Track B in Track A 

Elizabeth lay in Angel’s arms, her head resting in the hollow of his shoulder, hands holding him tightly to her. She didn’t want to ever let him go, but wondered if she had the choice. Things between them were tenuous at best. 

Time had no meaning to her any more, not since Angel had entered the mansion and waked straight to her, sweeping her into his arms, holding her tightly to him. He’d led her to their rooms, then, ignoring the looks from Cordelia and Wes, and the many questions Elizabeth wanted to ask him. 

“I do love you,” Angel finally said, breaking the silence in the room with his soft voice. “Please don’t ever, ever doubt that.” 

Elizabeth said nothing for a moment before raising her head to look into his dark brown eyes. They held a wealth of secrets yet were open enough in their honesty. Lifting her hand to his face and cupping his cheek, she brushed a thumb across the smudges under his eyes. Noting the tiredness and the dirt there, she wondered where he’d been for the past three days. At that first touch, her world righted, and she knew that whatever it took, she’d keep him by her side. 

Forever. 

“I know you do, Angel,” she whispered back, “I know.” The silence stretched out between them before Elizabeth asked, “What do we do now?” 

Angel didn’t answer but Elizabeth knew it was more because he didn’t know than because he didn’t want to tell her. The ringing of the phone downstairs shattered their peaceful idyll, but they ignored it. When moments passed and no one came to get them, but rather left the house, Angel tucked Elizabeth back against his chest, his hands resting lightly on her curves. 

Three days without touching her. How had he managed? 

“I don’t know,” he eventually said. “But whatever it is, we’re going to do it together. I’m never letting you go, Elizabeth, I can’t do that.” 

“Even if Buffy returns?” It was her worst fear, but Elizabeth couldn’t not voice it; she dreaded the answer as much as she dreaded the silence of not asking. “Even if Willow and Giles are successful in performing the spell, and she returns here?” 

“If Buffy returns,” Angel reasoned, “Then that means that you’re gone, switched with her and back in that world.” His grip tightened. “And I’ll be right behind you,” the soft words drifted around them, cocooning them in an illusion that they both knew was probably unlikely. 

But he’d lost his love once, there was no way – in heaven, hell, or otherwise – that Angel was going to lose her again. 

“What about…” again, Elizabeth was loath to ask the question, but there was no choice. Three days without him was a long time, but enough to try to answer the questions Tara and Cordelia brought up. “What about your soul?” 

“My soul,” Angel whispered, his demon snickering at the question. But then Angelus paused, still uncertain if Elizabeth was good enough. Not her appeal, for the demon wanted to sate his lust in her heat, taste her blood, her passion, her fire. She was undeniably beautiful, and the demon wanted her physically; she was undeniably smart and fast, powerful and clever, a true Slayer with all the power behind that claim. 

But what about by Angelus’ side? Was she capable of that? Was she able to handle that and all that came with it? Why was he even thinking that way? What was he dooming both himself and her to with these kinds of thoughts? He couldn’t let Angelus loose again; he couldn’t lose his soul and let the demon run free. Not again, never again. 

“My soul,” Angel said as Angelus pondered the situation, “Will be fine.” 

Elizabeth looked up at him sharply, green eyes probing the truth in his words. He seemed sincere in that, honestly believing what he said. But what did he mean? What did he mean by those words? That he couldn’t achieve perfect happiness with her because she wasn’t really his Buffy? Or that Tara had found something to bind his soul and neither had told her yet? 

It couldn’t be that, Elizabeth was pretty damn sure that someone would’ve told her that news. 

Or was it something else, something entirely different? Was it something to do with Angelus? Elizabeth still truly believed that the demon wouldn’t hurt her; there was a niggling sensation in the back of her mind that he wanted to do something else, something that she wasn’t prepared for, but every time she tried to focus on that, the thought flitted away. It was something she’d heard long ago, but Elizabeth couldn’t remember what. 

The point was that Angelus really wouldn’t hurt her. Test her through trials designed to evaluate her strength and try her devotion to him, yes, but not really hurt. Because if one side loved her, then the other did, too. 

“I believe you,” Elizabeth smiled and kissed him, letting the hurt at his disappearance spiral away under the passion of his kiss. 

Angel wondered if he believed himself. He knew the consequences of being with Elizabeth, knew that perfect happiness was as achievable with her as with Buffy. He didn’t care. Because he was tired of caring what everyone else thought, wanted, demanded. He wanted to live for himself, for himself and Elizabeth. 

