The plane landed several hours before sunrise, something for which Clint was excessively glad. He liked his position, more he liked his life.

Angelus dragged his bound and gagged guests into the waiting limo, not saying a word. The drive to the mansion in London was done in eerie silence; the moment they pulled to a stop in front of their London mansion, Angelus pulled Oz and Ethan out of the car, leaving Fred, Gunn, and Wesley to Connor. Storming into the house, Angelus immediately found the rest of the Family.

The room was brightly lit; books, scrolls, and tomes of all shape, size, and age were scattered around the area. Each and every member of his family was dutifully pouring over something in the hopes of finding Buffy. Lilah and Dawn were huddled in a corner, watching their vampire protectors avidly. Faith’s scent clung faintly to the air, but she was nowhere to be seen; had Drusilla turned her?

Angelus didn’t care.

“This is your reward,” he told Willow, eyes still blazing red. “I show my appreciation for a success, as richly as I show my displeasure for failure.” His voice hardened even more, his eyes narrowed as he threw Oz across the room to land in front of Willow’s feet. “Bring back your sire. NOW.”

Angelus took a menacing step forward, threatening even a room of vicious vampires. He was the master here, he was the alpha. They might have been the badass family, each mean and cruel in their own right, but Angelus eclipsed them all.

“You want him, don’t you?” He gestured to Oz dismissively, his focus on what it always was. Buffy. “A lot of unresolved issues between you and flea bite, yes? Then find Buffy now. I’ve given you your life back, childe, as well as brought you a gift. Now give me the only thing I want from you.”

Another step forward, and Willow wanted to cower backwards, wanted to beg under the stare Angelus leveled on her for the master to spare her life, for Angelus to pardon her for her failures. She didn’t, but she did quickly nod her agreement. For the first time since her turning, Willow was scared of Angelus.

“No more excuses,” he warned. “No more delays...or my temper, uncertain at best, is going to explode right here. You won’t like the consequences. Don’t make me show this planet why they felt it was necessary to temper me with a soul.”

He laughed at himself, knowing just what his family thought, just what he was doing. “Even I’m uncertain of my control right now. So be cautious.” He tossed Ethan at Giles, looking at his lover’s mentor. “Play with him later, Rupert. Find me your sire now, or find me someone who can. Do it before I start tearing the very heavens, themselves, from the skies.”

“No, daddy,” Dru said, swaying in her seat. She stood, making her way to her sire. “The heavens don’t have her, they don’t hold her. Others do, they hold her in a white prison; too bright, it’s too bright and cold, but the fire burns brightly through her.”

Angelus stared at his favorite childe for a long minute. Connor was beside him, having dropped Wes and Gunn in the hallway. Fred was tied to a plush chair, only semi-uncomfortable. Laughing, Connor shook his head, and went to the sidebar to pour himself a drink.

“She has a vision now?” Connor muttered.

“Now?” Angelus repeated, shock holding him immobile for a long moment. Then his temper, which he’d just warned everyone about, snapped. Violent and unreasonable at this point, Angelus stalked the few feet to where Dru swayed with her vision.

His hands went around her neck, applying the pressure in increasing increments. “You waited this long to have a vision?” He snapped. Connor rolled his eyes, and gulped back his Scotch. Giles shook his head, but didn’t intervene.

“Like she can control it,” Spike snarled, moving to his lover and trying to take her into his arms. Angelus growled at him, loosened one of his hands from around Dru’s throat, and backhand Spike away. Not sure how he’d managed to hold on this long, Angelus was letting loose. Everyone was going to die.

The fire burns through her. Dru spoke everything Angelus had feared the past days. Buffy’s addiction to him, to his mate’s blood, was eating her from the inside out. It wasn’t something she could get over, the addiction didn’t work like that, and Angelus’ fury at knowing that she was so close to death, made him angrier.

Destroying her, killing her; it connected them more closely than anything…and it was the only thing that could destroy them both.

Lilah frowned. “White?” She murmured, still stroking Dawn’s hair. “It’s cold in The White Room.”

