's going to leave again, the key's talking, he's going to go away...." She swayed for a moment, terrified, then ran out of the alley.

"What's this about soul-you doing Darla?"

"Connor...." Angelus laughed, getting up. "Telling tales agai--" his voice trailed off, as he got a sharp pain in his stomach again. Like Angel had right before he'd come out to play.... "I.... Won't.... Go...." He fell down. The world was spinning a little. But before his eyes shut, he had the vague notion that Buffy, Faith, and his odd little son had fallen down too..... There was almost hope for the boy....

Dawn turned to look at Willow, Xander, and Oz.

"I think it--" she collapsed again.

Epilogue:

The sunlight came up slowly, hitting Angel. He twitched a little, then opened his eyes quickly when his foot burst into flames. He backed away, scuttling like a crab, trying to get rid of the fire.

He looked. The alleyway was empty--but there was a sewer cover. And he'd have to take it, because there was no coverage apart from that.

Hopefully, Buffy wouldn't be too pissed.... No, it was too late for that. He was sure that she would be. And Spike? Where was Spike?

He jumped into the sewer.

More importantly, what had happened??? This was.... Had it been Wolfram and Hart? No, no, they couldn't have changed Connor--could they? Maybe it was a botched spell....

He looked down at the water. Then, with what may still have been an oath, he stepped backwards. Wes stared back at him from the ground--the way he had been, but bloodied. Tired. What was this? He had to find Willow. Convince her it was really him--figure this out.

Prologue:

Willow looked at Angel. "So, Kennedy's dead," she said. She was sure that she hadn't heard him right.

"I'm sorry."

"No--no, it's okay." She fought to keep from crying. She hadn't invited him in yet--she'd like to do a thousand terrible things to him. The son-of-a-bitch had killed Kennedy. Angelus, whoever. Same dif. It was still Angel's body.

"Will, listen. There's something going on. I saw Wes's body in the water in the sewers--"

"Yeah, there is. And--and it's bad, Angel, whatever it is. But I need to be alone now, okay?" She was sure he was mourning again. Just like he'd mourned Miss Calendar. Just like he'd mourned what he did to Buffy, and the rest of them. Just like he'd mourned his family.

But the point was, he'd still done it.


Angel watched the redhead in front of him. He was part worried. He'd heard, from Buffy, that Willow was very strong in the magicks.

And that when Tara had died, she'd flayed the killer alive and gone on a magical rampage in revenge. And then out of rage, in the end. He really didn't want to be flayed alive--or, in his case, undead. He also didn't want to find out just how strong Willow really was in the magicks.

"Just--go, Angel. Someone can..... Please go." She turned around, closing the door in his face.

It was a few weeks later. Almost everyone was acting slightly odder than usual, probably because of the spell.

Willow was very calm, mainly because she was controlling herself. Angel was still around, but he avoided Willow and Buffy both. Buffy seemed to avoid Spike for some reason that no one could figure out.

Dawn avoided everyone but Xander and Oz. Willow wanted to be alone, and she was willing to respect that. But she liked getting to know Oz, who'd left before she ever even got to high school.

And she still trusted Xander with her life. She didn't know what had happened to everybody during the spell, and nobody told her.

In fact, practically nobody told Dawn anything.

Connor tried to talk to her a few times, but found himself pushed away coldly each time. After a while, he gave up.

Angel didn't try to make friends with her, and Spike seemed to avoid her. She would talk to him once in a while, but it just wasn't like it used to be.

"Dawn?" Xander looked into her room. She was on the computer--she had been doing that a lot lately. She clicked out of a window really quickly.

"Whatcha doing?" He walked over to her.

"I'm IM-ing someone."

"Oh, that's cool. Wait a minute--who?"

"I don't know." She turned around just as he prepared to launch into speech-mode.

"Yes, Xander, I know about Malcom--Moloch--whatever that lodged into the computer and tried to get Willow. But I haven't scanned any funny books, so, probably not that."

"He got into networks," Xander pointed out carefully. "He was everywhere."

"Yeah, but we aren't even romantic. It's more like..... He seems like a werewolf. Or something."

"Oh, even better."

"Well--Oz is a werewolf," said Dawn defensively.

