The Enemy of My Enemy

Wishverse Chapter 4

Disclaimer: The characters in this story have been borrowed from Joss Whedon's "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer".

Spoilers: This Wishverse is based loosely on the two episodes of "The Wish" and "Doppelgangland". This chapter also contains a spoiler for the Season 4 episode of "The Harsh Light of Day" and spoilers for "Graduation".

Really short summary of what has happened in the first three chapters:

In chapter 1 "Doppelganged Again" Buffy interrupted a second attempt by Anyanka to retrieve her amulet and the Buffy from the Wishverse ended up in the regular Sunnydale. After spending five days with the gang she returned to the Wishverse and actually managed to kill the Master, then talked her Watcher (Wesley) into staying there to help Giles and the White Hats to fight the vampire population of Sunnydale. In chapter 2 "The Winter Brunch" Owen takes Buffy to a school dance, and Cordy has some problems with frogs, which come in handy when vamp.Willow and vamp.Xander decide to crash Buffy's early birthday party at the library. In chapter 3 "A Matter of Trust" the Watchers are trying to make Buffy undergo the Cruciamentum, but forewarned by the Sunnydale Buffy, it doesn't go the way the Watchers had planned.

* * 1 * *

Buffy and Angel walked quietly up to Giles house, both lost in their own thoughts.

They entered the living room to find it crowded with people.

Wesley was the first one to notice their entrance. "Finally! What took you so long?" He greeted them.

Angel felt a growl building in his chest at the Watcher's rude greeting, but before he could do more than glare at Wesley, all the others were crowding around Buffy and welcoming her back. Sandy was the first to grab Buffy in a quick hug. "I was so worried when I heard that you had been poisoned!"

"Uh, thanks." Buffy awkwardly returned the girl's hug. She looked surprised at the group's reaction and more than a little stunned by their hearty welcome. 'She shouldn't be,' Angel thought as he let himself be pushed further back, 'she had changed all of their lives for the better in more ways than one.'

"I'm glad you're back, but not as glad as my big brother." Sandy said as she pulled back and winked at Buffy. "He missed you terribly!"

Amy scowled at Sandy's words while Owen blushed a bright red. "Sandy!" he protested.

"What, you mean you *didn't* miss her?" Sandy asked in pretend outrage.

"We all missed her." Giles said sincerely, stepping up to shake Buffy's hand.

Buffy gave him a small smile. "Thanks. Angel said that I have you to thank for finding a cure for the poison."

"Well, actually that was mostly Ms. Calendar's doing." Giles told her. "She's the computer teacher at Sunnydale High."

"I'll have to thank her the next time I see her then." Buffy stated. A slight frown creased Buffy's forehead, and Angel wondered if she got the same uneasy feeling he did every time he thought about the young computer teacher. But her next words showed that her mind was on something else. "Du Lac! That was the name."

There was a momentary silence, then Cordelia's voice rang out: "I thought this potion was supposed to cure her. If you ask me, she's crazier than ever."

Buffy ignored her and turned to Giles: "Do you have his book at the library?"

"Josephus Du Lac?" Giles asked. "Yes, I believe I do."

Wesley frowned at Giles: "Du Lac's works were said to have been written in an archaic form of Latin that only his followers were able to understand. How do you know this one is an authentic text?"

Giles shrugged: "My grandmother claimed that it was. She warned me that it is said to contain rituals and spells that reap unspeakable evil. However, I have never been able to make any sense of any of its passages. What do you need it for, Buffy?"

"I don't, I just want to keep Spike from getting his hands on it." Then she added almost as an afterthought. "Actually it might be a good idea to move all the important books from the library to the mansion. As long as they are at the library any vampire can just walk in and borrow any book he likes."

"That's never really been a problem. Vampires generally aren't all that interested in musty old books." Giles pointed out to her. "Who is this Spike and why does he want Du Lac's book?"

Wesley cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "William, the Bloody, nicknamed Spike for his fondness of torturing his victims using railroad spikes. He is a fairly young vampire, only 125 years old. He is thought to have killed at least one Slayer, but his main notoriety stems from the fact that he was a member of a trio of vampires that cut a swath of devastation across Europe in the later part of the nineteenth century. Their leader, Angelus, is said to have sired both Spike and Drusilla - the third member of their little group." Angel winced as Wesley proceeded to give some examples of just what had made this vampire trio so notorious. He threw a quick look around the room, wondering how many of the people here that knew him to be a vampire realized that Wesley was actually talking about him.

Both Buffy and Giles looked like they had heard all of this before. The look on Oz' face told him that he had made the connection, but to Angel's surprise he seemed to be taking it in stride. Not so with Larry. His eyes held both outrage and condemnation as he listened to Wesley recounting some of the things Angelus' little band had been responsible for. Angel grimaced inwardly and looked away.

"After their leader was killed just before the turn of the century, Spike and Drusilla crisscrossed the globe, never staying in one place for any length of time until Drusilla was killed by a mob in Prague." Wesley concluded his lecture. "Since then there has been an occasional mention of Spike, but nothing major. He was said to have been in Munich at the same time that Helga was killed, but it is not at all clear that he was actually responsible for the Slayer's death. He doesn't seem all that dangerous on his own."

"Don't underestimate Spike." Angel spoke up reluctantly. "Once he starts something he doesn't stop until everything in his path is dead."

"And Drusilla wasn't killed by that mob, just severely weakened." Buffy obviously enjoyed correcting her Watcher. "We saw them on our way over here. I'm guessing that Spike's here to find a way to restore Drusilla to full power. Which is were Du Lac comes in. If I remember right, Spike needs both the book and a special cross that was buried with Du Lac in one of the cemeteries here in Sunnydale."

Giles considered this for a moment. "We should probably split up. You and Angel try to get the cross while the rest of us go to the library and load Oz' van up with books."

"Okay. But be careful. Have someone as a look out at all times. If Spike shows up just get out of there and I'll deal with him later." Buffy admonished them.

As everybody got ready to leave, Wesley stepped forward to stop Buffy. "How do you know what Spike wants here? - Or are you just guessing?"

"I know it the same way I knew about what you and the Council had planned for my birthday." She told him coldly.

* * *

Angel noticed that Buffy kept almost as close an eye on him as she did on their surroundings as they made their way through the cemetery. He didn't really blame her for distrusting him. He, Dru and Spike had been a pretty devastating trio as they made their way across Europe, but it hurt nevertheless that she obviously expected him to team up with them again now that they were back.

The cemetery was deserted and they found Du Lac's crypt and removed the cross without seeing a single vampire. They encountered several small groups as they made their way to the library, but all of them were young and inexperienced, giving them little trouble.

Angel couldn't help but think that this was just too easy. Either Buffy was wrong about Spike being after these Du Lac artifacts or this was all a cleverly laid trap.

They reached the library to find that the others had both Oz' and Buffy's van loaded full of books. Giles' car was parked behind the vans, its trunk full of books as well.

"There you are." Giles greeted them relieved. "Did you find it?"

"We got it." Buffy indicated the book-filled cars. "You've been busy."

"Well, it was really Oz' idea to take as much as we had room for while we're at it." Giles shrugged. "We got the most important ones, including that Du Lac book you were after. Let me call the others and we can get all this moved to the mansion."

* * *

Three hours later they had it all stacked up in an unused room of the mansion. But Buffy appeared far from happy.

"This was too easy!" Angel heard her mutter, echoing his own sentiment from earlier.

"Maybe Spike isn't after these after all." Angel suggested quietly.

"Maybe. I'm going to take a closer look at the specifics of this ritual. I guess I should have paid better attention to what Buffy and Giles were telling me." Buffy conceded grudgingly. "But until we know more, I don't want you going anywhere without me, is that understood?"

Angel wondered what his double in the other Sunnydale had done that made Buffy want to keep such a close eye on him. "Okay. But just because something happened a certain way there, doesn't mean the exact same thing will happen here."

* * * * *

Spike didn't see the two people watching him from the front seat of the black mini-van as he wrapped a protective arm around Drusilla's thin shoulders to lead her back to their lair.

"It's not safe for you to be out here alone, ducks." He reminded her softly. "Not until you're strong again. It would just kill me if anything happened to you, and you don't want that, do you, love?"

Drusilla was looking back over her shoulder with a dreamy expression on her face: "I was looking for my Angel."

Spike cursed inwardly. Angelus again. He thought she had finally given up on that after her search almost got both of them killed in Prague.

"Angelus is gone, Dru, back to the hell he came from." Spike reminded her.

Drusilla shook her head and smiled at him. "He is close. I can feel him. Oh, Spike, when do you think I'll get to see him?"

Spike heart clenched with worry. Angelus was dead. For her to see him, Dru would have to die as well.

After Prague he had tried everything he could think of to help her recover, but she kept getting weaker no matter what he did. He had even captured two Slayers for her to drain. But not even that had done more than slow her decline.

He had been looking for yet another Slayer when he finally stumbled across the information that had led him here to Sunnydale on the trail of what he hoped would restore his dark princess to her full glory.

If they could find it before Drusilla succumbed to her weakness.

As if she could read his worries, Drusilla gave him another smile. "Don't worry, love, it'll be all right. You'll see." Her eyes took on the faraway look she often got when she talked about her visions. "I can see you, you and my Angel. And all the other demons are running in fear from my two boys."

She lifted both her arms up above her head and began to dance to a music she alone could hear.

* * * * *

For long moments Alan Finch stared at the polished nameplate on the door in front of him. Richard Wilkins III - Mayor. There was nothing particularly threatening about that name or in the outward appearance of its owner. But appearances could be deceiving.

Taking a deep breath and smoothing down his jacket one last time, Alan forced himself to open the door.

"Ah, there you are, Alan." The mayor greeted him with a friendly smile. "You know, I'm always puzzled why people are so reluctant to inform me of bad news. I mean, it's not as if I'm going to bite their heads off!"

A cold shiver ran down Alan's back. "Ah, no Sir." He agreed uneasily, then hurried on to his report. "It appears that a new group of vampires has taken up residence in one of the underground caves near the University of Sunnydale. Their leader, Spike, has quite a reputation among vampires. We don't have any reliable information on what brought him here, but he appears to be tunneling in the direction of Riverside Park."

"Spike? Now what kind of a name is that for a vampire?" The mayor complained. "Well, we can't just have him digging wherever he feels like. There are too many things buried around here that he might stumble across. Have Brian bring in the map-book for that area. Let's see what it is our friend Spike is looking for."

"Yes Sir." Alan shifted uncomfortably.

Noticing that Alan had made no move to leave, the mayor raised a questioning eyebrow at him. "Was there something else?" He prompted his assistant.

"Yes Sir. It appears that it was indeed the Slayer that eliminated the group of Kailiff demons and vampires you sent to bring back the files that Prof. Stewart compiled on you." Alan saw the mayor's eyes narrow and hurried to add. "But the files have since been recovered, and there is no indication that the Slayer or anyone else connected to the White Hats was ever even aware of their existence. It appears that Dr. Stewart was telling the truth when he said that he would keep your secret as long as his needs would be met."

"Well, it's nice to know that he had *some* decency left." The mayor remarked cheerfully, then he shook his head, his mood turning serious. "Nasty habit that, drugs. We really can't have someone like that teaching here at the University. What kind of a message would that send to our kids? Children are very important, Finch. They need to be taken care of." After a moment the mayor shook himself out of his momentary reverie and turned his attention back to his deputy. "I don't think that the Slayer or this new group of vampires will be a problem. We just need to make sure that we know exactly what they're all up to. Which I know you will see to."

Alan tried to ignore the churning in his stomach and forced a shaky smile as the mayor clapped him encouragingly on the shoulder.

* * 2 * *

Buffy closed Du Lac's book with a satisfied snap. She had remembered right. Spike not only needed a copy of Du Lac's spell and Angel as Drusilla's Sire, he also needed the cross, both to decipher the text and to use the magical blade hidden within it to perform the ritual correctly. The spell itself was fairly simple and straightforward, but without a magical knife or Drusilla's Sire to siphon the necessary energy from, the spell itself was useless.

Stretching her cramped muscles she got up to go and check on Giles and Angel, who were busy building bookshelves in what was to become the mansion's research library.

Angel looked up as soon as she opened the door and turned off the miter-saw he had been using to cut the boards Giles was measuring out for him.

"I'm done with the Du Lac book, so I thought I'd see if you guys need any help." She wrinkled her nose at the dust hanging thick in the air. "How can you breathe in here?"