Angelus turned to the woman in the corner, hands still around Drusilla’s throat. His nails were digging into her pale throat, long rivers of blood flowing down her neck and across his hands. He was ready to kill her; his favorite childe and he was ready to kill her because she couldn’t help him find his beloved Buffy.

Dropping a whimpering and crying Drusilla into an undignified heap, ignoring Spike as he raced to his lover’s side, Angelus took a menacing step forward. “What do you know, Lilah?”

It’d been so long since she heard her real name that Lilah simply stared at Angelus for a moment. “Lilah?” She repeated, confused.

Angelus growled again. “What do you know?” His eyes flashed red, black, golden, and he took another step forward.

“Know?”

Another step forward, a growl that rumbled in his chest threatening to turn into a roar. “About the White Room.”

“White Room,” Lilah nodded, a far off look in her eye. “I’ve been to the White Room. It’s cold in there and bright…so bright.”

“And where is it?” Angelus knew of the White Room, it was in the middle of the LA Branch of Wolfram & Hart; Angel had been there…once maybe. He couldn’t remember now; until Lilah mentioned it, it was unimportant.

Dawn sobbed next to Lilah, terrified. She squirmed out of Lilah’s embrace, and ran out of the room. Her cries echoed throughout the house. Lilah looked to where the girl once was, and then back to Angelus. Master. He was master…and mistress was gone. Stolen from them.

“Gone,” Lilah whispered, tears pooling in her eyes. “Mistress is gone?” Restraining himself, but just barely, Angelus nodded. If she had information that could help him find Buffy, then it’d be in his best interest not to tear her arms off. He could do that later.

“Yes,” Angelus forced his voice to calm, and crouched beside Lilah, running a hand through her long dark hair. “Mistress is gone. I need to find her; I need to bring her back to me. Do you know where she is?”

Nodding, Lilah reached out a hand to touch Angelus’ face. “Miss her. I do, too. Miss her.”

Patience straining, Angelus asked one last time. If she didn’t tell him now, he’d drain her. No, he’d rip her arms off, tear her throat out, and then drain her. “What do you know? Where’s Buffy?”

“The White Room,” Lilah repeated with a nod. “It’s the gateway to the Senior Partners. The only way they can communicate with us here.”

“Senior Partners?” Angelus growled, as Dawn sobbed her way back into the room. Connor stopped her, holding her loosely in his arms; he didn’t want her interrupting Lilah’s sudden memory.

“They took her?” It was roared, shaking the windows, and making Lilah cower against the wall.

“No!” Dawn yelled, watching Angelus. She shook from head to toe, afraid that her entire world was going to crumble around her. It’d happened before, she was sure of it, but didn’t want to remember it. It was better if she didn’t remember, safer. Happier.

First Faith, her sweet protector was killed. Drusilla wouldn’t let anyone see Faith, said it wasn’t safe. But if the mean vampire before her had killed Faith, then wasn’t she dead…no. She was turned. Dawn realized that now, as she watched the scene before her. Watched Angelus stand, looking like an avenging angel fallen to earth to exact retribution on those who harmed…Buffy.

Buffy. Her sister. Her savior, her protector. She was made from Buffy, wasn’t she? Made from…Summers’ blood. She was made from Summers’ blood and Buffy was her mother, sister, friend, she was…Buffy.

Dawn knew what she had to do.

“They took her?” Angelus was shouting, his hands attacking the stone wall as if it were nothing sturdier than a pillow. Large chunks crumbled from his onslaught as he tore at the building, taking his rage out on something other than his family. “They’ll be lucky if they know what a dimension is when I’m through with them.”

Lilah was sobbing, scared for her life, Dru was leaning against Spike for support; Paul and Saffir had abandoned their search and were now standing by Angelus’ side.

“If you know where they are,” Paul said, “Then we’re with you.”

Giles stood. “We’ll have to find a way to get to them,” he calmly reminded everyone, needlessly, pulling different books from the shelves. “If they can’t exist in this world, in this dimension, then we have to go to theirs to get Buffy back.”