"Yeah, but then there's other werewolves," he pointed out, remembering Veruca. The second time that Willow and Oz had broken up because of someone else, someone interfering.

"Xander, quit worrying. There's also nothing romantic," she repeated, stressing the last two words.

"Okay. Um, Buffy and Faith left again, and I think Spike went after him. I'm going to go get something to eat. Did you want--" he gestured to outside.

"No, I'm fine. I promise I'll come out soon." She smiled at him.

"Behave yourself."

"Xander, I'm--"

"I know. I'm not saying that in the I'm-older-than-you way, but in the be-careful-because-of-the-demons-and-impending-doom way."

"Okay." She turned back to the computer.

"Bye."

"Bye," he echoed her.

ENERGY101: Sorry. Big brother over my shoulder.

DOGZ_BYTE: Oh. Well, is he really that bad? Do you need to get off?

ENERGY101: No. He's just checking on me. Weird things go on.

DOGZ_BYTE: I've heard. Hold on.


"Hey, Xand."

"Hey, Oz. Ooh, instant messaging. And the fever goes through the house like a wind storm."

"I guess so."

"This is your conversation?"

"Yeah."

"You type more than you talk."

"Yeah," he repeated thoughtfully.

"Short, noncommittal phrases again, Oz?"

"Maybe." Xander looked closely at his face--he seemed to be serious.

"Who's the guy?"

"Oh, it's a chick. She's somewhere in Rome. I'm sure I'll see her sooner or later."

"A chick? In Rome?" Xander's heart started falling fast.

"Yeah. Don't know who. She's got good taste in music. Very nice--pretty calm."

"Yeah."

"I think she's..... Different." He swung his head around to look at Xander.

"Oh, she probably is." Xander paused. "Ask her if she was ever a big ball of energy."

"That's kind of a funny question." Oz turned back to the computer.

"I came to ask if you were hungry."

"Yeah, I am, kind of."

"Can you end the talk?"

"Probably." He started typing.


DOGZ_BYTE: Hey.

ENERGY101: Hey.

DOGZ_BYTE: It's getting kind of late.

ENERGY101: Full moon?

DOGZ_BYTE: That's not for two nights.

ENERGY101: Oh. Forgot. Sorry.

DOGZ_BYTE: It's okay. But I'm getting hungry.

ENERGY101: Oh. Um.... Okay. I can get off--I haven't had anything to eat for a while.

DOGZ_BYTE: Talk to you later?

ENERGY101: Yup. Ttyl.


A few minutes later, the sign popped up--"ENERGY101 has logged off." Oz logged off. "Let's go. Is Dawn coming, too?"

"She's--" started Xander, when Dawn yelled from down the hall, "Xander?"

"What?"

"Have you left yet?"

"Yes. This is my echo."

"Thanks! Wait for me? I'll be right there."

"Yeah, she's coming," Xander told Oz.

Buffy looked up. Spike was there. "We need to talk," he told her.

She looked over to Faith. "Go ahead, B. We aren't getting anywhere here."

She stood up and followed Spike over to the lobby area. There weren't a lot of people over there, and it was getting kind of late. "What?" She crossed her arms and looked up at him impatiently.

"About what happened--the Niblet's spell," he began.

"I insulted you. I'm sorry. Can I go and sit down now? Or was there more?"

"There is," he carefully answered. "Look, Buffy, we haven't seen each other for a year, and I know that it's mostly my fault."

"Well.... Not really," she murmured. "I wasn't exactly looking....."

"Looking for someone that you saw burn up in a ghost town?" he finished for her.

"Yeah. And I moved on," she added, lifting her chin up.

"I know. Immortal, and..... All that," he finished for her again. "But..... Being without my soul...... Made me realize that I don't care."

"Don't care about what?"

"The Immortal--Dru--any of it. You didn't know, did you, Buffy, that while I was soulless, Angelus and my darling Sire tried to convince me to help them kill the Slayers?"

"No, I didn't. I knew what they did--I heard, later."

"Right. Well, the point was, I couldn't. And, Buffy, I started to realize that it doesn't matter. Not to me. I can have a soul, or lose it, or have a chip, or anything. But Buffy, I still love you."