"Not a problem if you don't have to breathe." Angel shrugged.

Giles pointed at the mask covering his nose and mouth, "Why do you think I'm wearing this?"

"You should still open a window." Buffy said and went to do just that. "Now, what else can I do to help?"

"Nothing at the moment." Giles said looking around. "If you really want to do something, you could start a pot of tea. I'm just about ready for a break."

"Tea it is." Buffy told him as she headed back out to the kitchen.

* * *

After one last look around the kitchen to make sure that everything was ready, Buffy stuck her head into the library room. "Time for you two to dust yourselves off. Tea's ready."

A few minutes later Giles came into the kitchen with Angel trailing uncertainly behind.

"Why this is lovely." Giles told her taking in the sandwiches and the teapot sitting above a little candle to keep it warm. "Thank you."

"Mrs. Houser tried her darndest to turn me into a good hostess. I guess some of it actually stuck." Buffy told him, as she took the oversized coffee mug out of the water-bath, stirred the blood one last time with the straw stuck in it, and handed it to Angel. "Hope it's the right temperature. This is one area that Mrs. Houser didn't cover."

Angel gingerly reached out to accept the mug.

"Tea?" Giles asked Buffy holding the pot over her cup.

Buffy gave a dramatic shudder. "No, thank you. I may know how to brew tea the English way, but in true colonial fashion I much prefer to drink coffee instead."

Giles smiled at her and shook his head. "You Americans are a sadly uncivilized lot." Then he looked over to where Angel was still standing motionless, staring at the cup in his hands. "Oh, do sit down, Angel. After all that sawing you deserve a peaceful spot of tea as much as the next man."

After a moment Angel hesitantly sat down and slowly began to sip on the straw.

The two men were arguing over rabbet and dovetail joints when there was a knock on the back door, followed by Wesley sticking his head in: "Buffy? Can I come in?"

"If I say no will you go away?" Buffy asked hopefully.

One corner of Angel's mouth twitched ever so slightly.

Giles raised one of his eyebrows at her: "What happened to being a good hostess?"

Buffy sighed. "What do you want, Wesley?"

Taking that as an invitation Wesley came in. "I contacted the Council to let them know that I found you and that we were able to counteract the Manticore poison. They want to find out more about the formula, so they are sending a team out to talk with Ms. Calendar. They are also going to evaluate you, to make sure you're fully recovered."

"A team. Who?" Buffy asked flatly.

"The same team that you met in Franton." Wesley answered confirming her suspicions.

"Mr. Travers and Dr. Warren are coming here? After they just tried to kill me?" Buffy narrowed her eyes at Wesley.

"But Buffy, the poison..." Wesley began.

He was interrupted by the door opening to reveal the rest of the White Hats plus Cordelia.

"Hey, Buffy!" Sandy exclaimed, oblivious to the tension in the room. "We're going over to the Watery Wilds, and thought you'd like to come."

"The Watery Wilds?" Wesley asked slightly confused.

"New club with really cool lighting." Cordy informed him, then turned to Angel. "You should come, too. It's *the* place to go."

"Thanks Cordelia, but I am helping Giles put up some shelves for his books." Angel told her evenly.

"But you'll come?" Owen asked Buffy with a hopeful expression. "We never got to finish our date at the Winter Brunch. I figure this could be kind of a make-up date?"

Buffy couldn't help but feel flattered at Owen's continued interest in her. "You know, that sounds really nice, but I don't know. I haven't been clubbing in - well, ever."

"Not much to it. You just hang with your friends and dance. I'm sure you can do that without any problem." Sandy pointed out.

"No, she can't." Wesley objected. "Buffy, you are the Slayer. You need to use any free time you have to study and train, not waste it by going off to some - club!"

Buffy had just been about to refuse for exactly those reasons, but hearing Wesley give voice to them instantly changed her mind. "And here I thought the definition of 'Free Time' was to do something non-job-related. How silly of me!"

* * *

Buffy looked around at the pastel colored sheer curtains that hung everywhere, cutting the glare of the sun shining in through the glass roof, creating the illusion of some underwater landscape. "This is amazing."

"Yeah, the Mayor's urban renewal committee actually came up with a winner here." Oz agreed as he pushed through the curtains to lead the way over to a table in the back of the club. "Ever have problems with demons or vampires joining the party?" Buffy couldn't help asking.

"Gee, don't you ever think of anything else?" Cordelia asked slightly disgusted.

Buffy flinched at the truth behind that question, but tried to hide it with a shrug and a nonchalant: "After almost four years of fighting demons and vampires on a daily basis, it's a survival instinct. Better safe than sorry."

"Way to suck the fun out of the - fun. No wonder no one ever asks you to go clubbing with them." Cordy's voice was dripping with pity.

"We did." Owen pointed out.

"I was talking about people that matter." Cordelia said dismissively. "Well, since Angel didn't come, I'll just have to see who else is here." She walked off without a backward glance

"Never mind her. Let's go find a table." Sandy said leading the way deeper in the club.

* * * * *

Alan threw a nervous look over at the vampire standing next to the office doors.

"So where exactly is this Spike guy digging?" The Mayor asked as he weighted down the corners of the map spread on the big conference table.

"He's taken over this section of the sewers just east of Riverside Park." Alan hurriedly returned his attention to the Mayor and indicated the area on the map. "None of our people have actually been able to get a look at the tunnel itself, but it would have to be going west towards the Park. He'd run into sewer tunnels or septic tanks in almost every other direction."

"Hmm, unless of course he's digging down, trying to connect with some of the deeper caves." The Mayor remarked. "Riverside. I'm trying to think what artifacts are buried in that quadrant. - It took me years to have all of them brought here. Not to mention all the work involved in distributing them around the Hellmouth to form just the right balance of forces. If this Spike removes the wrong one, I may have to settle for a less powerful demon-form to ascend to, and in that case I might as well not have bothered at all!"

The Mayor strode over to a cabinet and removed a roll of clear tracing paper and overlaid it on the map. "Just look at the state the world is in now, and we haven't even reached the End of Days yet." The Mayor unrolled the tracing paper on top of the map, lining up certain marks on it with others on the map. "Well, there is the Stone of Varre under the south end of the park, Fedoral's sealed crypt and" The Mayor pointed at some area marked in gray. "unfortunately this."

Alan leaned in for a closer look. "The old landfill? Is there something toxic buried there? You think that he is trying to poison the city?"

"No, no, I would never allow anyone to bury any toxic waste in *my* city! This city is about clean and healthy living. No Lovecanal here!" The Mayor shook his head. "No, but if legend is right, this area is the burial site of some ancient evil. We can't have this Spike character trying to wake that up. The whole world could go straight to hell!"

The Mayor rolled the tracing paper back up. "Well, we'll just have to make sure that that doesn't happen. Brian, who is the current leader of the Sunnydale vampires?"

With a start Alan noticed that the vampire had left his place beside the door and was standing almost directly behind him. Alan shuddered at the eager gleam in his yellow eyes.

"The one with the biggest following would be Willow." Brian told him with a toothy grin.

"Hmm, I wonder what she would say if she knew that there was a new Master trying to horn in on her territory?" The Mayor turned towards Brian and gave him a friendly smile. "I think we should find out, don't you?"

"I will see to it that she finds out as soon as possible." Brian assured the Mayor before leaving with an eager grin.

The Mayor looked after Brian with a thoughtful expression on his face, then turned towards Alan. "Did Brian seem just a bit too eager to you?"

"Ah, I..." Alan shifted nervously. All the vampires in the Mayor's employ always seemed to look at him like a juicy steak that they would be only to happy to eat, if he weren't under the Mayor's personal protection. "Maybe he was hungry?"

"Hmm, what was it about Fedoral's crypt, I wonder..." Coming to a sudden decision, he straightened up. "I think we better call in the Slayer on this one. After all, it is her job to kill vampires. Just in case Spike finds the crypt before he is eliminated by the competition. If he finds the Ring of Amarra it'll cause all kinds of chaos."

"The Ring of Amarra, Sir?" Alan asked confused.

"Buried in the Fedoral crypt. Renders its wearer virtually unkillable - if the wearer happens to be a vampire." The Mayor told him shortly. "It won't do the Slayer any good, but to any vampire it's the equivalent of the Holy Grail."

"But, Sir, what about the rumors that the White Hats have a vampire fighting on their side?" Alan wanted to know.

"Oh, I don't find that very likely, especially since the Slayer has joined them. But there is a very easy way to make certain that any vampire that might be hiding in their midst gets exposed to the light of day. All it'll take is a quick call to an old friend." The Mayor assured him with a smile.

* * 3 * *

Wesley watched as Buffy danced around the punching bag, giving it an occasional jab or kick. Through the open door to the library room he could hear occasional snatches of speech as Angel and Mr. Giles sorted through the books and arranged them on the newly finished shelves.

He checked the time on his watch. "Buffy, it is almost 10 o'clock. You should get cleaned up. Travers and the others will be arriving soon, and you'll want to look presentable when we go to meet them."

Buffy did a quick spin-kick that sent the bag swaying away from her. "I'm meeting with Owen and the others to go to the Watery Wilds at eleven." She told him flatly.

"What?" Wesley asked taken aback. "Buffy you can't! It is vitally important that you make a good impression on Travers and his team. Everything depends on what kind of report he sends back to the Council on you! Especially after what happened in Franton."

Buffy gave an unladylike snort as she gave the bag another punch, accelerating its ponderous swings. "News flash for you, Wesley, I really don't give a rat's tail what the Council thinks of me. I don't need them, and after Franton I think I'd be much better off without them."

Wesley stared at her, speechless, at a loss to understand this sudden hostility towards the Council. "How can you say that? As long as there have been Slayers, there have been Watchers. The Slayer is the weapon, the Watcher the mind that directs it. A Slayer *has* to have a Watcher!"

"I am *not* a mindless weapon. You can't just reduce me to my Slayer-ness and conveniently ignore the rest. I am a person, Wesley, not a tool! And as a person, I am going to go to the Watery Wilds with my friends - not jump through all kinds of stupid hoops for a bunch of withered old sticks that don't have the slightest idea of who I am or - or what it means to be the Slayer!"

Wesley stood open mouthed as she stormed off deeper into the mansion.

"She does have a point, you know." Came Mr. Giles quiet voice from the library door.

Wesley walked over to the sofa and slowly sat down.

"I'd like to see you try to explain that point to Quentin Travers." Wesley told him dryly. "He is coming to evaluate Buffy. How am I going to explain to him that she isn't here? 'Sorry, my Slayer is unhappy about the Council trying to kill her instead of looking for a cure after she was poisoned, so she went - clubbing - with some local teens'? I'd be fired faster than you can say - Huffelpuff!"

"Why don't you call Ms. Calendar and arrange for them to speak to her about the Manticore cure today? Then you can talk to Buffy tonight. But I suggest that you think carefully about what you're going to say to her. I don't think simply ordering to cooperate will have the desired effect." With that Mr. Giles turned and went back to organizing the new research library.

* * * * *

The house was quiet. Deserted, except for him and the vampire helping him shelve the books they had brought over from the library. Buffy had gone off to the Watery Wilds in spite of Wesley's repeated efforts to convince her that she was only making matters worse for herself by refusing to cooperate with Travers' team of Watchers. Wesley himself had left shortly thereafter to see if Ms. Calendar would be willing to help him distract the Council's representatives from the fact that Buffy had chosen this time to rebel against her Watcher.

There was no love lost between Giles and the Watchers, not since what had happened with the Harvest, and Giles couldn't deny that he would enjoy watching Buffy give Quentin Travers a piece of her mind. But he didn't feel that this was the time for Buffy to take a break from her duties as the Slayer to amuse herself at some club. Not when they were faced with a serious threat in the form of Spike and his men and might well need to call on Council resources to help them defeat it.

He had not missed the fact that Angel had stuck close to the Slayer during last night's patrol, clearly worried about the young girl's safety. And given Angel's history and experience, Giles was inclined to take his judgement over Wesley's easy dismissal of Spike as a threat.

Thoughtfully running a hand along the back of the book he was about to shelve, he turned to the other man. "Angel, do you have *any* idea why Spike would want these Du Lac artifacts?"

"From what I know about Du Lac's brotherhood, they did a lot of research into the dark arts, - rituals, spells, that sort of thing. But the Spike I knew never had much interest in any of that." Angel put the book he was holding on the shelf before he turned to look at Giles. "He preferred the direct, hands-on approach. If he had a weakness it was his impatience, which could make him abandon a well laid plan out of simple boredom, - unless he had a powerful incentive to stick with it."

