(LONG A/N: It has been brought to my attention that some of you may find this chapter either confusing, or inconsistent with my story line, or both. I assure you, however, that if you paid attention to Manwe's closing speech in chapter two, this will make sense. Also if you actually take the time to read this chapter and understand, there is an OBVIOUS allusion in Angel's observations that the Buffy he's speaking of in this chapter just might be different from the Buffy that jumped into the portal and is now in Middle Earth.

In a brief form of explanation, it was really only ever the Soul that Manwe lent to the PTB. To help preserve its essence and power until Manwe could find the right time and ability to bring it back. If not for this, the Buffy on Earth would have still existed, she would have just been a normal every day, run of the mill slayer. Never questioning her worth or existence. Hence, when Manwe returned the soul home, there was still a Buffy that existed in that world, just not the same as the soul he returned to Middle Earth. It's a little complicated to explain.

I realize that up until this point my focus has been Buffy and her newfound place in Middle Earth, therefore this chapter might seem a little out of place. But I assure you I have not diverted from my original story line in any way, and this chapter will in fact play a pretty major part in plot line to come.

I also realize, from the readers' Point of View, who have no idea what's going on in my head, that this entire chapter may seem oddly placed... I've even been told that it feels like a completely different story... All I can say in explanation without giving everything away, is that like most everything in Buffy's life, they don't always tend to work out perfectly, if at all, and there will come a time that she questions and doubts her destiny and purpose, yet again... A friendly and familiar face just might end up being the thing she needs to help set her back on her path...

I don't mean to be cryptic and confusing, but that's all I can say for now.

As far as the first couple parts in Italics, I was trying to get that old TV series feel ya know? Where it opens with Wesley or Giles' voice saying "Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer" or "Previously on Angel" and then goes into a few flashes from some important parts of prior episodes... Then the real show begins... Well, that's kinda what I was aiming for with this... Sorry if it seems odd, but it's where my muse took me... *shrug*

I hope this explains things in some ways and enables my lovely readers a better chance at understanding and enjoying this part of the story... Believe it or not, I am not the only Author who has done something like this in their stories. I've read many books where the author will focus on one particular character line for a few chapters, then suddenly jump to a new character's point of view and the struggles they're going through that sometimes have nothing to do with the main character, but somehow the two converge down the line. I've read it happen many times.

But enough about that... Thanks so much for sticking with me! Now on with the show...)

Disclaimer: I do not own or lay claims to anything related to Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer or J.R.R. Tolkien's world of Middle Earth. I write this specifically to satisfy my own creativity and the Muse that can't seem to leave me alone. It is written solely to entertain and amuse, and maybe possibly to inspire. No profit is being made. Thank you!

Cookie Dough, Fudge, Mint Chip

::Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer::

"This isn't like Dawn trying to bring Mrs. Summers back, or anything we've dealt with before." Willow tried appealing to a room of friends that included Xander, Tara and Anya. "Buffy didn't die a natural death. She was killed by mystical energy."

"Which means we do have a shot," Tara supplied in support for Willow's plan.

"It means more than that!" Willow turned to Xander, who had thus far been the hardest to convince. "It means we don't know... where she really is."

"We saw her body, Will," Xander said with a tone of finality. "We buried it."

"Her body, yeah." Willow continued in defense of her decision. "But her soul... her essence... I mean, that could be somewhere else." That gave Xander pause. Willow continued, "She could be trapped in-in some sort of hell dimension like Angel was." Willow's eyes began to water and her voice grew raw with emotion. "Suffering eternal torment just because she saved us! I'm not gonna let... I'm not gonna leave her there." She turned an intense gaze on Xander. "It's Buffy!"

Xander gazed at his best friend for a long time, mulling everything over in his head. He still didn't feel right about what they had planned to do. It had felt right burying Buffy. She'd sacrificed so much, given up so much of herself to save them. Putting her to rest had seemed like the most proper and best thing to do. But Willow had a point... If Buffy's soul was trapped in some Hell dimension just because she saved them, he would never be able to live with himself.

With a strong resolve of his own, he placed a hand on Willow's shoulder and said, "What time do we meet?"

The sounds of motorcycle engines and harsh voices echoed from every direction as Xander hid with Willow behind a thick of bushes. Willow's head was in his lap and he brushed her cheek trying to stir her awake. "Willow! Willow, are you okay?" When the motorcycle riding demons had destroyed the Urn of Osiris, Xander had feared all the worst for his friend who'd been in the throes of the ritual.