"Without the soul, you're just a demon."

"I'm still a demon, love. Just conscience-filled. Doesn't it occur to you, pet, that with or without a soul, I could go off my rocker and try to kill every single one of you Scoobies at any given time? All those human killers, Buffy, have souls. And they all have the ability to love."

"Yeah, well, that's different."

"How?"

"They.... They're human."

"There's also good demons, Buffy. Clem wasn't a bad sort, and neither was green--one of Angel's buddies in L.A.," Spike clarified off her confused look.

"The point is, it doesn't matter if you have a soul or not. There's always some kind of a demon in you. You should know that."

"What're you trying to say?"

"I'm tryin' to tell you something, Buffy. I just--I can't say it. Look, with or without a soul, you're always the same. Sometimes you're rougher, and sometimes you mix up love with hate and pain. But you always know if you bother to think about it. Even Peaches went all hard and--and crabby, to say it in your words. And that was with a soul, abandoning his friends so that he could accept the darkness. This was a few years ago. He always goes out of his way to be the big hero, the big brooder, no matter what."

"If this is another anti-Angel rant, I really don't want to--"

"It's not. I worked with him for a year, and I can actually stand the great poof now. But he's alone with or without a soul, and he gets along that way. Sometimes he likes having his friends, sometimes he just doesn't care. But Buffy--you need it. The times you were alone, you got along, but--Buffy--"

"I know. I wound up a waitress under an assumed name.... And I wound up in someone else's house, all sulky."

"That's right. And Buffy, I need you. I love you, pet. Everytime in L.A., whenever something went down, I couldn't help wishing you were there to deal. Because you fight the good fight, Buffy. It's who you are, what you need. And it isn't the same without you. With or without my soul, I love you."

She looked at his eyes.

"You....."

Faith looked up from stirring her straw around in her drink. Buffy and Spike were at the door, making with the kisses. She pulled out her cell phone and called a number.

"Xander? Yeah, I win the pool. They're making out as I speak. Call me later. Say hey to the Dawn." She flipped it back shut.

Xander flipped shut his cell phone.

“Who was that?�

“Faith,� he answered Dawn. “She won the pool. Buffy and Spike have apparently made up.�

“That’s good.� She added to herself, ‘Maybe now things can get back to normal.’

“Damn. I was going with tomorrow,� said Oz.

“Only off by one day,� said Dawn. “It’s just as well that I didn’t bet. I would’ve gone with a few days ago.�

“How ‘bout Angel? What’d he say?�

“Angel didn’t know. We didn’t think that he’d like us betting on his ex and one of his enemies, and their first heated makeout session.�

“That’s probably true,� Oz mused.

“So. Where’re we going for food?�

�Um….. I’m not exactly sure yet, Dawnie.� Xander shrugged a little as he watched the road. Oz was still driving—he thought Oz was still driving. He couldn’t tell without turning his head.

“Oh. Okay. Did Willow find out about the new Doomsday approaching?�

“No, not yet. She’s kind of in mourning for Kennedy.�

�Yeah. Angel’s lucky she didn’t….. Um…. Get very pissed off,� Dawn finished lamely.

“You mean flay him alive and try to kill the world? Yeah. Not that he wouldn’t deserve it, Angelus himself, but… Apparently we need him.�

“It does kind of seem that way. And, hey, he’s been useful before.� Oz thought of previous apocalypses—of the one with the Mayor, and the other ones that he’d heard about since he’d been back.

“Yeah, but I don’t like him anyway,� Dawn inserted.

“Why?� Oz looked in the rearview mirror at her.

“He…. It’s just stupid stuff,� she finally decided.

“No, come on, Dawnie, share on Dead Boy,� Xander urged her.

“Just…. The way that he’s always good and evil. The way that he hits and runs with Buffy, coming by and being doom-person, and then leaving again. It’s just like when he first got her, and she wished that he’d quit being cryptic guy. And he always hurts her. I mean, maybe she loves Spike, but that’s not the point. Some part of her loves Angel, and having him come and go like that—just abandon her over and over again—keeps hurting her. I don’t like seeing her like that.�

The two guys sat in silence for a moment, while Dawn took a deep breath. “So, am I grudge-bearing, or what?�

“No, Dawn,� Xander soothed her.