Giles felt a shiver run down his back at the slight smile that accompanied that last remark. He found himself wondering uneasily what type of incentive Angel might have given Spike to make him stick to his plans.

One of the first things Giles had done after he had invited Angel to stay at his house was to investigate the vampire's past. There had been nothing for the last one hundred years or so, but what he found of his activities prior to that had been extremely vicious and sadistic even by vampire standards.

Most times it was easy enough to forget that Angel was in fact a powerful vampire much older than Giles himself. He had found himself actually enjoying his company at times. He was well read and quite knowledgeable in the ancient languages and matters concerning the occult. But always there would come moments like this one, where he would catch a glimpse of what lay hidden below the façade of the quiet young man he appeared to be.

"So you think that Buffy is wrong?" Giles asked him.

"I don't know. From what she said, it sounded like these artifacts played an important role in something that happened in that parallel world she went to a month ago." Angel tensed and narrowed his eyes. "Maybe this is something Drusilla thought up. Spike would do almost anything for her."

"What is it?" Giles frowned.

Angel only motioned for him to be quiet as he moved stealthily towards the still partially open door. Giles watched in amazement as the vampire darted through, almost too fast for the eye to follow. There was some commotion, then the vampire was back dragging in a smaller man by the scruff his neck.

"Hey, hey, is that any way to treat a harmless visitor?" The little man protested loudly.

"Harmless?" Angel remarked in an amused voice as he knocked off his wide hat, revealing four small horns.

"So I'm a demon. Doesn't mean that I'm a bad person! In fact I came here to offer the Slayer some very valuable information." The little demon continued. "In exchange for one tiny favor."

"The Slayer is not really in the habit of doing favors for demons." Giles pointed out.

"Look, all I want is a safe-pass that will get me on a ship to Hong Kong and out of Sunnydale and in exchange I'll tell you what that new vampire, Spike, is up to before it's too late stop him. I heard that the Slayer is real interested in him." The demon craned his neck around to look up at Angel still holding him. "And do you think you could let go of me now? It's not very comfortable to have someone choking you, you know."

Angel let go of his neck and went to stand next to Giles his arms folded in front of him.

"Who told you that the Slayer was interested in Spike?" Angel asked suspiciously.

"I overheard it while I was delivering the Books of Ascension to the Mayor." The demon told him.

"If you work for the Mayor why don't you just ask him to give you the necessary safe-pass?" Giles wanted to know. "He should be able to get you the necessary papers much easier than the Slayer could."

When the demon hesitated to answer the question Angel filled the answer in for him. "Because it is the Mayor he is trying to get away from, am I right?"

"Well, excuse me if I prefer to play it safe and not be anywhere near here when he makes his ascension! You would too if you had had a chance to look at those books. You'll be lucky if there is anything of the town left standing at the end of it!" The demon told Angel slightly insulted. "I haven't lived this long by taking unnecessary chances."

Giles threw a questioning look over at Angel only to have the vampire shake his head almost imperceptibly, indicating that he didn't know what the demon was talking about any more than Giles did.

"This ascension you are talking about, what exactly is it and what makes you think that the Mayor is planning to destroy Sunnydale?" Giles asked the little demon.

"Nah-ah, I'm not touching that one. You squeal on the Mayor and you might as well make your funeral arrangements - if there is anything left to bury after he gets through with you that is. You want to know what the Mayor is up to, you go ask him yourself!" The demon shook his head vigorously and edged away from them.

Giles decided to leave that line of inquiry for the moment. "What about Spike then?"

"Spike, well, you know..." The demon suddenly turned and lunged towards the window beside him. Angel darted forward to grab a hold of him again, but the demon had enough momentum built up to drag Angel with him into the sunlight streaming in through the window. Angel's arm caught fire and the demon managed to wriggle free and jump through the window.

* * *

Giles finished bandaging the vampire's singed arm and closed the first aid kit. "So, what do you make of what that little demon said?"

Angel pulled on a fresh shirt with a sigh. "I don't know anything about this ascension the Mayor supposedly is planning, but from the sounds of it Spike is the more immediate threat, and I think I have a way to find out more about what he is planning."

"And that would be?" Giles asked.

"I go and ask him." Angel told him simply.

Giles felt his jaw drop open. "What? Even if you could trick him into telling you, how do you expect to get back... - oh." Realization dawned slowly. "You're going to pretend..."

"Yeah." Angel confirmed Giles' speculation with a slight grimace. "And I better do it now. I know, Buffy asked me not to go anywhere without her, but I'm not sure this can wait until she gets back."

"Not to mention the fact that your act is going to be much less convincing if you show up with the Slayer in tow." Giles agreed reluctantly. "Are you sure this is worth the risk you'll be taking?"

Angel shrugged. "If there aren't any of the local vampires that know me with Spike, I should be safe enough."

"That is rather a big if." Giles ran one hand through his hair. "Unfortunately I can't think of any better way, and that little demon did make it sound like we don't have much time to waste. In the meantime I will take a look at our newly organized books and see if I can find out what exactly an ascension is."

* * 4 * *

"Earth to Giles! Anybody home?"

Giles looked up from the book he had been trying to translate, startled to find Buffy standing next to him, an amused expression on her face. "Sorry to interrupt the Greek chorus singing in your ears." Buffy craned her neck to get a look at the books spread out on the table in front of him. "What are you reading?"

"I'm looking for any mention of something called an ascension," Giles told her. "But so far no luck."

"Ascension, huh?" Buffy pushed some of the books aside and sat down on the edge of the table. "Who's planing to ascend to what?"

"Possibly the Mayor of Sunnydale, and I have no idea as to what." Giles pushed up his glasses and massaged the bridge of his nose.

"Did you ask Angel? He might know something." Buffy threw a quick look around the room. "Where is he anyway?"

"He went to find out what Spike is up to, and no, he doesn't know anything about an ascension." With a sigh Giles reached for the next book in the stack beside his elbow.

Buffy jumped off the table. "And you just let him go?"

"He's been alive for more than 200 years. He can take care of himself." Giles pointed out to her. "Besides, his plan has a better chance of success than trying to chase down that little Xangi demon in hopes of getting it to talk."

"What Xangi demon?" Buffy asked a little confused.

Giles quickly filled her in on what had happened while she had been gone.

"And you didn't even try to follow it?" Buffy demanded.

"Angel caught fire just trying to stop it from jumping out the window. And the Slayer was otherwise occupied." Giles told her reprovingly.

"Is he alright?"

Seeing the chastised expression on her face, Giles relented with a sigh. "I hope so. No matter what he says, he is taking quite a chance going into Spike's lair pretending to be his old self."

"He did what?!" Buffy had turned as white as a sheet. "Giles, how could you? They're going to kill him to restore Drusilla."

Giles frowned at her. "What are you talking about?"

"Drusilla, Angel's her Sire. The Du Lac ritual will restore a weakened vampire by siphoning the power from the Sire, killing him in the process!" Buffy told him agitated.

Giles blinked. "Does Angel know that?"

Buffy shook her head as she started to leave the room. "I have to stop him!"

"Buffy, he left almost an hour ago. I doubt you'd catch up with him before he reaches Spike." Giles got up and followed her out into the main room. "And what if you're wrong about Spike's plan? If you barge in there and blow his cover, all you're likely to achieve is to get both of you killed!"

Buffy ignored him, heading towards her room, and before he could try again the telephone rang.

Giles picked it up impatiently. "Yes?"

"Hello, Mr. Giles," came Wesley's voice, "I went to speak to Buffy at the club, to try and get her to relent, but she wasn't there."

"She's here." Giles told him curtly.

"Oh, good! I knew she would come to her senses." Wesley sounded relieved. "We'll be right over."

"Wesley..." Giles began, but the line was dead.

Giles hung up the phone as Buffy came back into the room, now dressed in her slaying gear and equipped with weapons.

"Buffy, you don't even know where Spike is holed up." Giles pointed out to her. "Why don't you give Angel some time..."

"And possibly trade a fully empowered Drusilla for a dead Angel? No thanks." Buffy interrupted him.

"What about Wesley and the Council team? They are on their way over right now..." Giles shifted his angle of attack.

Buffy didn't even bother to answer.

"Buffy..." Giles trailed off as the door slammed shut behind her.

For the first time he found himself feeling sorry for Wesley, caught between this headstrong Slayer and the Council. With a sigh he went back to his books.

* * * * *

Wesley led the way into the mansion. "Ms. Summers?"

For a moment there was no answer, then Mr. Giles stepped out of the library room holding an open book.

"She left to investigate a tip we received on what Spike has planned," he told Wesley. Then he turned to face the little group of Watchers. "Hello, Quentin." "Rupert." Travers responded with a haughty nod.

Wesley could almost feel the temperature in the room drop as the two older men stared at each other across the length of the room.

"Is that what you're researching - Spike's new plan?" Wesley asked in an effort to break the tension.

Giles looked down at the book in his hands. "Actually I'm looking for something called an 'ascension,' but so far I haven't had much luck."

"Ascension?" Wesley frowned trying to place that name. "Do you have a copy of the Marenschadt Text?"

"Second bookcase, third shelf," Giles answered, and Wesley went looking for the half-remembered passage, forgetting for the moment about Travers and the others.

"Ah, yes, yes, here we are. In the section on genocide there's a reference to the journal of Desmond Kane, pastor of a town called Sharpsville." Wesley, proud to have remembered correctly, began to read from the book. "May 26, 1723. Tomorrow is the Ascension. God help us all." He looked up from the book at Mr. Giles. "That's the last anyone heard."

"Of Kane?" Giles asked him.

Wesley shook his head in dismay. "Of Sharpsville. The town more or less disappeared."

"An ascension is a supposed to be a way to become a true demon." Dr. Warren spoke up from besides Mr. Travers. "About eight hundred years ago in the Kastka Valleys above the Urals, there was supposed to be a sorcerer there who achieved Ascension and became the embodiment of the demon Lohesh, a four-winged soul-killing demon. The monk that wrote down the report claims to have been the only survivor."

"But Spike is a vampire, why would he want to ascend?" Wesley asked a bit confused.

"A vampire trying to turn into a Greater Demon! What utter nonsense." Mr. Travers snorted contemptuously. "Where did you get this tip? Another vampire? I would say that this 'tip' can be safely ignored."

"Just like you decided that the tip about the Harvest was utter nonsense?" Giles countered, sharp sarcasm coloring his voice. "You certainly have infallible instincts when it comes to these kinds of things."

Wesley watched fascinated as Mr. Travers turned an unbecoming shade of mauve, looking ready to explode, but Mr. Giles didn't give him any time for a rebuttal.

"And this doesn't concern Spike. This tip concerns the Mayor of Sunnydale."

To Wesley's surprise instead of launching into an irate rebuttal, Mr. Travers calmed instantly.

"The Mayor. I should have guessed," Travers said with a sneer. "It may be a time-honored tradition to discredit your accuser in an effort to discredit their accusations, but I assure you that it will not work with me. I am disappointed that you think so little of me, Rupert."

"You have no idea how *little* I think of you, Quentin - besides wishing that you would roast in the hell your stupidity helped create, that is. Would you mind telling me what the *devil* you are talking about?" Mr. Giles asked.

"What better way to distract from your own demonic connections? The Mayor has a sterling record. He is the one that kept this town together despite all the recent disasters. He set a shining example for all the other cities around the world to follow. I can't believe that you would stoop to dragging his reputation into the mud." Travers elaborated.

"What demonic connections?" Mr. Giles leaned back against the doorframe to the library and brushed his fingers over a tattoo on his right arm just visible below his rolled up sleeves.

Wesley thought he sounded a bit defensive and wondered why.

"I'm talking about hiding a vampire spy in the ranks of your so called 'White Hats' of course." Mr. Travers finished triumphantly.

"What?!?" Wesley burst out in disbelief. "This is absolutely preposterous! I myself have worked closely with all of them, and I can assure you that I would have spotted it immediately if one of them had been a vampire. No vampire would be able to hide its nature from any Watcher worth his salt!"

Mr. Travers just looked from Wesley to Mr. Giles and back. "I guess we'll see if you're worth your salt then, won't we?"

* * * * *

Spike stepped into the room he had set aside as their bedroom and looked down at his sleeping goddess. She still looked so beautiful, even though she was but a shadow of the vampire she used to be. He was almost afraid to touch her, afraid that she would shatter into a thousand motes of dust.