Willow nodded, standing by her lover. She was stronger now, but no less frightened of Angelus. Still, there was a point to focus on now. “I swear, Angelus; I’ll get her back.”

Angelus was ignorant of it all. Buffy. She was taken by the very beings that had orchestrated her turning and his reversion. Why hadn’t he realized that sooner? It only made sense. The Senior Partners didn’t do things without reason; if they wanted her turned, then they wanted her for themselves. Not for the world she and Angelus had created.

His hands were bloodied, and he didn’t realize that he was crying blood-tears. Connor approached him slowly, cautiously as if Angelus was a wounded animal – and indeed, he was.

“Dad,” Connor whispered. “Dad, stop. You’re not helping her.”

This was what he’d been afraid of, this snapping. Angelus losing it wasn’t a pretty sight, and Connor fervently hoped he never witnessed it again. Taking Angelus’ hands in his, Connor pulled his father away from the destruction he caused.

“Dad, please…” he said softly, catching Angelus’ attention; his son was never frightened, and yet that was what Angelus heard when Connor spoke. Looking at his father, Connor tilted his head behind him, to where Dawn still stood. “Dawn has something for you,”

Still shaking, but more determined now, Dawn stepped forward. She didn’t remember everything, didn’t want to, but she remembered enough. Buffy loved her, Buffy saved her. Buffy protected her and helped her. Faith was her protector, Lilah her companion. Both were in danger from Angelus…who needed Buffy just as much as the rest of those gathered in the brightly lit room.

Angelus scared her, more than anything in her life, and Dawn knew that bodies were falling left and right because he didn’t have Buffy by his side. A dozen and more had already died for piddling reasons; from the airport to this room where everyone was currently researching, they fell under his wrath. She didn’t want Dru or Lilah as the next ones. Gathering all her courage, Dawn stepped forward.

“It talks to me.” Another step closer. “Whispers to me.” She moved closer yet. “Wants what I want.” Holding out The Book, her hands trembling her eyes lifted staring into his frightening visage. Dawn told only him, spoke only to him in the silent room. “The Book says it can find Buffy.”

Angelus stilled. His eyes narrowed on Dawn as he looked at his beloved’s sister. She was scared, but that was to be expected. And yet she stood before him offering a way to return Buffy because she could.

“What are you talking about, Dawn?” His voice was once again purposely soft, and Angelus was reminded of how Angel spoke to the woman before him. Patiently, kindly…maybe the soul always knew that Dawn was fragile and could break at any moment.

“We can find her, I know I can.”

“And how do you know this?” Angelus demanded.

“Because I’m the Key to the Book.”

It was crazy sounding, and yet there was enough sanity to her words, in her posture, in her scent, that Angelus paused. He took Dawn by the shoulders, looking into her bright eyes; insanity lurked there, but they shone with conviction now. Gentling his hold on the human, caressing, now instead of hurting, he looked for another moment more.

Dawn’s scent was so much like Buffy’s, her aura bright and sure like his love’s. Releasing her, Angelus took the Book, shooting Giles and Willow a look – this slip of a human found the answers, and Angelus was pissed that she had when his own family – who had stopped more apocalypses than were recorded – couldn’t.

“Check this out. Find her now.” He turned back to Dawn, long cool fingers stroking down her cheek. “Good work, Dawn. Why don’t you take Slave, and go to bed?”

“You won’t hurt Dru?” Dawn demanded, not moving.

Angelus chuckled; she was so like Buffy. His hear clenched at that thought, but hope loomed brightly now. “No, Dawnie, I won’t hurt Dru. Go on to bed, now; get some sleep. And then you can tell me how you and the Book work, okay?”

Dawn looked at him for another moment. “Okay.”

Connor took the Book from Angelus. “Where’d Dawn find this?”

“I don’t know,” Giles admitted, looking at the binding from his place next to Connor. “May I?” He asked, already taking it. He’d reverted to watcher mode, and blocked out everything else.

