Hey guys, look how awesome, a new update already! And in my opinion this chappie is lots more happenin´ than the last one. So here ya go, enjoy (or not)…

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Buffy sighed as she flipped through her Art's History book. College had been hard for months now, but it seemed it was getting worse. In fact, since three weeks she'd been unable to concentrate on anything anymore, where before she could at least put up a little bit of effort to study. Why was it so much harder now, when before it hadn't been that big of a problem?

Of course she knew why. Because this time she didn't have a safety net. Didn't have someone to distract her from her pain. Didn't have Spike anymore.

He'd left.

Three weeks ago he'd left. Packed up a bunch of his stuff and just took off, without even telling her where he was going or for how long he'd be gone. At least he'd told her he was going in the first place. Boy had he told her.

After they'd had sex that had been filled with a strange sort of desperation, he held her tightly in his arms, and she let him. He was being more quiet than usual, and after a while he finally forced out the question that had been burning inside of him for a very long time. "I'm never going to be good enough for you, am I?" He murmured quietly, voice laced with pain.

She stiffened. Questions or talks about her feelings or their 'relationship' were something she always avoided at all cost. But he didn't wait for an answer. "I'm not him. No matter how much I try, I'll never be like Angel. That's why you can't let me in," He told her.

His name coming from Spike's lips always felt like a bucket of ice thrown in her stomach, and this time was no different. She scrambled from his embrace, backing away from the bed. "Don't you say his name," She said between clenched teeth, anything from having to say something about what he'd actually said.

He angrily jumped from the bed, unheeded by his nakedness. "He's dead, Buffy! Gone! Why can't you accept it and try to move on?" He asked, desperately, pleadingly. "It's been God knows how many months! I've been trying, Buffy. I've been tryin' so hard to help you out of this – this numb state you're in but…" He trailed off, shaking his and looking down. "I can't anymore," He finally mumbled.

Strange dread started forming Buffy's gut. Was he going to leave her? Who else had she to turn to if, he left? "What are you saying?" She asked, her voice low.

"I'm saying I can't be what you want. No matter how hard I try it'll never be enough. Not with the way I am now." He sighed, looking down at his feet. "I'm leaving."

Oh God. The numbness was creeping up on her, slow but steady, threatening to take over her whole being where before it had somewhat been fading. "Are you coming back?" She sounded strangely detached as she asked this.

"I don't know," He said

The last thing he'd told her before he left was that he loved her. And now he had already been gone three weeks, and Buffy had never felt more alone. Now she truly had no one. No Angel. No Spike. Her friends were all too happily in love. Even her mother was dating someone.

She closed her book and curled up in her bed, clutching Mr. Gordo the stuffed pig closely to her body. What was there to live for anymore?

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Angel sighed deeply as he walked the cemetery, stake in hand, looking for any kind of evil to kill. He was glad they finally split up, because he wasn't sure how much longer he could have trailed behind the blonde couple as they whispered and touched each other, doing their 'best' to keep the display to a minimum for his sake. Or at least he knew Buffy was trying, while Spike was doing the exact opposite. He was just loving the hell out of this whole situation.

He didn't even know why he bothered to patrol. Especially with them. It wasn't like he was really needed, or that he enjoyed the experience. It was more that he tried to keep up some resemblance of normalcy for himself by pretending he still had some good to do here. Maybe he should just go alone all the time from now on, save himself the extra heartache that occurred each and every time he saw them together.

He scoffed. 'From now on'. Who knew how much longer he would be stuck in this dimension? Another week? A month? Forever?

It had been over a week already, and every day just got worse. He missed Buffy. Worried about her. Wondered if she knew he was gone, if she was looking for him, worried about him. Every day he looked into the other Buffy's eyes and it hurt all over again because she loved someone else. Spike.

He growled subconsciously as he thought about what he would like to do to his pest of a grandchilde. He knew from experience how many ways of torture he could endure before giving in to whatever he wanted of him.

Shaking his head, as if to shake the thoughts, which were a bit too 'Angelus' for his liking, away from him, he was glad to see a fledgling crawling from his grave. A short distraction. He waited until the new vampire was ready, and attacked. Taking his time fighting, before eventually staking him.

It was when he was headed towards the gates of the cemetery, near the gatekeeper's house, that he stopped in his tracks. A scent coming to him. He changed to his demonic visage to be able to get a stronger smell, and widened his eyes when he recognized it. He took off running to where it was coming from, the house. Without knocking he tried the door and found it open, the lock broken. He went inside the one-room home, taking in the small living room area, kitchenette and another area around the corner he couldn't see, probably functioned as a bedroom. The smell of blood was strong in the air, but it was already a few days old. And he knew who it was from, and also knew that he was dead. That was all too clear from the smell of it.

He walked to the cornered off area, to where a small trail of blood lead. Sure enough, there was a bed. On it, the pale, sweating body of a wide eyed Holtz. There were bitemarks in his neck, making it obvious what had killed him.