Leaning down he brushed the lightest of kisses against her forehead. "Dru, baby, wake up sweetheart."

Her eyes opened and fastened on him with a dreamy expression.

"Spike." A slow smile spread across her face. "I was dreaming."

"About our future?" Spike asked running one hand through her silky dark hair barely able to rein in his excitement. "We've found it, Dru. The Crypt. We're about to break through its floor."

"The gem of Amarra..." Dru's eyes lit up at the mention of it.

"Your cure." He held out a hand to help her up.

She melted into his embrace. "My cure. Oh, Spike it has been so long!"

"Forever," he agreed fervently, holding her as if she were made of spun, all the while longing for so much more. Soon, he told himself, soon she would be strong again. His black goddess of death. And together they would paint the world red. "We'll have a party."

"With flowers and dancing." Drusilla closed her eyes and leaned back in his arms.

"Anything you like, pet." Spike promised her.

"And we'll invite my Angel." Dru suggested with a dreamy smile.

"Dru," Spike told her exasperated, "when are you going to get through your beautiful head that he's dead?"

Drusilla pulled away from him with a whimper and picked up one of her dolls, clutching it to her chest.

Spike immediately regretted his harsh tone. "Sorry, pet. You want to invite a bloody ghost to your party, you go right ahead. Might be fun to have him scare the other guests."

Dru only curled up tighter around her little doll.

"Come on, ducks," Spike coaxed her, "let's find you that gem. Make you feel all better."

"Do you love me, Spike?" Dru's pitiful expression cut straight to his heart.

"Eyeballs to entrails, my sweet." He reassured her.

Giving him a wavering smile she finally uncurled from around her doll and let him lead her out of the room.

* * 5 * *

Spike helped Drusilla up through the hole, then looked around the dusty crypt.

"And how am I supposed to find the gem in all of this?" He asked disgustedly. "This place is a royal mess!"

"Shh," Drusilla laid one hand on his chest, "I'll find it, never you fret."

With that she closed her eyes and slowly started to move around the crowded crypt. Spike followed her, keeping one hand on her arm to guide her around the obstacles in her path.

Finally she stopped in front of a table holding a collection of jewelry and weapons. She picked up a small ring and slid it home on her finger.

Spike could see the strength return to her transparent features. Her eyes slowly opened and the fire that snapped in their depth chased any remaining doubt away.

"You're back." He made no attempt to stop the silly smile he felt spreading across his face.

Drusilla returned his smile with one of her own. "I want to have my party," she looked around the crypt, "right here."

"There isn't enough room in here to turn around, ducks, much less have a party. You won't be able to invite any guest if we have a party in here." Spike pointed out to her. "Tell you what, I'll have the boys haul this stuff down into the main hall and we'll have your party there."

"It'll be a great party." Drusilla grinned at him. "You'll never forget it, I'll promise."

* * *

Spike walked into the main cavern rubbing his hands together. "Okay, people, I want you to go through the stuff up in the crypt and bring down anything that's halfway decent. We're going to give a party for the vampires of Sunnydale."

"A party? What's the occasion?"

Spike spun around his mouth dropping open at the sound of that voice. "Angelus?"

"Hello, Spike." Angelus sauntered into the room as if he owned it.

"My Angel!" Drusilla exclaimed delighted as she followed Spike into the cavern.

"Hey, Dru." For a moment Spike thought that he saw something like surprise flicker across Angelus face. "You're looking especially radiant tonight."

"It's the nice ring my Spike gave me." Drusilla held her hand out for her Sire's inspection.

Drusilla let out a girlish giggle as Angelus drew her hand up to his lips and kissed it lightly.

"I'll be damned!" Spike shook his head in amazement. "Should have known better than to write you off! How did you get in here though?"

"Just walked in." Angelus shrugged, dropping Drusilla's hand. "You really should have someone out there watching your perimeter."

"I did." Spike grabbed one of the vampires carrying an armload of swords and spears in from the crypt. "You. Go get a couple of your mates and check on the guards out in the tunnels."

He watched to make sure that his orders were obeyed then turned back to Angelus. "God, it's been ages! So, what's new with you?"

"Everything." Angelus told him, a sardonic smile playing across his lips.

Spike grinned. Same old Angelus, still working hard on his vampire image. Spike himself had never cared much for all the fancy frills that Angelus put into all he did, much too elaborate and time consuming.

"So what are you doing here in Sunnydale?"

Angelus looked down at his hands. "Making new friends and enemies. You know that the Master is dead?"

"Heard that he opened the Hellmouth." Spike grimaced. "Stupid idea that, if you ask me. I liked the world much better before it got so damn crowded. You used to be able to just go out and take your pick of who you wanted to bite." Spike shook his head. "Not anymore. Now you're lucky to find anything halfway decent to eat. - Who finally killed the old bat?"

"Actually, he did."

Spike turned to see a red-haired girl in a skintight black leather outfit walking into the room followed by a big group of vampires that quickly spread out behind her.

"Really?" Spike regarded his Sire with newfound respect. "And who is this girl then?"

"That," Angelus said flatly, "would be one of the enemies I made."

"I don't like her, Spike," Dru complained, "she makes my head feel all funny."

"We won't invite her to your party then, ducks." Spike answered her automatically.

"But I came all this way just to get my party favor." The redhead told him with a lazy grin. "A certain little gem?"

"The ring is mine! My Spikey gave it to *me*." Drusilla said cradling the hand with the ring against her chest.

"Dru..." Spike sighed exasperated. Why did she have to go and let them know she had it? He shook his head and turned his attention back to his opponent. "Forget it, red. No party favors for uninvited guests. I'm afraid you'll just have to leave without it."

"My name is Willow, not red." All sleepiness vanished from her expression just before she morphed into her vampire face. "And I always get what I want, don't I, Puppy?"

Puppy? Spike threw a questioning glance in Angelus direction and was not surprised at the hatred snapping in his eyes as he watched Willow. Well, at least he didn't have to wonder who his Sire would side with in the upcoming fight, and Angelus had always been a fighter to be reckoned with. Feeling more confident, despite the fact that the odds were against them, Spike gave Willow a cocky smile.

"Not this time," he told her confidently even as he launched himself at the nearest vampire.

Angelus followed right behind him. The two of them automatically fell into fighting as a team the way they had done so often before Angelus had disappeared. Spike was having a gay old time of it. Or he did until he was distracted from pummeling a shorthaired blonde by Dru calling his name.

Tossing the blonde at Angelus, who promptly staked her, Spike looked around for Dru.

He spotted her being held between two burly vampires. A third, dark-haired vampire was pulling the ring off her hand while the red-haired leader stood watching them with a smile.

Picking up a splinter from a smashed chair with each hand, Spike barreled across the room and staked the two vampires on Drusilla's right.

Willow screamed "Xander!" even as the burly vampire holding onto Drusilla went up in a cloud of dust. To Spike's surprise the other one just stared down at the stake protruding from his chest, then back up at Spike. A cold smile slowly spread across Xander's face as he wrapped one hand around the stake and pulled it back out.

Spike stared in disbelief as the wound closed up as if it had never been and had to stumble back to avoid getting staked himself.

Drusilla let out an enraged scream as she shifted into her vampire face and launched herself at Xander. "Nobody hurts my Spike!" she hissed at him. Her fingers clawed deep, bloody furrows down the side of Xander's face but they healed over almost as soon as they appeared.

Letting out an annoyed growl and shifting into his vamp face. Xander pushed Drusilla off him impatiently, and Spike watched horrified as the stake in Xander's hand buried itself in Drusilla's chest.

"Spike..." Drusilla whispered, reaching out for him even as she crumbled to dust.

A scream forcing its way up from the depths of his chest, Spike kicked out against Xander's leg. Xander threw his hands up, trying to keep his balance. A sword blade came whistling through the air. Spike caught a flash of green as a severed hand sailed through the air, but at that moment he couldn't have cared less where the Gem of Amarra went. All that he could see was the look on Drusilla's face as she turned to dust.

Ripping the sword out of Angelus' grip, Spike launched himself at Xander, who was cradling his bleeding wrist against his chest. He could have easily killed him by cutting off his head, but that would have been too easy. He wanted to make him pay for killing Drusilla - to make him hurt the way Spike himself was hurting.

* * * * *

Buffy stalked along the sewer tunnel. She had beaten up the first vampire she had run into, making it tell her where Spike's lair was, but she was still angry. And the irritating thing was that she couldn't decide who she was angry with. Angel for breaking his promise of not going anywhere without her, Giles for letting him go, or herself for not telling Angel what Spike had planned for him.

She heard a pair of footsteps echoing through the tunnels, coming closer, and pressed herself into a little niche in the wall. Peeking around the edge she spotted one vampire being chased by a second one. Letting the first run past her, she stepped in front of its pursuer and staked him in one smooth motion.

Throwing a look after the fleeing vampire, she continued on her way.

As she reached the next bend in the tunnel she caught muffled sounds of fighting coming from further ahead.

She broke into a run, telling herself firmly that they wouldn't kill Angel, since they needed him alive for the ritual and if they were fighting, they couldn't be doing the ritual, so Angel had to still be alive.

She hoped.

She never heard the vampire coming towards her until she rounded the next corner and ran straight into him.

They tumbled to the floor together.

"I really don't have time for this!" Buffy said as she buried a stake in the vampire's heart. But instead of bursting into ash the vampire just laughed in her face and wrapped both of his hands around her throat.

One part of her mind noted the fact that the crosses on her choker weren't burning him, but most of her attention was focused on keeping him from choking her. She kicked him hard between the legs. It didn't quite have the desired effect, but it made him flinch away enough that she was able to plant a foot in his stomach and kick him off her.

Gasping for air, she forced herself back to her feet. "Whatever happened to exploding into dust like any self-respecting vamp?" she gasped.

The vampire gave her a toothy grin. "Got myself a little life insurance."

"What is it?" Buffy asked, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and ripping it open. "Some kind of amulet?"

"Of course not!" The vampire scoffed. But he looked a lot less smug and Buffy saw him putting his left hand behind his back. "Okay, if it isn't an amulet," Buffy darted behind him, wrapped one arm around his neck and pulled his hand up to look at it, "how about a ring?"

"No! Don't touch that, or it'll kill us both!" The vampire warned her, sounding really scared now.

"Oh yeah?"

Buffy forced his hand up where she could reach it with her other one and pulled the ring off the squirming vampire's hand. The only thing that happened was the vampire struggling even harder to get free.

Tightening her arm around his neck, Buffy stuffed the ring into her pocket and pulled out a stake instead.

"No! Please wait. I have information. Valuable information about the Mayor!" The vampire sounded desperate now.

"Like what?" Buffy didn't try to disguise the contempt she felt.

"I bet you didn't know that he is planning to become a demon!" The vampire told her triumphantly.

"Ritual of Ascension," Buffy told him impatiently. "Tell me something I don't know. Like how to kill him."

"You can't kill him. Nothing can harm him. One of the Fyarl demons got mad one day and cleaved his head in half with its axe, right down to his chin." The vampire licked his lips nervously. "It just melted back together, and he laughed. Laughed! And then he had the same done to the Fyarl, using his own axe."

Buffy could feel the vampire shiver against her.

"Well, that isn't very helpful now, is it?" Buffy asked him, refusing to acknowledge the dread she felt creeping up her spine. "Since you don't have anything of value to tell me..."

Buffy pushed the stake deeper into his chest.

"Wait! I helped design the Watery Wilds for him. He wanted to have a place where there would be a lot of kids for him to eat right after he turns into a demon!" The vampire added hurriedly. "Doesn't that help?"

Buffy pretended to think about it. "What would help would be to know what type of demon, and when," she told him and felt him sag in her grip.

"I don't know," the vampire admitted sounding defeated.

"Too bad," Buffy told him as she slid the stake home.

Dusting herself off, she hurried down the tunnel following the sounds of fighting.

She blinked her eyes in disbelief as she took in the scene in the cavern before her. There were vampires fighting each other everywhere. Willow and Spike were hissing and spitting at each other like two enraged cats, fighting next to a badly mutilated body curled in on itself.

Her first thought was that that must be Angel and her heart almost stopped. But then the she got a better look at it and realized that it was Xander.

Dismissing him from her thoughts she looked around for Angel and spotted him off to her left. He had been backed into a corner by four other vampires, and the only reason they hadn't taken him down yet was that they couldn't all get at him at the same time.