“It does make sense,� agreed Oz.

“And he always just waltzes on in,� said Dawn, encouraged by them. “And expects us to listen to him, and drop everything just because he wants us to.�

“It is kind of broody and typical,� said Xander.

“And definitely cause for getting pissed,� Oz pointed out.

“So…. I guess I don’t like his attitude in general. Or him.�

“It makes sense,� said Xander. “I knew there was a reason I didn’t like Dead Boy! Dawn, you’ve got to tell Buffy this. She’ll totally get it all. And if not, well, it’s still a great reason for me to avoid him even more.�

“Xander,� she said, conveying everything in that one word. The fact that she didn’t like what he was saying—even though she completely agreed.

“Well, hey, tell Angel all that. Maybe he’ll quit disappearing.�

�No! It’s worse when he stays!�

Oz glanced back at her. He liked her. She was interesting. She was pretty logical, and very different from the little sister of Buffy that he remembered.

“So…. Tell him to get out of town,� he added helpfully.

“No, that’d piss off Buffy.�

“Well, yeah, but….�

“Things about ensouled vampires tend to piss off Buffy, Dawn, no matter what they are.�

“Yeah.�

They were silent.

“So, where’re we going to eat?� The question came back, and left itself hanging.

Willow got up again. She was letting Riley stay in her place, but that was about it. Ever since Angel had come to talk to her, to tell her about Kennedy, she'd avoided everybody--even her boarder. She told the others about what happened, then left it alone

She walked to her shelf--again--the way that she had several times since she'd found out about the "dead-bodies-being-reflected" thing. There were things that Giles had read about--and none of them were good--that went along with what the others had seen.

Of course, there were probably things in her own books, but did she really want to try and go back to them? It was accepting something she didn't want to accept. Life would still go on, even though her lover was dead--again. Maybe she just had bad luck with love, like Xander.

"Willow?" She looked up. It was Buffy, in her doorway.

"Hey." She smiled, a little, for her best friend.

"How're you doing?"

"I'm good. I haven't tried to destroy the world yet--that's something, right?"

"That's something," Buffy agreed.

"It's just--I can't stand it. She trusted him! She trusted him, and she walked right into it. It isn't right, Buffy. Kennedy didn't do anything at all. Yeah, she was a brat, but she knew it. And--she was good."

"I know." Buffy walked into Willow's room and held her as she collapsed.

"I've been trying," Willow murmured. "I've been trying to get going again, and to look up things for the apocalypse--but then she's really gone, you know? Then I'm accepting that she's dead, and I don't want to do that."

"But you have to."

"I know."

"Buffy?" They both looked up as Riley came into the room. "Sorry," he said awkwardly. "But, there's someone on the phone for Willow."

"It's fine. Will?" She let Willow go, drying her eyes.

"Who is it?"

"Um.... Some very pissed off chick. She's threatening to mold my skin into something I can't even imagine, and keeps growling about how foolish mortals are, and how much she hates being like one."

"Oh. Illyria. She came from Los Angeles. Former demon, or goddess--I didn't quite get the whole story. Then she lost most of her powers, so she's good now. We think," Willow explained to Buffy.

"She says that they found something, and then told me that she doesn't want to return to the place of the shell's death."

"I'll be right there." Willow turned back to Buffy. "Thanks," she said to her. "For coming for me."

"Anytime, Will."

She leaned against the wall while Willow walked out to take the phone.

Riley came back into the room.

"Remind me never to piss off an ex-demon--or ex-goddess--whatever that chick is," he told her.

"What happened? Back in London," said Buffy bluntly.

"I was coming to find you. The covert ops team that I was with was almost entirely demolished. Sam and I survived, Buffy, but that was it. But once we got back to London, because she was still with me.... Drusilla killed her. I found that out later. I almost saved her, but I couldn't find out what was going on in time."

"I'm sorry," said Buffy, remembering the woman that she'd met only once.

"So, I still came to find you--heard that Spike got a soul, then died, so I thought that maybe we could do a comforting thing. I figured you'd be with Giles, or that he'd know where you were. But then Drusilla pulled me off into an alley--I know that it was her, now. And she managed to turn into Sam. I don't know how, but she did. She looked exactly like her."