Willow looked up at him and asked, weakly, "Did it work?"

Xander's face fell, his eyes shrouded over in sadness as he shook his head, "I'm sorry."

Six feet beneath the ground, a black-clothed, decaying corpse of a young girl rested peaceful and undisturbed in her coffin until an eerie orange mist began to swirl around her head; which was just a skull with much of the skin rotting off, the hair decayed.

As the mist moved around the body, suddenly eyeballs reappeared, skin and hair repaired themselves, and before long a live Buffy was reborn, wide-eyed and gasping. Finding herself stuck inside a coffin, she looked around; panicking. Extreme fear was etched into her every feature as she began to claw her way out.

"Please? I'm your sister. Dawn. We were up here... together, and then... you went away. And you don't wanna do that again. I don't know how you're back, but you are, and please, just stay still." The tower creaked and jolted making Dawn fight for balance. "Or-or move. But-but towards me. Because the tower was built by crazy people and I don't think it's holding up very well."

When Buffy continued to stare down into nothing, Dawn became desperate. "Talk to me. Say something!" Dawn demanded. The tower creaked so loudly that she almost missed Buffy's first uttered words.

"Is... Is this hell?"

"It's like something out of Fitzgerald." Angel looked at Fred inquisitively, so she went on to explain her meaning. "The man who can have everything but love." She paused a moment, "Well, maybe in some ways you're better off, because love is... - Well, in a way it's everything. - But it's also heartache and disappointment. - And those are good things to avoid."

Angel smiled briefly at the girl before they both turned their attention away when Cordelia came rushing out to the courtyard. The brunette Seer was anxious and even a bit breathless. "Angel! Willow's on the phone..." Cordy paused to take a breath, then continued excitedly, "She's alive! Buffy's alive!" With no further explanation forthcoming, Cordy turned immediately and raced back inside.

Angel shared a gaze with Fred for a brief moment before he jumped up and ran inside the hotel after Cordy.

Finding herself alone in the courtyard of the Hyperion and more than a little confused, Fred turned away from the door with a furrow to her brow and whispered to herself, "Buffy?"

Giles and Dawn were sitting in the room that thanks to a demon attack earlier, was in total shambles. Upon seeing Buffy return from the kitchen with a determined set to her stride, he asked in concern, "Buffy, what is it?"

She turned back to face them, and paused for a moment before speaking, "Angel."

Giles' brow furrowed, "Is he in trouble?"

Buffy shook her head as she reached for her jacket, "He knows that I'm..." She let the sentence trail off. Dawn looked at her in concern. "He, he needs to see me," Buffy continued. "I have to see him."

"Yes, of course," Giles responded. "You'll leave for L.A. tomorrow."

Buffy shook her head, "Not L.A. And not here. Somewhere in the middle." She worried her bottom lip. "There's a, a place..."

::And now...::

Wes was looking past the naked blade of a sword in front of him to the person holding it. "You wouldn't dare!" He stated, looking incredulously at Cordelia. "You were just going to toss in a Prothgarian broadsword with a third-century ceremonial Sancteus dagger?"

Cordy turned the sword in her hands to give it a second look. "Hmm. Let's see. Long, metal, pointy." A brief pause before she looked back at Wesley. "Yup."

"Cordy! The purpose of an inventory-" Wesley began before he was interrupted by Gunn.

"Yes, give us that purpose of an inventory speech - again." He mimicked Wesley's accent.

Wesley crossed his arms and scowled slightly, "This wasn't my idea."

"No," Cordelia responded. "Angel keeps complaining that the weapons cabinet is all different. But Wesley, who's the boss around here? You - or the guy with the pancreas dagger?"

"What time is it?" Fred chimed in seemingly out of nowhere.

Wesley held up his wrist to Cordelia, who read the time on his watch. "Six twenty four." She responded. "And for those of you who are playing the home game: that's exactly three minutes from the last time you asked."

Fred fumbled around with a strange contraption that looked like a hybrid between a suitcase, a crossbow and a sewing machine. "I'm sorry," she said. "I just - I have this theory that the more you are aware of time the more slowly it moves, which could make light speed travel possible, but only if you were to concentrate really..."

"He'll be back when he's back," Cordy interrupted her mind-rant.

"So - now that she's alive again, are they gonna get back together? Angel and that girl with the goofy name?"

"Well Fred, that's a difficult question." Gunn responded, emphasizing the brunette's own unusual name. "I think it's fair to say... no. Not a chance. Never. No way. Not in a million years. And also 'nuh-uh.'"