Hurrying over, she staked one, kicked two others out of the way, grabbed a hold of Angel's hand and pulled him towards the exit.

Angel looked back over his shoulder and slowed as they neared the exit. "Spike."

"We'll stake him some other time." Buffy told him, tugging harder. "We're way outnumbered here."

After another moment of hesitation Angel let her pull him out into the tunnels.

* * 6 * *

"You think I'm a what?" Cordelia's outraged voice rang across the room. "Please! My fashion sense alone should be proof enough that I'm no vampire!"

"Yes, Cordelia," Giles tried to speed things along, in the hopes of getting the Council team out of here before Buffy and Angel came back, "but why don't you touch that cross anyway - just to humor them?"

Giving a long suffering sigh, Cordelia reached out and put one hand on top of the cross, then pulled it back with a look of horror and quickly hid it in the folds of her skirt.

"Aha!" Quentin pounced on Cordelia and pulled up her hand.

"Hey, you big creep, get your filthy paws off of me!" Cordelia protested even as Quentin pushed a cross up against the side of her face. "What do you think you're doing?" She asked as she pushed the cross away. "You'll mess up my foundation!"

Giles watched amused as Quentin stared at her unmarked cheek, then at the cross in his hand.

"But, but," Quentin sputtered, "your hand – why did you pull it away if the cross didn't burn you?"

"A broken nail?" Sandy suggested innocently.

"From staking that junkie vampire last night. There is a limit to how much one individual should have to sacrifice for the common good!" Cordelia told the bewildered Watchers.

"Truly a monumental sacrifice." Giles remarked sarcastically.

"At least someone around her appreciates me!" Cordelia said shooting a glare at the rest of the White Hats.

"I appreciate you." Wesley told her sincerely.

Giles barely kept from rolling his eyes at Wesley. Buffy might find her Watcher's infatuation with Cordelia amusing but Giles thought it was nothing short of irritating.

"So is that all of your White Hats?" Dr. Warren asked Giles, but it was Cordelia that answered.

"Yeah - except for Buffy and Angel. And it's not that I don't appreciate you sending them, but you sure took your sweet old time about it. We really could have used them here three years ago when this whole thing first started!" Giles groaned inwardly at Cordelia's mention of Angel.

"Angel? Who is this Angel?" Quentin demanded.

"Cute guy who knows how to dress with some style," Cordelia threw a disparaging look at Larry and Owen, "unlike some people around here. - Even if he does always go with dark on dark. Where is he anyway? He never goes out during the day."

Giles could cheerfully have throttled Cordelia for adding that last part.

"Rupert?" Quentin raised his eyebrows at him.

His hands itched with the need to wipe that smug expression of the older man's face. "He went to spy on Spike." He told him shortly, for the first time glad that the vampire had insisted on going.

"How convenient for you." Quentin said dryly.

"What's convenient?" Giles heart sank as he heard Buffy's voice.

"Ms. Summers." Quentin greeted her, but his eyes were locked on Angel following in Buffy's shadow. "Hiding in the basement? I thought you were out spying on some vampire?"

Buffy stopped just inside the room and folded her arms across her body. "We were. We just came up from the sewers."

"Why not use the nearest manhole?" Quentin asked blandly.

Buffy eyed the older man warily. "It tends to scare people when things pop out of the ground - they can get downright hostile. What's this all about?"

"Oh, old foggy here claims one of us is a vampire." Cordelia told her with a huff. "He's been using it as an excuse to paw people and stick crosses in their faces."

"A vampire." Buffy's eyebrows shot up at that. Then a slight smile tugged at one corner of her mouth. "Crosses, huh?"

Giles watched her stick a hand into one of her pockets then reach back without turning around and take a hold of Angel's left hand. He saw Angel's eyes widen in surprise and thought he saw a flash of green as the vampire pulled his hand away from Buffy and stuffed it into his pants pocket.

"Was this your idea?" Buffy asked her Watcher.

"It most certainly was not!" Wesley told her firmly. "I assured him that there was no way a vampire could have hidden its nature from a fully trained Watcher like me," then he added almost as an afterthought, "or from a Slayer, for that matter."

"The tip came from the Mayor of Sunnydale." Giles informed her dryly.

"Did it? What a charming fellow." Buffy shook her head. "Just wait till you hear what I found out about him while I was out looking for Angel."

Giles felt like throwing his hands up. Was she *trying* to draw attention to Angel?

"I thought the two of you went out together?" Quentin threw a speculative look at Giles, who he hoped that his face showed none of the frustration he felt.

"No, I went after him once Giles told me where he had gone." Buffy told him with a smile.

"And you didn't think him going out like that suspicious?" Quentin asked her contemptuously.

"Reckless and stupid, yes." Buffy said throwing a hard look at Angel, who ducked his head. "Suspicious? No."

Giles attempted to change the subject one last time. "Buffy, you said that you found out something more about the Mayor?"

Buffy nodded. "Wants to turn into a demon. Don't know what kind, or when, only that he has to chow down on a bunch of kids right after and that he is planing to use the Watery Wilds as his smorgasbord."

"That would pretty much ruin the only good club around." Oz said from where he sat on the edge of the table. "I say we take him out before he turns into a demon."

"Easier said than done." Buffy told him. "He's supposed to be invulnerable. One of his demon underlings got mad and split his head open with an ax - didn't kill him."

"Just because he can't be killed doesn't mean he can't be defeated." Angel pointed out. "There was this demon, called forth to separate the righteous from the wicked – and burn the righteous down..."

"Called the Judge. He couldn't be killed either, right?" Wesley chimed in.

Angel nodded. "A whole army was sent against him. Most of them died but they were able to dismember him. The pieces were scattered... buried in every corner of the Earth."

"Eeew! How gross it that!" Cordelia wrinkled up her nose in disgust.

"We'll use it as a last resort." Buffy assured her. "Let's first find out..."

Travers interrupted Buffy, pointing an accusing finger at her. "Don't think that I don't know what you're trying to do here, young lady!"

"My job?" Buffy batted her eyes at him innocently.

Travers glared at her. "It is the Slayer's job to kill vampires, not to protect them."

"Oh, for the love of God!" Wesley exclaimed exasperated. "This is ridiculous!"

Giles tensed as Wesley pulled out a cross and tossed it to Angel, then felt his jaw drop as the vampire calmly caught it and turned it curiously between his hands, completely unaffected by it.

"Now can we concentrate on finding out if this ascension threat is real and what to do about it?" Wesley asked throwing a challenging look around the room. "Good. Dr. Warren would you please contact the archivists and ask them so send us whatever they can find on this ritual of Ascension? The rest of us will start with the books we have here."

Giles was only half listening, his mouth dropping open as he watched Angel walk over to stand in the beam of sunlight streaming in through the nearest window.

"I could do an online search." Oz suggested. "And we could ask Ms. Calendar to see what she can find out from her contacts."

At the mention of Ms. Calendar, Giles pulled his attention away from the puzzle of Angel's sudden immunity to sunlight and crosses.

"I'll go talk to her." He volunteered, glad that this would give him an excuse to avoid the other Watchers.

"Good." Wesley gave his approval, then turned to Buffy and Angel: "What about Spike and Drusilla?"

"Drusilla is dead. Xander staked her." Angel told him, one hand pressed up against the glass of the window.

"And the last I saw of Spike, he and Willow were busy killing each other." Buffy added.

"I'd love to stick around, flipping through musty old books, but I have to pick up my dress for tomorrow's Valentine's dance, and find a press-on that will *stay* on." With that Cordelia picked up her sweater and left.

Oz held up a hand to get everyone's attention. "Ah, guys? The dance - the Mayor is supposed to be there, presenting the awards for the poetry competition."

"Is it at the Watery Wilds?" Buffy wanted to know.

"No." Sandy answered. "And the Mayor shows up at most of these functions - since they are sponsored by City Hall as part of their Urban Renewal program."

"And don't forget that we have only a demon's word that the Mayor is planing to ascend at all." Travers reminded them all ponderously. "Let's not jump to any hasty conclusions here."

"Such as thinking that one of the White Hats is a vampire?" Wesley asked Travers blandly.

"That information did *not* come from a demon!" Travers defended himself.

"No, only a wanna-be demon." Buffy countered.

"Whether or not that Xangi was telling the truth – it might still be a good idea if Buffy went to any function with both the Mayor and a lot of kids present until we know more about this." Giles held up a hand to forestall Quentin Travers' protest. "Just as a precaution."

Travers pressed his mouth together into a thin line, but remained quiet.

"I've again been asked to act as a chaperone," Giles continued, "I think I can bring Wesley along for support, the way I did for the Winter Brunch. I don't know what reason we could give for any of the other Watchers to be there, but it might be a good idea if you and your people kept close as well. If something *should* happen, we will need as many people that will keep their head and know how fight as we can get."

"I have an idea how we can bring in a couple more Watchers – us girls could take some as dates." Sandy suggested, eyeing one of the younger Watchers standing behind Dr. Warren.

Giles' eyebrows shot up. "That – is actually a very good idea. Quentin, if you could pick four good fighters from the younger members of your team..."

"Three," Buffy interrupted him. "I'll take Angel. He's the best fighter we have."

"Ooh, Cordy is going to kill you!" Sandy crowed delighted. "After everything she's tried to get him to go on a date with her..."

Buffy shot a withering glare in Sandy's direction. "This is not a date," she corrected her, "this is strictly business!"

* * 7 * *

"How are you coming with that text the archivists faxed us?" Dr. Warren asked.

Intent on finishing the last passage, Angel answered him without looking up. "Almost done."

"Indeed?" Dr. Warren looked up from his book in surprise. "You actually recognize the language?"

"It's Tharsy, an obscure demonic language that was adopted by the Brothers of Aurelius," Angel answered preoccupied. "The text does talk about Lohesh - as well as several other true demons, but I don't think it's going to be of much help."

"You know Tharsy?" Dr. Warren asked, clearly impressed.

"And just how," Quentin Travers demanded, coming up next to him, "did you learn a language that has eluded the Council's best demonologists for years?"

Angel put down his pen and met Travers' challenging stare evenly. "Learned it from a lady I met."

"Oh?" That one syllable held a world of speculation.

"I'd been stuck at home all of my life, and she offered to show me the world. I was young and she was beautiful." Angel explained shortly, getting up from his chair.

Dr. Warren nodded his understanding and started to read Angel's translation, but Mr. Travers demanded incredulously: "And you just took her up on that invitation?"

"I had no idea what I was getting myself into." Angel told him with a slight grimace at the understatement contained in those words. It had been Darla, his Sire, that had taught him Tharsy – as well as a lot of other things. "Eventually I came to my senses," – 'when the gypsies cursed me with my soul' – "and we parted company."

"And just who – or should I say what? - was this lady; and what did you do during your time with her?" Travers asked suspiciously.

'Killed and tortured a lot of people – and enjoyed it,' Angel thought, but out loud he said: "Saw the world, just like she had promised."

Travers was about to dig deeper, but Dr. Warren interrupted him. "Oh, let the man be, Quentin. A few youthful indiscretions do not make him an evil person or - as you suspected - a vampire."

Angel winced slightly at just how far off from the truth that statement was – on all counts.

Dr. Warren saw it and gave him an encouraging smile. "We all have things in our past that we'd rather not talk about. The important part is that you did come to your senses, and whatever regrets you have from that time, don't forget the good that came from it. Both Mr. Wyndham-Pryce and Ms. Summers have mentioned your fighting skills, but the knowledge you acquired during that time might prove even more valuable than that."

'Not valuable enough to make up even for a tenth of what I did after becoming a vampire' Angel thought, but stayed quiet.

"There are other writings I would like you to take a look at, if you don't mind," Warren continued, "but - later. You have been helping with the research ever since you got back from patrol with the Slayer. The sun will be up soon. Go. Get some rest."

Feeling like a fraud, Angel turned to leave, though he had no intention of going to bed. Vampires needed very little sleep to begin with and the Gem of Amarra reduced that need even further.

Travers stepped in front of him. "You may not be a vampire, but I still don't trust you."

Angel met the other man's eyes squarely but remained silent.

"You are hiding something - and I intend to find out what. I will not let you harm the Slayer or the Council!" Travers warned him.

"I would never harm Buffy," Angel told him quietly.

Travers gave him a sour look, clearly noticing the omission of the Council from that last statement, but didn't say anything more.