"And then what?" Buffy was gentle, remembering when Riley had come back and comforted her, remembering that Drusilla had managed to do the same thing to Giles.

"Then she..... I don't know how she did it, but there was another woman with her that she seemed to know. And the two of them used some kind of magic to possess me."

"Did you recognize the other woman?"

"No, but Drusilla mentioned the Wolf, Hart, and Ram to her, and said that she was very sorry for the loss of Lindsey."

"Lindsey?"

"Yeah. A friend of hers, maybe."

"Maybe--or maybe something more."

"I don't know."

"We'll talk to Spike, Angel. Maybe even Illyria. We'll see if they know them. So it wasn't you trying to kill Dawn?"

"No. And not only that, but Drusilla seemed kind of upset--more than usual--when she discovered that it was Dawn she was trying to kill. I don't know why or who, but she was expecting someone else," Riley told her.

"Buffy?"

"Will." Buffy backed away from Riley a little.

"Yeah--listen, we need to get everyone together, and go to England right away. It's important."

"I'll get Faith and Spike."

"You'd better find Angel, too." Willow forced her issues with the vampire aside. This was more important.

"What is it?" asked Riley as the three of them started out.

"The end of the world."

"Again," they all groaned.

Xander's cell phone rang again. "Don't answer it," advised Dawn.

"I kind of have to," he told her. "It could be some demony thing."

"Well, yeah....." She shrugged, and went back to eating. Oz looked up as Xander flipped the cell phone open.

"Willow!" Dawn looked up, too. "Yeah, it's great to hear you, too. What's going on? Oh. That again. Yeah, I know it's still important. So, where're we going? London, huh? Oh, Giles's place. Well, can the three of us finish eating first? Yeah, we'll meet you back at your place. We're hurrying! Bye." He clicked it back shut.

"Willow?" Oz stopped eating.

"Yeah. They got a call from London. Giles and that other one figured out what's going on. So, we've all got to go back to get ready for our next apocalypse."

"Huh." Oz was quiet for a minute.

"Well, I'm ready." Dawn stood up.

"Hold on--I'm not," said Xander.

"So, are we all going?"

"Yeah. Willow's going to teleport us in groups. Buffy went to get Spike, and the other two. Deadboy and his friend."

"Sounds like fun," said Oz. "Another end of the world situation."

"Because we haven't had enough of those lately," Dawn pointed out.

"So, you guys are ready?"

"Seems like."

"I already told you," Dawn reminded him.

"Then let's go." Xander stood up and went to the cash register, paying for the meal.

**

They walked back into Buffy's house. Willow and Riley were waiting for them, and Buffy was gone--probably getting Spike and the others.

Dawn carefully walked around Riley, going to get her clothes. "We're leaving a note for Andrew," Willow told Xander.

"That's cool. He going to come with his own demon-summoning skills?"

"Well, no, it's just so that he knows where we are. You know, in case he gets worried--or needs one of your comic books--or the use of Buffy's bed," said Willow, grinning a little wickedly.

"I don't think she'll let him."

"Nope. Probably not." She kept on grinning.

"Okay, so, I'm ready," said Dawn, coming out of her room with a huge suitcase.

"Dawnie? We may only be there for a day," Willow pointed out.

"Well, yeah, but we may be there longer."

Willow gave her a skeptical glance, but she didn't say whatever she'd been planning on. The door banged open. Buffy tossed in Connor, and pushed Angel and Spike forward.

"In. Now. Get over yourselves. All three of you. We're going to London. We're figuring out exactly what's going on. We're going to fix it. Then you can all go back to brooding."

"Hey, now, I don't brood! The magnificent poof broods, love. I... Think," said Spike, finishing it lamely.

"Sure, Spike." Her tone went down a few notches. "Point is, we're going. All three of you are coming with."

"Fine," said Connor sullenly.

"Then let's go. Will? Teleport time."

"'Kay."

She took them in groups--first Connor, Angel, Spike, and Buffy, figuring that Buffy could restrain the other three from killing each other. Then she took Riley, Dawn, Oz, and Xander. Finally, she arrived in London to stay, suitcases and all.