"But you said he loved her. And of course she's gonna love him back, because he's so strong and handsome and he really listens when you talk. I-I mean, if you go for that sort of thing, why wouldn't it work?"

"Let me break it down for you, Fred." Cordy stepped away from the reception counter and took on a slightly over-exaggerated act, trying to pretend to be Buffy. "Oh - Angel! I know that I'm a Slayer and you a vampire - and it would be impossible for us to be together - but!"

Gunn laughed as Wesley stood up, "But!" Cordy turned to look at him where he pulled his glasses off and laid them to the side. "My gypsy curse sometimes prevents me from seeing the truth," Wes continued. "Oh, Buffy!"

"Yes, Angel?"

"Oh, I love you so much I almost forgot to brood!"

Fred watched wide-eyed while Gunn just stood there laughing.

"And just because I sent you to hell that one time doesn't mean that we can't just be friends." Wes grabbed a hold of Cordy's wrist and Cordy gasped, "Oh!"

"Or possibly more," Wesley implied.

Cordelia's acting only became more exaggerated as she pretended to swoon "Gasp! No! We mustn't."

Wes pulled Cordy close. "Kiss me," he demanded.

"Bite me!" Cordy retorted. Wes bent Cordy back over his arm and pretended to sink his fangs into her neck.

Suddenly, Angel's voice cut into their act, "How about you both bite me."

Fred jumped up, smiling, "You're back!"

Seeing Angel watching them, Cordy and Wes quickly scurried apart.

"How'd it go?" Gunn was the first to ask.

"I think those two pretty much summed it up," Angel responded a bit bitterly. "To be honest... I really don't wanna talk about it."

Cordy tugged her mini skirt back in place. "But... ah, Angel - we're your friends." She flashed him a big toothy smile. "And, and it-it's not healthy to repress stuff like this. You-you need to share your - pain, express those feelings of grief and longing or... The curiosity is gonna kill me!" She finished on a selfish note.

"Oh, no," Angel said quietly. "Wouldn't want that."

"Personally, I don't care at all what happened," Fred supplied.

"Shut up, Fred," Cordelia sniped in passing.

"Actually, you know what I need right now?" Angel asked to no one in particular. "Ice cream," he finished, directing his attention to Fred. "You wanna get some ice cream?" He asked.

Fred 's face blossomed with a big toothy grin, "I like Ice cream!" Fred walked over to Angel who gave her a small smile. The two friends then turned to leave the hotel together.

"Now we'll never, ever know," Cordy practically whined.

Angel's voice sing-songed back to her in response, "That's right."

"So what did you mean?" Fred asked between licks of her ice cream in a waffle cone.

"About what?" Angel asked, pre-occupied with something else. He appeared as if he were searching for something in the sewer they were now walking down.

"Back at the ice cream place, you said, 'It didn't feel right' that 'she felt different,' then I asked 'different how?' and then the big ugly demon jumped out and started attacking us... So... what did you mean? Is it a good different or bad different?"

Angel hadn't meant to go into details about his trip to see Buffy, but from the first moment he saw her, to saying his goodbyes, something had seemed completely off about the whole thing. He had hoped it was all just in his head, but deep down he couldn't help but question. He needed to talk to someone about it, to get an outside perspective and Fred seemed like the safest bet. She didn't know Buffy nor much of their history. It was almost like she was an impartial third party bystander so she could provide an impartial point of view. Plus she was really smart, surely she'd have a decent take on the situation. Even though, he still felt bad for talking about it with her, especially with just recent events...

With a light shrug and a frown Angel stopped and turned to Fred to respond, "It's not bad... At least I don't think it is. I mean, she's still Buffy." I think... He added in his head as an afterthought, then continued out loud, "It's just..." He had almost a pained expression on his face trying to put his feelings and thoughts into words.

"It's just what?" Fred asked after another lick. From the short time she'd known him, she'd never believe she'd see Angel at a loss for words.

After a moment he sighed heavily, "I just don't know how to describe it. From the first time I met Buffy, she always had this feel to me." Fred raised her eyebrow and gave him a weird look, but she didn't say anything. "Not like that." He sighed again. "Even before she came to Sunnydale, when she was still pretending to be Miss Popularity and ignore her destiny, she just always seemed to have this sort of hum and essence about her... It was like she was nothing but living energy bundled up into a small, blonde package. I don't even think she was aware of it. In fact I can bet she wasn't." He paused a moment where he looked off at nothing. "It was almost surreal. Like she couldn't be of this world."