The first thing Angel saw when he entered the living room was Buffy curled up asleep on the sofa with an open book precariously balanced on her lap. Careful not to wake her, he pulled the book out from under her hands and set it down on the table.

He straightened up and found himself face to face with Ms. Calendar leaning in the doorway to the kitchen with a steaming cup cradled between her fingers.

For a long moment they looked at each other in silence. Angel once again tried to pin down what it was about her that made him feel so uneasy, but there were only some half-formed wisps of memory that refused to come clear.

Ms. Calendar was the first to break the silence. "Rupert made a fresh pot of coffee," she said, holding up her cup, "would you like some?"

"I don't drink coffee," Angel told her, then added a bit defensively at the look in her eye, "the caffeine makes me jittery," before turning away to add another log to the fire burning in the open fireplace.

"Rupert tells me that you have been a big help to him and the others – going out with them on patrol every night."

It wasn't really a question, but Angel felt like she was continuing the interrogation where Travers had left off.

"I do what I can," he told her with a shrug as he picked up the blanket at the end of the sofa and carefully tucked it around Buffy's sleeping form.

"It's hard to believe she is the Slayer," Ms. Calendar said, coming to stand beside him, "she is so tiny – so young. - I can't even imagine what it must be like for her. Never any respite – not even when she is sleeping."

Angel looked down at Buffy as she shifted in her sleep, an unhappy frown marking her sleep as less than peaceful. Before he could stop himself he reached out one hand to smooth the hair back from her face.

"A Slayer's dreams are often prophetic, sent to help or warn her," Angel said quietly. "Given the state of the world, I doubt she has many pleasant dreams."

He shifted uncomfortably under Ms. Calendar's scrutiny, feeling like a strange bug on display.

Just then Oz popped his head out of the library. "Ms. Calendar, your worm program finished its run, and I think I may have found a backdoor into the Mayor's private files. We just need to figure out..."

Grateful for the interruption, Angel took advantage of Ms. Calendar's momentary distraction to slip quietly out into the garden court.

* * *

Angel was standing on a hill overlooking Sunnydale, waiting for the sun to rise, when he heard Buffy's light footsteps behind him.

"I can understand you wanting to flee the Watcher invasion," Buffy said as she stepped up next to him, "but you better get back inside. It's almost daybreak."

"I know," he told her, never taking his eyes off the horizon, "I can smell the sunrise long before it comes."

"You're wearing that ring?" Buffy asked him worriedly, taking a hold of his left hand to see for herself.

Angel's head whipped around as an almost electric shock shot up his arm at her touch.

"Are you sure it'll be enough to protect you?" Buffy looked up and their eyes locked. For a long moment they remained frozen, then Buffy took a deep breath and added with a forced lightness, "It would look a bit strange if I went to the dance with a pile of dust as my date."

Struggling to keep the feelings racing through him hidden, Angel said the first thing that popped into his head. "Date? I thought you said..."

"That it wasn't," Buffy finished the sentence for him, dropping his hand. "It's not. Not a real one, that is. Just a pretend date – you know – we'll both pretend that it's a date – even though it's not. So, we'll go there together and we'll dance..."

"Dance?" Angel asked startled. Somehow he didn't think that she was talking about a waltz or cotillion.

"Of course. Why did you think it was called a Valentine's *dance*?" His lack of enthusiasm must have shown on his face, because Buffy stepped back, her body dropping into something close to a fighting stance. Angel eyed her a bit worriedly. "I don't care if Travers thinks it's frivolous; I'm planning on dancing and having a good time! And if you don't think that's 'appropriate behavior' for a Slayer you can go to the dance with Cordelia while I go with some one who isn't totally fossilized!"

Worry quickly turned to alarm. "No! It's not that I think that *you* shouldn't dance," Angel told her quickly, "it's just that – I-I don't..." Taking a deep breath he tried again. "I haven't done much – dating lately."

"Oh." Buffy relaxed her stance and a slight blush crept into her cheeks. "I thought – never mind - I'm sure you'll do fine."

Angel appreciated her vote of confidence – unfortunately he didn't share her faith in him. He only hoped that Oz hadn't left yet and would be willing to give him some advice.

* * *

Standing in the kitchen, Angel looked down at the box of chocolates and the nosegay of spring flowers, then picked up the silver heart pendant resting beside them, still debating whether or not to give it to Buffy along with the other two.

He remembered what Oz had said as they walked through the mall. "All the dances the Mayor sponsors are always formal. That means suit and tie for the guys, fancy dresses for the girls. If you go by the traditional dating code, the guy also gives the girl some flowers. But since it's a Valentine's dance you might want to go with candy or chocolates instead – unless you know the girl is on a diet. You don't want to come across as cruel. For a more personal touch you can go with jewelry. You can score major points with a nice necklace, and you don't have to worry about the fit like you do if it's a ring. In your case, I'd go with chocolates or flowers. It's safe and noncommittal."

He had meant to, but then he had seen this little pendant - a heart clasped between two hands with a crown on top. The shopkeeper, seeing his interest, had come over and told him that it wasn't really a Valentine's present, since it was a symbol of friendship – not love. Angel had bought it without correcting him.

In Ireland, where he had grown up, this symbol had meant much more. True – the hands stood for friendship, but there was also the crown, which stood for loyalty – and the heart - which stood for love. It had been given as a pledge.

Angel looked at the pendant with a slight grimace. Why had he bought it? Why would a vampire ever pledge himself to a Slayer, and why would a Slayer ever accept such a pledge? He was here to help and protect her. So it was quite natural that he would be hyper-aware of her presence - necessary even. And just because he enjoyed her company and missed her when she wasn't around didn't mean that he was in love with her, did it? Did it? He had a sinking feeling that it meant just that.

He closed his eyes as Whistler's words came back to him: "This isn't gonna be easy. The more you live in this world, the more you see how apart from it you really are." He hadn't really understood what Whistler had been talking about then, but he was beginning to.

He lived in the same house as Buffy, went out on patrol with her, watched her joke which the others, occasionally even with him. But all the while he felt like he was standing outside – separated by a wall of cold, crystal-clear glass that let him see perfectly but never let him touch or be touched. Set apart by what he was – a vampire - a demon with a soul.

'Whistler was right,' he thought as his hand clenched around the thin chain of the necklace, 'it hurts - to be on the outside looking in at what I can never...'

Angel was jolted out of his thoughts by Buffy's voice. "This is beautiful! Whose is it?"

He opened his eyes to find Buffy standing right in front of him, the pendant resting on her open hand as she admired its intricate design.

"Yours," at her startled glance, he hurried to add, "if you want it. - Oz said that jewelry, flowers, or chocolates were what you're supposed to give your date for Valentine's day."

Buffy spotted the chocolates and flowers on the table beside him and smiled. "So you got all three?"

Angel shrugged and let go of the chain. "I wasn't sure which you would like."

"Well, if I have to pick just one, I'll pick the necklace." Buffy decided without any hesitation.

Angel stared hat her, then reminded himself sternly that the shopkeeper hadn't known what the design stood for; likely Buffy didn't either. A speculation confirmed by her next words. "I've never seen anything like this. Does it have some special meaning?"

Not ready to tell her the truth and have her laugh in his face, or worse, refuse to let him help any longer, he simply told her: "The shopkeeper said that it stood for friendship." Hoping to stave off further questions, he picked up the flowers and chocolates from the table and held them out to her. "And these are for you as well."

Slipping the pendant over her head Buffy looked at the box of chocolates. "Wow, Godiva. You really went all out! – Actually I have something for you as well." She reached up under her right sleeve and after a moment pulled out one of her stiletto knifes, still in its arm-sheath.

"They still don't know what type of demon we may be dealing with, but it seems that a lot of them can only be dispatched by specially enchanted or blessed weapons. Wesley has sent out a call for any other such weapons in the possession of the Council to be sent here. Giles is smuggling in what we have, and he and Ms. Calendar will break them out if there is any trouble at the dance. But I thought it might be a good idea if you had this." She handed him the knife. "It worked pretty well against those magical frogs, and it's small enough to hide somewhere under your tux – which – by the way – you look great in."

"Thanks," he said, accepting the knife, "so do you. Look great, I mean."

Giving him a brilliant smile, she threaded her arm through his. "Let's go knock 'em dead – though not literally – unless they turn into demons that is."

* * 8 * *

"The dance is at the high school again?" Buffy asked as they pulled up in front of the school.

"Yeah, but because it's such a beautiful day, they decided to have it out in the Quad instead of in the gym." Sandy answered, accepting the arm of her date - a cute, young Watcher named Kevin Foster. "Rumor has it that Snyder picked the DJ, so there is bound to be a lot of 70's and 80's songs in the selection, but I refuse to let that ruin my fun."

"Oh, come on!" Kevin protested. "They had some great songs in the eighties!"

"Well, if the DJ takes requests, maybe you can introduce me to some of them," Sandy teased him with a slight smile, "I'm always open to new experiences."

Buffy saw a slight flush creep up Kevin's neck and suppressed a smile. She turned back to see Angel stepping hesitantly out of the patch of shadows beneath the trees. An expression of awe spread across his face as he slowly pivoted to face the sun. He stretched out his hands to catch the sun's rays.

"Angel? You alright?" Buffy asked him when he just stood there motionless.

"It's just – I'm still not used to it," he answered quietly.

Buffy nodded her understanding. "I guess it must be pretty amazing after what – 200 years?"

"Give or take a few." Angel agreed absentmindedly.

When he showed no signs of snapping out of his reverie any time soon, Buffy walked over to tug on one of his hands. "Come on, the others will start to wonder what's keeping us."

He turned to look at her, and her breath caught in her throat at the open, childlike wonder on his face. But even as she watched, his eyes began to darken with some deeper emotion. Buffy felt her face heat and her hands grow cold as she lost herself in the bottomless depths of his warm brown eyes, unable to look away. She felt herself drawn to him by an almost irresistible force and half expected him to lean down and kiss her – instead he pulled away with a quiet "We should go in."

"Yes, we should," she agreed in a voice that sounded much too calm to be her own.

Without another word they turned and walked up the school steps.

* * *

Buffy watched the couples as they danced on the parquet floor set up at one end of the Quad. Sandy had been right about the DJ. There were a lot of old songs being played, but though she had never heard most of them, they had a nice beat that made her feet itch with the desire to be out there.

So why wasn't she?

In spite of his earlier misgivings about his dancing skills, Angel had gamely asked her to dance, clearly determined to fulfill his obligations as her date, no matter how awkward he felt surrounded by all these teenagers.

She had declined.

Angel had then pointed out to her that Owen hadn't brought a date and would probably be happy to dance with her. But the problem wasn't that she didn't want to dance with Angel, the problem was that she suddenly found that she did – way too much – and that scared her. She remembered all too well what had happened in the other universe, and she had no intentions of following in her double's footsteps – that way lay heartbreak and disaster.

So instead of dancing and having a good time, she stood here with a glass of punch in her hands and watched while Angel stood uncertainly half a step to the side and behind her. Both of them acutely aware of the awkwardness between them but unable to think of a way to ease it.

The tension between them mounted to the point where she welcomed even the sight of her Watcher.

"Wesley." She greeted him without any of her usual hostility, too glad for the distraction.

"Buffy, Angel," he returned her greeting, "Mr. Giles sent me to tell you that he stowed the bag with the weapons under the far end of the refreshment table. Someone from our team will stay near it at all times, ready to break them out at a moment's notice. - I'd say that the Mayor will be in for quite a surprise should he decide to ascend today!"

Buffy smiled at his barely hidden excitement.

"Of course we all hope that he won't," Buffy reminded him.

"What? Yes, yes, of course," Wesley agreed quickly, "terribly bad form to turn into a demon at a Valentine's party, not at all the thing. Bound to ruin the dancing. - Speaking of dancing, I'm happy to see that you have come to your senses on that head. Not at all appropriate for a Slayer to indulge in. Mr. Travers will be glad to hear it."

"Oh, and I just live for Mr. Travers' approval," Buffy told him sourly, "now if you'll excuse me - I need to find the ladies room." She took two steps away, then stopped and raised an eyebrow at Wesley. "Assuming that that's appropriate for a Slayer to indulge in?"

When Wesley just stared at her bewildered, she turned and stalked off towards the bathrooms.

Finding Cordelia adjusting her make-up in front of the bathroom mirror did nothing to improve Buffy's mood. Ignoring the other girl Buffy turned on the tap and let the cold water run over her hands, hoping that it would cool her temper in turn.