They fell asleep that way, wrapped around each other, exhausted from being away from the other for so long. It wasn’t until dawn the next morning when Cordelia and Tara finally worked up the courage to tell them about the spell, that they awoke.
~~~~~~~~~~
Spike and Wesley waited in the Great Hall while Cordelia and Tara told the couple upstairs. 

There was no way either would be induced to be the bearer of such news, knowing what it’d mean to Angel and Elizabeth. The others – Willow, Xander, Giles – didn’t understand anything except bringing Buffy back. Angel wanted Buffy, he loved her and wanted her; that was all very true. But he was desperately in love with Elizabeth, someone who’d touched the darkness and still survived, who knew what it was like to hunt and kill, and who knew the pain of it. 

“This isn’t going to go well,” Spike said as he patted himself down for another cigarette. He was going through more and more of them since Elizabeth showed up; he’d never before thought vampires could feel stress. He was so wrong. 

“No,” Wes agreed as he kept a careful distance from the vampire he still didn’t trust. “No I don’t think it will.” 

“Where’d Red find this ox thingy, anyway?” Spike asked, more for something to fill the unnatural silence coming from upstairs than any real need to know. 

“Peru,” Wes said, wondering if Angel kept any whiskey around; he found himself in desperate need of a fortifying drink. “It’ll take a week for the ox to arrive, and then there’s something Willow and Giles have to do to the horn for it to be the ‘Light made from a Blue Ox horn’.” 

“Yeah and what exactly does that mean?” 

“No idea,” Wes admitted, waiting for the crash, a scream, something from upstairs. This silence was starting to worry him. He wasn’t sure Elizabeth wanted to return, not after he’d witnessed the way she and Angel were around each other. And with no possibility of ever finding an Angel in her world – not if the stories of how Angelus and his family disappeared were true – then would she really want to leave? 

Wesley didn’t think so. 

Spike knew she didn’t want to.
~~~~~~~~~~
Track B in Track A 

“You don’t have to do it,” Tara whispered to a shocked Elizabeth long minutes after she’d told her how Willow and Giles were preparing to meet this Blue Ox and its master in Mexico in a week’s time. 

She didn’t want to see her friend leave, not her, not Angel. Elizabeth was the best friend Tara had ever had, and she didn’t want to lose that. Buffy was fine, great even. But she wasn’t Elizabeth. Willow didn’t see that, and Tara wondered why that was; because Elizabeth didn’t know Willow, and preferred Tara’s company to the redhead’s? 

Because Elizabeth talked to Tara like a member of her inner circle, encouraging her, supporting her in things Tara would otherwise never have tried? Willow was an extremely powerful witch, and had become so in a very short time. Tara knew she had power, but she never had the courage to try it, not with the way her mother had…died. And her father’s tales of how she was demon…the more Tara hung around Elizabeth, saw the way she could spot a demon immediately, Tara was beginning to wonder about that, too. 

If Elizabeth hadn’t outed her as a demon, then was she really? Was that just another lie in the long list of ones she’d been told throughout her life? Or was Elizabeth just a true friend and didn’t care one way or another that Tara was a demon. But no, if what her friend told her was true, then Tara and her mother were instrumental in keeping the warring demon population at bay in that other world. 

Tara wanted to ask, but now wasn’t the time. And she wondered if there’d ever be a time to ask something like that. Now that Willow and Mr. Giles found a way to return Elizabeth. 

Tears swimming in her eyes for only a moment, Elizabeth nodded. “Yes, yes I do.” She turned to Angel, recalling his promise. “And you have to stay here.” 

He opened his mouth to protest but Elizabeth cut him off with a soft kiss. “You do, and you know it. I can’t let your Buffy stay in my world, not with the responsibilities I have, not with the things I have to do. She’s unfamiliar with too many things, things that can get her killed,” or worse, she added but didn’t say aloud. 

“Things that could cause our side serious damage. Here, it’s so different, you just don’t understand.” 

She shifted on the bed, closer to where Angel held himself stiffly next to her. She looked into his eyes, ravaged with the pain of losing her and conversely felt her heart lift. “I love you,” she whispered as Tara and Cordelia edged further away from them, their message delivered. They didn’t want to disturb the couple any more than they had; plus they had to deliver Elizabeth’s affirmative message to the rest of the gang. Another thing they didn’t want to do. 

“Don’t ever forget that. But when I…return,” she chocked on her words, a tear slipping free. “Your Buffy is going to need you here.” 

“You are mine,” Angel insisted, crushing her to him, lips blindly finding hers. “You’re mine.” 

Angelus roared in agreement, unable to believe that useless gang of humans had actually found a way to switch Buffy and Elizabeth. Still, if Angel thought this way about Elizabeth, then maybe the pansy-assed soul could get them their Marked Mate back. 