"Well, from that description alone it sounds like she's a girl that would be fairly easy to lose your soul to... I mean in the good way, of course. Warm fuzzies and all... Just - incidentally in your case that can be a bad way too." Fred shrugged and took a few more licks of her ice cream.

Angel sighed heavily, "Fred, you have no idea. She just seemed to inspire goodness and loyalty from almost everyone she met. I mean before meeting Buffy, Cordelia used to be a rich, stuck-up bitch." His eyes widened after he realized what he'd just said and he turned quickly to Fred. "Please, don't tell her I said that. That's not who she is anymore." He added as a side note.

"What's said in the sewer stays in the sewer." Fred grinned as she held up her right hand as if taking an oath.

"It's just, with Buffy, there was always so much light there. Even in the darkest times. There was so much warmth, and love... Strength and power. God she was probably one of the strongest slayer's I've ever known. Definitely one of the strongest women I've ever met."

" 'Was?' Angel, you're talkin' like she's still dead. Shouldn't ya be all happy and butterflies now that she's back?" Fred paused. "What exactly happened?"

Angel didn't answer her question right away, he was too lost in his own inner thoughts. Like Fred said though, he should be happy that Buffy was back. He did still love her more than anything after all. So why did he feel so off about it?

Even when Buffy confessed to him the pain of coming back to life, he still was having a hard time understanding what could have happened in the process to change her so much. He'd gone to hell and back, and no drastic changes had happened to him. Everything he used to feel from her seemed to be gone. The light, the energy, the power. It was almost as if her soul was transformed... As if someone flipped off the switch... Everything was just gone, like that. She still seemed to be Buffy. Same speech, same eyes, same smell, same taste... Yes, he will admit that a small, what Buffy would call "smooch fest" did take place, but nothing too heavy.

He did still love her, it just seemed actually being with her, so much had changed. The old feelings she used to rise in him by just her presence alone seemed to be lessened greatly. What exactly changed in her, and what was the cause? Was it Willow's spell? Messing with Magicks the likes of which she used could have carried dire consequences, but that just didn't seem like the right answer.

Was it waking up in her own coffin? Angel remembered firsthand how terrifying that could be... But could that be why? Or could it have just been dying in general that made her old essence leave? It was a possibility... He may never truly know. The questions, however, might just plague him until his dying day. A daunting prospect that, considering he was immortal. One thing was for sure; if he ever spoke to the Powers that Be face to face, it just might be one of the first things he asks them.

"Angel?" Fred inquired after he'd been silent for a while. Her ice cream at this point was only a few bites from being gone. So lost in his inner thoughts was he that Angel hadn't even realized they'd started moving again. "Are you alright?" Fred asked. "You look a little pale? Well, ya always look kinda pale, but right now you look-" A dull roaring sound echoed through the sewer tunnel making Fred jump. "That wasn't me."

"Oh, no, no, no. We must be near the Durslar's lair," Angel speculated. He then turned to Fred, "Why don't you head back on to the hotel. I can take it from here."

"But shouldn't we call Wesley first and maybe, you know, the army?" Fred asked.

"Nah. Durslar beasts are pretty Faulknerian. Lotta sound. No fury," he assured her. "Think you can find your way back okay?"

"I think so. 128 meters back, eastward fork, 207 meters to the southward fork, hang a right, 12 meters in," she said off-handily, then gave Angel a sheepish look. "I'm just being a big nerd again, aren't I?" At Angel's nod she said, "I'm gonna go now." She then turned and headed down the tunnel as Angel kept walking toward the Durslar's lair.

About halfway down the tunnel Fred turned back around and asked, "A-are you sure you're gonna be okay? Because I can stay with you. I really don't mind."

"I'll be fine," Angel insisted.

"You don't need me. Okay. Bye!" Fred disappeared around the corner then stuck her head back around the corner. "Are you sure?"

With a chuckle in his voice Angel shouted back, "I'm fine!" At least this would be something to distract him from his current worries.

"Okay. Bye then!" Fred responded too cheerily for the situation they were in. With a final wave she turned and left, for good this time. Angel watched her go with a grin on his face... Because of this, however, he failed to notice the large form of a Durslar demon sneaking up behind him.

To be continued in the next chapter...

(A/N: FINALLY another chapter! Sorry that took so long! Just wanted to thank you for reading and to let everyone know that some of the episode dialogue I found on . Most of it is O.C. however! Thanks again! Much Love!
Cheers =^.^=)