"Piece of advice," Cordelia said, looking at Buffy's reflection in the mirror, "several thin layers of foundation work much better as a cover-up, and you really should have put some ice on those bags under your eyes, not to mention..."

"Cordelia, no one asked you, so why don't you just shut up." Buffy told her curtly, in no mood to put up with any of Cordelia's veiled insults.

"Hey, no need to take out your bad mood on me!" Cordelia protested. "You should have known that just because you managed to trick Angel into taking you, didn't mean that he was actually going to ask you to dance with him. Unlike Owen, he is old enough to have more sophisticated tastes. Why would he dance with a freak when he could have a real girl for a partner?"

"Well, that would leave you out, now wouldn't it?" Buffy shot back stung. "And for your information, he *did* ask me to dance – I just didn't want to."

"Oh, sure!" Cordelia gave a delicate snort as she closed her lipstick and stuck it back into her purse. "Let me guess, you lost your taste for it because you did too much of it with Owen at the Winter Brunch?"

Furious, Buffy stalked out of the bathroom without answering. Here she was, trying to play it safe by not dancing with Angel, and Wesley thought she was trying to suck up to Travers while Cordy was convinced that she was making a virtue out of necessity! Well, to hell with playing it safe. Likely she was only being paranoid anyway. It was just a dance. Lots of people danced together. Didn't mean they were doomed to end up in bed together.

Angel was still standing where she had left him talking to Wesley – or more correctly – listening, since Wesley seemed to be the one doing all the talking.

"Ah, there you are, Buffy. I was just telling Angel here..." Wesley greeted her, but Buffy interrupted, a bright smile plastered on her face, "that it really isn't fair of me to keep him from dancing just because he got stuck with a Slayer for a date. You're quite right, Wesley, and I intend to remedy that at once!" With that she pulled Angel into the crowd of couples moving to the pounding rhythm of the music.

The fast dance-song ended just as they found a clear space among the many couples and the first cords of a slow song rang out. Feeling a bit nonplussed, Buffy hesitated as the couples around them either left the floor or pulled each other close. This wasn't exactly what she had had in mind when she had decided to take Angel up on his earlier offer of a dance.

"We don't have to..." Angel offered, motioning back the way they had come.

Buffy caught a glimpse of Cordelia watching them, a superior smile playing across her lips, clearly assuming that Angel was trying to back out of having to slow-dance with her. Which he might be, Buffy admitted to herself. Just because the Angel of the other universe had fallen in love with that Buffy, didn't mean this one even liked her. She was nothing like that other Buffy, after all.

"You'd rather not dance with a freak." Buffy stated flatly, walking away from him.

But Angel took a hold of her arms and pulled her back around to face him. "You are not a freak. You're..."

He trailed off and again Buffy felt caught in his expressive eyes. She licked her lips nervously, her heart suddenly racing, but all Angel did was to slide one hand down to capture hers while his other arm wrapped around her back. Buffy froze, torn with indecision. Then she deliberately closed her eyes and leaned her head against his broad chest, giving herself over to the moment and the music. Idly she wondered at the irony that a Vampire Slayer should feel safe and protected in the arms of a vampire.

The music came to an end and Buffy opened her eyes to see the Mayor walk up to the podium at the back of the dance floor. Loathe to break contact and lose the all too rare feeling of peace and security, she kept her left arm draped around Angel's lower back and simply pivoted to face the Mayor.

"Valentine's Day is a celebration of love – and of life. A day to reaffirm old bonds – and to forge new ones," the Mayor began as he scanned the crowd of teenagers in front of him. "For some of us, the promises made today will change the rest of our lives..."

Angel tightened his arm around Buffy's shoulder to get her attention and tilted his chin up at the sky. "The sun is getting weaker."

Buffy looked up at the cloudless sky. "Are you sure?"

"Very sure. The ring protects me from the sun, but it doesn't dim my awareness of it." Angel scanned the Quad. "And that's not all. I can feel something – building."

So could Buffy, now that he had drawn her attention to it. "Let's get closer to Giles and the weapons," she whispered, drawing him over towards the Buffet tables.

It was getting noticeably darker. Something was sliding in front of the sun, draping a blanket of deepest shadow over the whole town of Sunnydale.

"An eclipse?" Buffy suggested.

"Not a natural one," Angel countered, "it's happening much too fast."

They reached the tables. Giles had cleared a section, sweeping the dishes on it unceremoniously onto the floor, and was laying out the weapons with quick efficiency.

"There are vampires in the buildings around us," Angel said grimly, picking up a big fighting axe, "and without the sun..."

Giles simply nodded. "Leave them to the rest of us. Jenny and the others are in the crowd, giving out weapons and getting them organized." He handed Buffy a sleek sword and a loaded crossbow. "Dr. Warren put a special tip on this quarrel. If you're careful you might put someone's eye out with it."

"I'll do my best." Buffy accepted the weapons with a curt nod.

A scream drew their attention back to the dance floor. The crowd was falling back as the head of a gray, snakelike creature became visible above their heads. Buffy watched as it rose higher, growing and changing before her very eyes.

"Recognize it?" Buffy asked, never taking her eyes off the demon snake.

"No," Giles answered, "but I don't think the flame-throwers will do much good. Most snakelike demons are immune to fire."

"Well, light one under his tail anyway, and if it doesn't phase *him*, I'm sure at least the vampires will be happy to see you brought them." Buffy shrugged, then turned to Angel. "You ready?"

* * 9 * *

Standing next to Wesley while the man kept rattling on, Angel regretted that he had ruined this dance for Buffy.

It had started out well enough, thanks to Oz' expert advice. Buffy had been delighted by the flowers and chocolates. The invisible wall that always separated him from the rest of the world had melted away at her touch, at the touch of the warm sun on his face as he stepped out of the shadows that shrouded his whole existence. For the first time in over 200 years, he had felt like a real person, almost as if he were human again.

Buoyed by the heady feeling, he had recklessly asked Buffy to dance, ignoring the little voice in the back of his head that kept telling him that he would look like an utter fool trying to move the way these teenagers were.

Buffy had turned him down, shattering the brief illusion of normalcy. So what if the Gem of Amarra let him walk in the sun? Neither that nor his restored soul changed the harsh fact that he was nothing but and could never be anything but a vampire.

It might be an unpleasant reality, but Angel's whole existence was filled with unpleasant realities, and he had learned long ago that there was nothing to be gained by trying to ignore them. So he had stepped back into the shadows and behind his invisible wall, accepting his place but wishing that there was something he could do to make it up to Buffy.

Her Watcher had come up to let them know where Giles had stashed the weapons and to commend Buffy for not dancing. Not unsurprisingly that had done nothing to improve Buffy's mood. She had stalked off, supposedly to the bathroom, seething with resentment.

She returned a short while later, radiating fury and determination.

"Ah, there you are, Buffy. I was just telling Angel here..." Wesley greeted her, but Buffy interrupted, a bright smile plastered on her face, "that it really isn't fair of me to keep him from dancing just because he got stuck with a Slayer for a date. You're quite right, Wesley, and I intend to remedy that at once!" With that she took a hold of Angel's hand and pulled him into the crowd of dancing couples.

But they had no sooner reached an open space on the dance floor than the pounding rhythm of the music faded into a slow love song. Buffy froze as the couples around them either pulled each other close or left the floor.

Seeing the trapped look on her face Angel motioned back the way they had come. "We don't have too..."

Angel watched a myriad of expressions chase across Buffy's face before it became an expressionless mask.

"You'd rather not dance with a freak." Buffy stated flatly, walking away from him.

'What?' Angel thought baffled. 'Where did that come from? Did Owen turn her down for a dance and now she thinks...'

He took a hold of Buffy's shoulders and pulled her back around to face him. "You are not a freak!" he told her emphatically. "You're..." He trailed off helplessly. How could he even begin to describe what she was? He stared down at her, at a loss for words.

Her tongue flicked out to lick her lips and Angel just caught himself before he leaned down to kiss her. 'Dance,' he reminded himself, 'all she wants is someone – anyone – to dance with.'

Hesitantly he slid one hand down to capture hers and slipped his other arm around her back. He felt her stiffen and fully expected her to pull free.

Instead she closed her eyes and melted against him.

Angel fought to hide the sudden desire that swept through him as her warm body molded itself against his. For a moment her nearness threatened to overwhelm him, filling all of his senses. She smelled so good. So – tempting. He could almost taste her skin...

'Focus! If you can control your hunger, you can control this,' he told himself firmly, 'this is just another type of hunger. Breathe!' He drew in a deep lung-full of air and her sweet scent sent a shiver down his back. 'Okay. Bad idea. Don't breathe. Just dance.'

Good advice. But he didn't take it. He continued to breathe in her scent, to soak up her warmth, to memorize the feel of her body against his. So what if it hurt to know that this was just a dance, that it didn't mean anything? This was already more than he had ever dreamt of.

Angel only noticed that the dance had come to an end when Buffy pulled her hand out of his and pivoted to watch as the Mayor stepped up to the podium. But she kept her other arm wrapped around his waist and made no move to dislodge his arm still wrapped around her back.

"Valentine's Day is a celebration of love – and of life. A day to reaffirm old bonds – and to forge new ones..." Angel barely listened to the Mayor's words. A sudden unease made him tighten his arm around Buffy's shoulder. "The sun is getting weaker."

Buffy looked up at the cloudless sky. "Are you sure?"

"Very sure. The ring protects me from the sun, but it doesn't dim my awareness of it." Angel scanned the Quad. "And that's not all. I can feel something – building."

"Let's get closer to Giles and the weapons," Buffy whispered, drawing him over towards the Buffet tables.

It was getting noticeably darker. Something was blocking out the sun, making it safe for vampires to come out if any of them would be foolhardy enough to risk the sun reappearing just as suddenly as it had disappeared.

"An eclipse?" Buffy suggested.

"Not a natural one," Angel countered, "it's happening much too fast."

Angel spotted the first vampire just as they reached the table where Giles had spread out the weapons they had smuggled in. Others quickly joined that first one. Too many too quickly for them not to have known about what was going to happen here.

"There are vampires in the buildings around us," Angel said grimly, picking up a big fighting axe, "and without the sun..."

Giles simply nodded. "Leave them to the rest of us. Jenny and the others are in the crowd, giving out weapons and getting them organized." He handed Buffy a sleek sword and a loaded crossbow. "Dr. Warren put a special tip on this quarrel. If you're careful you might put someone's eye out with it."

"I'll do my best." Buffy accepted the weapons with a curt nod.

A scream drew their attention back to the dance floor. The crowd was falling back as the head of a gray, snakelike creature became visible above their heads. Angel watched as it rose higher, growing and changing before her very eyes.

"Recognize it?" Buffy asked, never taking her eyes off the demon snake.

"No," Giles answered, "but I don't think the flame-throwers will do much good. Most snakelike demons are immune to fire."

"Well, light one under his tail anyway, and if it doesn't phase *him*, I'm sure at least the vampires will be happy to see you brought them." Buffy shrugged, then turned to Angel. "You ready?"

Angel kept the ax close against his side as he and Buffy pushed their way through the crowd of milling teenagers. He could feel the power raised by the Mayor's ascension hanging in the air like a thick fog. And laced through it all a demanding, mindless hunger.

He had felt that same hunger as he had clawed his way out of his grave and into his new life as a vampire. His eyes narrowed as he considered the unmoving wall of vampires ringing the Quad. Who had called them – and why weren't they attacking the humans?

His eyes widened with a sudden realization. They were not here to feed, only to ensure that there would be plenty to feed on for the newly transformed Mayor.

He hurried to catch up with Buffy. "We need to get these people out of here. You said that the Mayor needed a lot of kids to feed on. We can't let him do that."

"You think he won't be able to sustain the change if he doesn't get to feed?" Buffy asked hopefully.

Angel grimaced. "Or that he might be unkillable if he does."

"Not what I wanted to hear," Buffy sighed, "This is not going to be easy."

'More like hopeless,' Angel thought as he dove in front of a teenage boy and swung his ax at the feelers surrounding the gaping demon maw. The Mayor's head simply snaked back up into the air with an annoyed hiss, and Angel's swing went wide. He saw the demon snake's pupils whirl as it focused in on a new target: Cordelia, standing over by the tables arguing with Wesley and Giles.

Even though Angel knew he would never get there in time, he screamed a warning and launched himself in their direction.