Fred sniffled, reminding everyone that she was there. Connor turned back to his captive, that crazy smile once more on his face. “Didn’t think I forgot about you, did you?”

“What do you want?” She asked, voice timid and shaking.

Connor laughed, hauling her upright. “You may be the brains among what’s left of that little group, but here, you’re just a prisoner. And prisoners don’t talk.”

He dragged her past Wes and Gunn, still being guarded by hungry looking minions, and up the stairs. Pushing her into his room, Connor locked the door, and turned to the guard. “One hair on her head is harmed, and you’ll wish I killed you.” The guard nodded. “She’s due in a couple of weeks, but may go early.” Connor wasn’t entirely certain what that meant, but Angelus was adamant that stress was bad for pregnant women, and if Connor wanted the child, then he had to be careful.

“If that happens,” Connor said, walking away, “I want to be informed immediately.”

He wanted Fred’s child healthy; the baby Connor wanted to raise as his own, wanted to mold the way he saw fit, needed to be. He wasn’t sure why he wanted the child so much, why it was almost imperative that he do this, but Connor didn’t ask himself too many questions. It was enough for him that he wanted a human child – one to watch grow, one to teach, and one to train.

The thought of turning someone held little appeal, thus far he hadn’t found anyone whom he considered worthy of such an introduction into the Family. But a baby who was part of the family from birth…that held potential.

When he returned to the room everyone was gathered in, Angelus was gone. “Where’s dad?”

 

“He’s playing with Wes and Gunn,” Spike said, his voice still bitter over Angelus’ treatment of Drusilla. And he hadn’t even had the chance to tell his grandsire the news he’d gathered about Buffy. Probably just as well.

With this new development in finding Buffy, Angelus was even closer to whatever edge he hadn’t yet fallen off of, and Spike didn’t want to go anywhere near him.

~~~~~~~~~~

“How are you, Willow?” Paul asked quietly, as Willow read a Book that seemed to make no sense at all.

“Fine,” but the word was spoken absently. She wasn’t fine, and they both knew that. She was drained, exhausted, and in serious need of rest. That wasn’t about to happen anytime soon.

“When was the last time you fed?”

 

Willow shrugged, unwilling to admit that it was on Faith, days ago. The power still flowed through her, but hunger was beginning to gnaw her insides. She wanted more. Specifically, she wanted more slayer blood…another addiction to deal with.

“And when was the last time you fed magickaly?”

“Ah…”

“Willow,” the way he said that one word made her look up. “Don’t make me force you. You won’t like the cost.” While not as dangerous as Angelus, Paul’s reputation was formidable in its own right, and Willow knew that.

“I will,” she promised. “Later.”

 

“When? Before or after you collapse from exhaustion?” There was no answer, but Paul didn’t expect one. “You’ll do it now.”

“I can’t, Paul,” Willow looked at him for the first time since recovering from the Killer of the Dead poison, and he saw the hopelessness in her eyes. “I’m afraid if I stop now, I won’t be able to find her.”

“You’ll find her,” Paul assured his lover, with a mocking laugh. “Angelus will have it no other way.”

“Yes, but…I can’t feel her,” Willow confessed. “Buffy, I can’t feel her.”

“She’s not dead.”

“What if she is?”

“She’s not,” Paul reassured her, taking her hand and placing a soft kiss on her palm. “If she was, Angelus would have killed us all long ago.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” Willow grimaced, but there was a light in her eyes that hadn’t been there moments before.

“No,” Paul laughed, “But it is supposed to motivate you. Now,” he stood and pulled her with him. “Let’s get you someone to eat.”

~~~~~~~~~~

The messenger from the Senior Partners arrived at Angelus’ mansion not long after he was dispatched. His mission was simple, and he was expendable.

Contact Angelus, let him know who had his mate, give him the terms of her release, and leave. If Angelus killed him, well, then, that was okay, too.