"Hello Angel,"

Startled by the sudden noise, Angel spun around to come face to face with a man – no, demon with shaggy long hair. He could have passed for human if it wasn't for the face. "Do I know you?" He asked with narrowed eyes.

"No. I'm Sahjhan. But that doesn't really matter right now." The demon, Sahjhan, said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I see you found our friend, here." He gestured to the dead man lying on the bed.

"Yeah," Angel said suspiciously, with a glance behind him. "You know what happened?"

Sahjhan shrugged. "He got careless, the old fool. Probably didn't take into account that this little keeper's house wasn't exactly closed off to vampires, since no human officially owns it anymore." He frowned and put his hand in his pockets. "What a waste too, travelled all the way to the future to extract his revenge, only to be killed be some itty bitty fledge."

"What's your involvement in all this?"

"Well I helped him get here of course. Perform a little ritual, keep a man safe in a stone for a few hundred years, another ritual et voila, here we are."

"Why? What's in it for you?" Angel took a step to the left to get some more space, should this turn to a fight.

"Oh you know, the usual, blood of a virgin, street-cred, respect from my demon buddies, heaps of tribute, that kind of thing." Sahjhan rolled his eyes. "Come on, bub, why I did what I did is really not the issue here. It's moot now anyway, wouldn't you say?"

"Then why are you here?"

"To give you this," he held up what appeared to be a seal or amulet of sorts, "cleaning up what Holtz started. Who knows, he might have been satisfied enough with the results as they are now, so he had his revenge after all. I have no use for his little plan now anymore anyhow."

He tossed to object to Angel, who caught it swiftly. He looked at it with a frown. "What is it?"

"You'll figure it out." Was all the demon said, before he was suddenly gone.

Staring at the space Sahjhan had occupied moments ago, Angel contemplated what he'd just been told. Did this mean he could go home? Provided what the demon had said was true, something that could of course not be trusted. It just seemed far too simple. He turned around to look at Holtz. What exactly had his revenge plan been? Why had he brought them to this dimension? He examined the object he'd been given thoughtfully.

Whatever it was, it might just be the key to ending this whole thing. He just didn't know if that was a good thing or not.

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"What is it?" Buffy questioned, as they all peered at the object Angel had laid on the table. He'd come in later that evening, having burned Holtz's body as some final show of respect, and explained what had happened earlier to the Scoobies assembled in the Magic Box. Thankfully Spike wasn't present at the moment.

"Looks like an amulet of some sorts," Willow muttered.

Anya picked up the amulet and looked at it carefully. With a shrug she put it back down. "Well, as far as my knowledge of dimensions and amulets may go, I'm not familiar with this one."

"And he just gave it to you? Didn't say anything about it?" Buffy glanced at Angel, who leaned against the counter, hands in his pockets.

"All he said was 'You'll figure it out,' which either means that something will happen with it, or that we'll have to search for its meaning ourselves in –"

" – Books, always the books! " Xander groaned and slumped in his seat.

"If I still used my magic I could figure it out in a second," Willow muttered quietly, not really intending anyone to hear her. Nonetheless Buffy turned a sharp eye on her. "I won't, of course. I know I can't. I was just saying." She backtracked apologetically, not having meant to sound so bitter about it. She didn't want them to get the wrong idea, especially now that things with Tara were looking up.

"Alright so –" Angel watched Buffy perk up at the same moment he sensed an all too familiar vampire in the vicinity. "Uhm, so yeah, you guys get started on that research thing. I just uh, remembered I forgot to patrol the uh - the uh, Westwood cemetery. I'll see you later guys!" With that she all but ran for the door, where Angel had no doubt Spike was waiting for her.

"Well that's just not fair. How come she gets to go have sex with Spike while we're stuck here with the boring stuff?" Anya complained as she flipped through her bridal magazine.

"Honey I'm sure she's not going to –" Xander started to placate her, but just then Spike walked briskly by the window, dragging a giggling Buffy by the hand. "Yeah okay nevermind."

"Well if they're going, we could…"

Angel drowned out the rest of what Anya was saying as he looked at the window, another stab of pain filling his heart. God. He had to get out of this dimension and back to his own. He didn't know how much longer he could take this.

It wasn't just that she was together with Spike and rather publicly at that. It was also the glaringly obvious fact that she no longer really seemed to care about him. She hadn't even hesitated for one second the bail on the research which could very well help him get home. She may feel sorry for him, but when it came down to it she couldn't care less about his predicament.

He just couldn't help but wonder how it was possible that things in this dimension had gotten to the point that there apparently was no trace of him left in her life.

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Oh dear oh dear, could this really be Angel´s way back home? Or is it Holtz´s final diabolical scheme? Find out soon (hopefully) on Something Blue, New and Borrowed!...Maybe I should change the title…