Hearing his warning, Wesley spun around and raised the fire extinguisher he was holding. A thick, gray cloud shot out and again the Mayor changed the direction of his attack.

This time Buffy stopped him from closing on his victim with a well-placed crossbow bolt to his left eye, scoring a solid hit. The snake reared up to its full height, screaming with pain and frustration, a thin stream of yellow ichor dripping from the corner of its eye.

Angel saw one of the Watchers attack the demon from the rear with a flame-thrower, but the Mayor simply twitched his tail, swiping him out of the way. There was a ball of flame, then the sickening smell of burnt meat and the screams of burning vampires as the flame-thrower exploded, creating a sizable hole in the wall of vampires. Unfortunately anyone trying to escape that way would have to make it past the Mayor first.

"Hey – wormy!" Buffy's voice rang out from the other side of the Quad.

The Mayor's head whipped around to hover in the air above.

'Oh god,' Angel realized, 'she is playing bait to clear the way for the others to leave.' Before the thought was more than half formed, Angel was already in motion. 'She doesn't even have a weapon!' Then even more desperate, 'I'll never get there in time. He'll eat her!'

But both he and the Mayor got a surprise when Buffy suddenly ducked down coming back up with a pike in her hands, and instead of a tasty morsel between his teeth, the Mayor found a sharp pike jammed up his nostril. Whipping his head to the side, he smashed both the pike and Buffy against the side of the stairs leading up to the second story. There was a sharp splintering sound, then Buffy slid to the ground unconscious. Shaking his head, the Mayor dislodged the last pieces of the pike then headed for the motionless Slayer.

With an inarticulate scream, Angel put all his energy into a desperate burst of speed that put him between the fallen Slayer and the hungry jaws of the demon bent on devouring her. The next moment he found himself thrown up into the air. He got one last look at Buffy's crumpled form before the Mayor's jaws closed around him, plunging his world into utter blackness.

* * 10 * *

"Valentine's Day is a celebration of love – and of life. A day to reaffirm old bonds – and to forge new ones," the Mayor began as he scanned the crowd of teenagers in front of him. "For some of us, the promises made today will change the rest of our lives." He could feel the power building and felt the first twinges of the coming transformation. Taking a deep breath he tried to focus on his speech. He had spent hours deciding just what he was going to say, which poems to read to try and convey just what this day meant to him and to Sunnydale. This was the culmination of more than a hundred years of careful planning and he wanted to savor it. "A lot of you have submitted poems..." An especially sharp pain ripped through him, throwing him off track.

An uneasy murmur swept through the crowd as they noticed that the protection of the sun began to wane.

The Mayor forced himself back upright. "But I don't think that there will be time to read any of them. I just want you all to know..."

The pain suddenly spiked, washing away his awareness of anything else. His body was convulsing, stretching, changing. The world around him was distorted into chaos. All was darkness and confusion. Slowly his senses began to clear and the world settled into a new order. Everything looked so much smaller and all the colors were different. But the biggest change was the smell – and the hunger.

His head darted forward, tracing a particularly tempting smell to its source, only to pull back startled, as the first smell was drowned out by something cold and sharply inhuman. For a moment he hesitated, trying to orient himself, to sort out the information with which his new senses bombarded him. But it was hard to think past the hunger.

The hunger. Memory surfaced. He needed to eat to sustain the change.

Again his head darted forward. Only to find the delicious smell cut off by a cloud of vile smelling dust. Not wasting any time, he changed the direction of his attack, only to feel a searing pain piercing his left eye. Getting more and more annoyed, he reared back up with a scream of frustration. He needed to feed!

Something tickled the base of his tail, and he twitched it impatiently to get rid of the distraction, looking for another target.

"Hey – wormy!" Wormy? Wormy?!? His head whipped around to fix on a small figure standing a little ways away from the others. His nostrils widened. It smelled different, but not exactly bad. And besides, his hunger was getting to the point where he would do almost anything to assuage it.

The pain of getting a spear shoved up his nose was drowned out by the growing frustration of once again being denied his meal. A quick shake of the head dislodged the annoying toothpick. In a near frenzy now, he grabbed his meal, tossed it up into the air, and swallowed it in one gulp.

But instead of taking the edge off his hunger, as he had hoped, it felt like he had swallowed a rock. A rock whose rough edges were digging uncomfortably into his soft insides, causing his stomach to cramp. He twisted, then hissed as a sharp, needlelike pain shot up his spine.

* * * * *

Wesley held up the fire extinguisher, gesturing at Mr. Giles with the nozzle. "If we can find enough of these, we should be able to control any fires we set. Unless you have a better idea on how to get all these people safely past the vampire barricade?"

"I have nothing against burning down the school," Cordelia said, "but how..."

Wesley saw Mr. Giles' eyes widen as a scream sounded and spun around just in time to see a huge snake's head coming straight at them. Instinctively his hand tightened around the trigger of the extinguisher, sending a thick cloud shooting out and the demon veered off to avoid the noxious fog.

"Nice reflexes!" Cordelia complimented him.

Before Wesley had recovered from his surprise, there was a fiery explosion over to his right.

"Well, you got your fire," Mr. Giles pointed out dryly.

'Thomas. That was Thomas holding the flame-thrower,' he thought numbly, then forced himself to focus on the situation at hand. "We need to somehow lure the Mayor far enough away for people to get safely by, and we need to keep the other vampires from closing the gap. Where is Buffy?"

"Luring the Mayor away." Cordelia motioned towards the other side of the Quad.

Wesley turned just in time to see Buffy slide down the wall and land in a crumpled heap on the ground. He was halfway across the Quad before it ever occurred to him to wonder what he thought he could do against something that batted a Slayer around as if she werre nothing more than a stuffed toy.

'Stupid to try and fight a demon with a fire extinguisher,' he admitted to himself, 'never going to get there in time. You're just going to get yourself killed.' But he kept going anyway.

He saw the Mayor's open jaws coming for Buffy and screamed inside. 'God no! Don't make me watch her die!'

Moving fast enough to be almost a blur, a figure darted in front of Buffy. Wesley watched the Mayor toss Buffy's rescuer high into the air and swallow the body down in one big gulp.

'Angel. That was Angel,' his brain supplied belatedly, then 'how can anyone move that fast?'

He crouched over Buffy's still form, wondering at how steady his hands were as he aimed the nozzle and waited for the demon to return for a second helping.

But instead the giant snake began to writhe with clearly increasing discomfort.

Buffy began to stir beside him, but he didn't dare to take his eyes of the Mayor. Oz and Larry came over to crouch beside him, both loaded down with weapons.

"What's gotten into him?" Buffy asked.

"He's finding his last bite a bit hard to swallow." Oz answered dryly.

"Damn! There goes our plan of weakening him through starvation." Buffy grumbled.

"Somehow I get the impression, his last meal isn't exactly agreeing with him." Oz shrugged.

Larry snorted. "Serves them both right."

Wesley noted the hostility in Larry's voice and wondered at it. 'What did the boy have against Angel?'

"I guess, I better see what I can do to increase his bellyache then." Buffy said.

Out of the corner of his eye Wesley saw Buffy reach over to inspect the weapons the boys had brought with them. "Where is Angel? We could really use his help on this one."

Wesley took his eyes off the writhing snake for the first time, wondering how best to tell Buffy.

"The Mayor ate him." Larry stated bluntly.

Wesley watched as all blood drained from Buffy's face. "No," she whispered. Her hands tightened in a white-knuckled grip around the ornate lance in her hands as she slowly shook her head in denial. "No."

"I'm going to kill him," she announced quietly.

"Buffy..." Wesley began, then trailed off at the look on her face. What could he say? Someone had to kill the Mayor. Buffy was the Slayer. It was her job – no matter the risks to herself. But he found himself unable to let her face those risks alone. "How can I help?"

He half expected her to tell him to take a flying leap, given her attitude towards him since the disaster at Franton. But after only the slightest hesitation she offered: "I'll worry about the Mayor. You guys keep any vampires off my back."

"We brought a couple of bows," Oz announced, "we'll cover you."

Buffy turned away without another word, but Wesley couldn't just let her go like that.

"Buffy." Her arm felt as hard as iron under his hand. "Please be careful, I..." he trailed off, swallowing hard.

For a moment her hard gaze softened just the slightest bit. "You're not half-bad for a Watcher, Wesley," she told him, "you know that?"

An agonized scream interrupted them. A shudder ran along the snake's length, then its lower half dropped lifelessly to the ground. Wesley watched stunned as the Mayor doubled up on himself and began to attack his own middle with his teeth, leaving long gashes behind.

"Angel?" Buffy whispered in disbelief.

"Looks like he's playing Jonah to the Mayor's wale." Oz remarked.

Wesley shook his head. "No one could have survived getting swallowed by a demon." But Buffy was long gone, lance gripped firmly in her hand.

Mindful of Buffy's instruction, Wesley quickly scanned the Quad for any vampires. It looked like the Mayor's strange behavior had finally shattered their unusual discipline. They were running in every direction, attacking whomever was closest to them. A group of about five were headed for the Slayer, clearly hoping to snare Buffy while she was preoccupied with the Mayor. Picking up a loaded crossbow Wesley hurried forward to intercept them, closely followed by the Oz and Larry.

Their arrows each found a heart and three of the vampires exploded into dust, but there was no time to reload before the other two were on them. They did their best but it didn't look good for any of them - when the vampires suddenly broke and ran. Breathing hard Wesley turned to see Buffy standing in front of the lifeless corpse of the Mayor, her lance buried deeply in his left eye.

Movement drew Wesley's attention to one of the gashes in the snake's belly. He watched in horrified fascination as the gash bulged apart and a gore covered Angel tumbled out.

Buffy reached for him, but Angel warned her off with a gasped: "Don't touch me! This stuff burns like acid."

'Good god!' Wesley recoiled, seeing the angry blisters that covered every inch of visible skin. 'He's not human!' Then he reminded himself of how Angel had thrown himself between Buffy and the Mayor. It was thanks to this – whatever type of demon he was – that he still had a Slayer to watch over.

His eyes fell on the fountain in the middle of the Quad. Taking off his jacket, he used it to shield his hands against the gore covering Angel and began to pull him towards the fountain. Following his example, Buffy picked up a tablecloth and grabbed a hold of Angel's other arm. Between them, they managed to tip him over the edge and into the fountain.

Wesley threw a questioning glance over at Buffy when Angel stayed under water, making no effort to surface. "Won't he drown?"

Buffy only shook her head, never taking her eyes of the submerged figure.

Wesley threw a quick look around to see if any of the other Watchers were close enough to notice what was going on here, but they were all too busy driving off the last of the vampires. It looked like he wouldn't have to explain why he was helping a demon, instead of trying to kill it.

Wesley was starting to get worried despite Buffy's assurance that Angel wouldn't drown, when one of Angel's hands broke the surface and grabbed the rim of the fountain.

Wesley stared in disbelief at a pale hand with all traces of the acid burn that had covered it only minutes before completely gone. His eyes fastened on the green gem in the ring on Angel's hand. In what book had he seen this ring before? Did it have anything to do with Angel's ability to survive getting swallowed by a demon snake?

Buffy helped a dripping Angel out of the fountain, draping one of his arms over her shoulder to hold him upright.

"Are you alright?" she asked him quietly.

Angel nodded. "Just dead tired."

Buffy gave a relieved snort, then threw a quick look at the slowly lightening sky. "The sun's coming back."

"Good. That should take care of the rest of the Mayor's vampires." Angel answered, but Wesley saw the look that passed between them, and knew something more was being asked and answered here.

"Thanks for the loan of your knife," Angel continued, holding it out to her, "it certainly came in handy."

"Keep it," Buffy told him, "you might have to cut through some other demon's spinal cord sometime."

"I was just trying to get out." Angel said wryly. "The skin was too tough to cut through, though. Nice of the Mayor to provide me with an exit, or I would have had to crawl all the way back up to his mouth."

As Wesley watched the pair make their way towards the exit, he wondered again what exactly Angel was, and how many of the White Hats knew they harbored a demon in their midst.

He suspected that Giles did. Probably some of the others as well. It might explain Larry's hostility towards Angel earlier.

He felt slightly miffed that none of them had seen fit to trust him with this little tidbit of information, but after Travers' performance yesterday afternoon, he couldn't really blame them for their lack of trust.

For a moment he considered simply asking one of them about Angel, but then decided that he would see what he could find in the books back at the mansion first before confronting any of them.

End of chapter four.