“I bring a message from The Wolf, The Ram, and The Hart,” the not quite human looking being announced when the door was opened by a minion. Frankly, he wasn’t expecting Angelus himself to be there faster than even he could blink. He didn’t even need to blink.

“The only words out of your mouth,” Angelus told the messenger, looking mean and ferocious. “Had better be that Buffy is with you, and your bosses are extremely sorry that she was ever taken in the first place.”

“Ah,” the messenger hesitated. Theoretically, he was prepared for his own death. The reality presented to him made him think otherwise. “The Wolf, The Ram, and The Hart offer you a deal. In return for Buffy, your Mate, Queen of this world, Alpha of this clan, they demand and desire-”

His neck snapped in two before he finished. Despite the rising sun, Angelus had moved into the dawn, snapped the messenger’s neck, and tossed the body several hundred feet away from the mansion. In his rage, he wasn’t even aware that his arms were smoking.

Spike, who had followed Angelus, had. Playing nursemaid, the younger vampire grumbled as he slapped a special salve on the burns, and called for some blood for Angelus.

“If you do stupid things like that, mate,” Spike scowled. “Then you’ll never find Buffy. Don’t give me that look,” he continued without looking up. “They want something, what we’ll never know unless they’re stupid enough to send more minions, but they want something in exchange for Buffy.”

“I don’t care. She’s mine.”

“Yes, yes,” Spike sighed. “We know. But they want something specific. Now, before you came back tossing humans around like they were sacks of flour, I heard that the Partners were running scared.”

Angelus’ hand closed around Spike’s neck. “Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”

“And ruin your dramatic entrance?” Spike pried the hand away, able to do so only because Angelus let him, and they both knew it. “Seems that they had Buffy turned because they wanted something from her. Because you showed up and ruined their plans before they had a chance to do more than turn her, they never got it.”

“Why wait years?” It made no sense to Angelus…it’d been years, thousands of deaths, hundreds of miles of land conquered, a remodeling of the worlds, and now the Senior Partners decided they wanted to take Buffy from him?

“Ah…” this was the part Spike liked the least. “This was the first time you two were apart. It was their first and probably only chance to snatch her.”

So it was his fault, Angelus realized as he met Spike’s bright blue eyes. Because he’d avoided the one thing Buffy wanted from him, because he refused to go to Ireland with her and had headed to Europe instead to put down a rebellion that was most likely staged, they’d taken her.

“I’m certain,” Spike continued in a quiet voice, low enough that only Angelus could hear him, “That they didn’t know of her…need of you.”

“They do now.”

“Yes, I’m sure they do. Which doesn’t explain why it’s taken so long for them to contact you. If they knew of her, ah, need,” there was no way even all the forces of all the hells in any and all universe could make Spike say ‘addiction.’ “Then they’d use that to their advantage, right?”

“Unless they thought that the weaker she got,” Angelus’ voice was equally quiet, “The more cooperative she’d be.”

Spike snorted. “Not bloody likely. She’s s strong one, our Buffy. Senior Partner’s or not, she’d never crack.”

Except Angelus was deathly afraid that if he didn’t get to her soon, she would. In the back of his mind, where the heart that didn’t beat did so only for her, and the soul he didn’t have cried out for its mate, he heard her.

She called for him. And her voice was growing weaker.

~~~~~~~~~~

It wasn’t pretty. But then none of them expected it to be.

In the less than six hours since Dawn had handed Angelus the Book she purported to contain all the answer, chaos had reigned. The house was in an uproar as preparations were made, ingredients and supplies gathered, and spells performed.

And everyone stayed out of Angelus’ way.

After the incident with the Senior Partner’s messenger, and the five that followed him, even Spike had left the vampire alone. Only Paul ventured near him, but no one knew what the two discussed. But when they rejoined the family, Angelus had been noticeably calmer.

Wesley and Gunn were chained in the upper rooms, with strict instructions to be left alone. Angelus wanted to save them for Buffy’s return. Fred was in Connor’s room, not in labor yet. Ethan was locked in the dungeon, waiting Giles’ return, and Oz was in a three by three cage specially designed by Willow – apparently the witch had more than a few unresolved issues with her first lover.

“Tell me, Dawn.”

Dawn looked at Angelus and nodded. “The Book is part of the Key,” she said, frowning as she tried to remember all the Book had told her. “We open each other, and make things happen.”

“Like opening portals,” Giles smirked. “That’s what she was made for,” he told Angelus. “She’s the key to open portals.”

“Which is why we’re using her, correct?” That had been their plan all along; to use Dawn’s keyness to explore other worlds. She could open dimensions, and yet with the proper care and direction, she could also open alternate realities. It was something Buffy had been looking forward to exploring.

“Exactly,” Giles nodded. It’d taken them years, as many years as it’d taken them to secure the world under their rule, to figure a way to accomplish that, but they had.

With this Book, all their answers were there. Except, they couldn’t read it…well, read it and understand it. Apparently, the Book only liked Dawn. It was willing, however, to work with them so long as it not only got Dawn, but ensured her survival, too. Angelus agreed without a second’s delay to that.

Anything to get Buffy back.

Something shattered in the upper rooms, echoing down to where they gathered. Drusilla giggled. “My Faith, she’s so angry I won’t let her out to play.”

Angelus glared at his favorite childe and returned his attention to Dawn. He didn’t care about Faith – except that it now meant there was another slayer out there to hunt and capture. And eventually convert; but they’d hunt her later. He was going to save her for Buffy. Whatever it took for her to gain her strength back.

“So by using you,” Angelus continued, speaking to Dawn as if they were the only two in the room. As far as either were concerned, they were; they were certainly the most important ones. “And the spells from the Book, we can…break into the Senior Partner’s dimension.”

“Yes. If Buffy’s in this White Room, and that’s the only way to meet them,” Dawn nodded, displaying more sanity than she had since well before her capture by Buffy and Angelus, “Then this is the way to do it.”

“What are the drawbacks?”

Dawn cocked her head to the side. She didn’t understand: the Book had told her everything, and she’d relayed it all to Angelus. What was he talking about?

“Drawbacks,” Angelus snapped. “What dangers are there to Buffy when we get her out of the room?”

“There are none. She’s in a…” Dawn stopped, glanced at the Book as if it really was speaking to her, and nodded. “The room she’s in is an in between room. Neither here nor there. It’s shielded from everything, that’s why it’s safe.”

And that’s why he could only feel the faintest tickle from his mate.

“The Book says that everything you need is here.” Dawn handed the book to Angelus, opening it without looking to the page they needed.

“Good.”

I’m coming, my love. I’ll be there shortly. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Ready to find her, kill the Partners, and return to the world they’d created…not anyone else. Them. This was their world; they’d spent years taking it over and remolding it to suit their needs and desires. It was what they wanted, power and fear, instant obedience, a human population that understand their place, and a demon one that cowered before those stronger and more determined than they.

Drusilla held onto Dawn, lending physical support to the girl-woman, as Dawn held the book and did whatever it was she was supposed to do to make the portal open. Giles and Willow monitored the spell, keeping the chant Dawn told them to repeat constant; Lilah stood to the side, insisting that she be there with Dawn. Faith was still locked in a specially padded room, but Dru insisted that her little slayer was fine. Angelus looked at Spike, and the blonde nodded.

“She’s taking to the change better than she should, considering her already mindless state. Still thinks Dru’s mother and master all in one.”

Angelus gripped his favorite sword, Connor, Paul, and Spike at his side. Willow, despite her strong magicks, was needed to help Dawn reopen the portal, and Saffir had to ground everyone with a counter spell – they didn’t need any losses today. One was more than enough.

“Make sure nothing happens to Dawn, Drusilla,” Angelus ordered. “We need her; and Buffy would be very angry if anything happened to her.”

With a silent crack, and a bright flash, the portal opened into a room as long and as white as Angelus remembered. And there, in the center of the expanse, was his Buffy.

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