That wouldn’t suck.
~~~~~~~~~~
Anya sat with her arms crossed and looked at the assembled group. 

Seven days until they could do this ridiculous spell and switch Slayers. Ha, if her demon friends could see her now and the stupidity she’d gotten herself involved in. Not that she had any more demon friends, the Slayer and a pair of semi-non-violent vampires notwithstanding. But that wasn’t the point. 

The point was that this was an extremely stupid move. 

They were going to destroy two worlds, and no one seemed to get that. 

What a bunch of fools. But no one asked her, and every time she brought up the very many flaws in this spell, Giles, Willow, and Xander shushed her as if she were a child. Ha! A child. She was over 1100 years old! She’d seen things no one ever heard of before, and she was the child. Whatever. 

Was it her fault she was honest? No, honesty was just the way she was, always had been. Was it her fault she knew things no one bothered to ask her about? No, it certainly wasn’t, and she wasn’t going to take the blame for this. She loved Xander, she did. But there was no way in hell she was sticking around for the fireworks that were about to explode in their faces. 

She liked this Elizabeth, she really did; the girl was honest and strong, she knew what to do and when to do it. Obviously, Elizabeth had told the truth when she said she was the leader of her army. It was a shame she had to leave and the other Buffy return; this one made Anya laugh. 

“When do we do this spell?” Elizabeth asked when no one said anything. 

She and Angel had followed Tara and Cordelia to Giles’, wanting to tell the group their – Elizabeth’s – decision and see what was involved with the spell. Angel hated it, as did Elizabeth, but she couldn’t leave Buffy there in a world where things weren’t always as they seemed to her, let alone a Slayer who was thrown into the fray unprepared. 

“It’ll take a week,” Giles said as he polished his glasses, “For the Ox to arrive at the Mexican border; I assume, since the owner whom Willow spoke with seemed to know of the spell, that it’ll be relatively quick after that when the horn will be ready.” 

Elizabeth nodded, silently from the wall she leaned against, watching Angel from across the room. Riley was there, still anticipating Buffy’s arrival, his girlfriend who didn’t hate him as if he were a pariah for things he hadn’t even done in this world! Willow sat with Tara who looked at Elizabeth with sympathy and sorrow; Xander was next to a pouting Anya. Spike next to his GrandSire in some kind of weird support, and Cordelia and Wesley were on the barstools, equally silent. 

“So then we’ll…switch?” Her voice, though still quiet, was unbelievably loud in the silence of the room. 

“Yes,” Willow said with far too much glee in her voice. She wanted her Buffy back and that was all there was to it. “You’ll go back to your world, with your Giles and…” it was still hard for her to admit, “Cordelia, and that war you told us about. Buffy will return here.” 

Unable to stand it any longer, Anya rose in a huff. “Elizabeth doesn’t belong here,” she said to the surprise of the group. Not her words themselves, but the fact that she suddenly exploded off the couch in a rage of words. 

“We’ve all figured that out, it’s no secret, but what you’re failing to consider is who made the change with Elizabeth and Buffy, and why. And what’s the price for this change of places?” The silence from before, amplified, and Anya threw her hands up in disgust. “You’re just assuming, like the naive little children you are, that Buffy is with Elizabeth’s Giles. What if she isn’t? What if you can’t bring Buffy back?” 

Willow sputtered as if to say how impossible that was, but the former demon ignored her and continued on with her pent-up tirade. 

“Have any one of you considered the odds of another Buffy finding another souled vampire?” She walked over to stare speculatively at Angel as if assessing his soul, his demon, his life before and after. She’d never met Angelus, Scourge of Europe, but had heard nothing but wonderful things about him when she was a demon, and he was scourging Europe. His carnage, the lust for the hunt, the kill. He was impressive even in the vengeance demon community, and that was saying something. 

“Come on people, THINK! Surely beings as stupid as you are currently acting can’t save the world on a regular basis as you have without employing some brain power.” Her caustic remarks sent a twitch through the abnormally silent group, though Spike snickered. He often thought that as well, but no one listened to him 

“What has our Buffy changed by being wherever she is? What has Elizabeth changed by being here?” 

No one answered her and Anya wanted to scream. They weren’t getting it, she could tell. Angel had an inkling, there was a spark of recognition in his eyes, but he wasn’t saying anything. Anya didn’t blame him; he didn’t want Elizabeth to leave in the first place. But Cordelia’s silence surprised her. 

Willow was too new to the magicks of the world, and thought it all a game to play at her whimsy. Tara had a healthy respect for the magick she wielded, and had to know the dangers involved in something as powerful as this, but remained quiet by her lover’s side, eyes trained on Elizabeth. Cordelia – the one with as little tact as Anya, and the one whom Anya had a smidgen of respect for because of that – said nothing. 

The two watchers didn’t voice a word, either, and Anya knew why they’d been fired. 

“Let’s look at the big picture, people, shall we? At the risk of pulling scabs off old wounds, does anyone remember when I was a vengeance demon? And Ms. Me-Me-Me over there,” she pointed to Cordelia who looked surprised. No, she didn’t remember. All she remembered was that Anya was a demon then she wasn’t. The story Anya told them after the whole double Willow debacle made little sense to her, though everyone else looked pained. 

“Made a wish that Buffy had never come to Sunnydale? What happened when the alternate reality kicked in? You’re making assumptions about Buffy’s safety and location as arrogantly as you sit here arranging this one’s life.” 

Now everyone started talking at once, but Anya held up a hand. She was finally saying what needed to be said, and she was damn well going to say it. “My point is: you’re stumbling around blindly, leaping into things you don’t know for sure. There will be a price to pay for this, there always is. Who is going to pay it? You?” She pointed to Willow who looked as if she was about to blast the former demon into the fiery pits of hell. 

“You?” A finger at Giles and Xander, who worked as hard as the redhead in finding a way to switch the Slayers without discovering why they’d been switched in the first place. Walking to stand in front of Elizabeth, she concluded. “I know I sure won’t be the one. Something has been set in motion here that is going to have long-term consequences, and I feel like I’m the only one with the brains to admit it and the guts to say it aloud.” 

Elizabeth said nothing but listened to every word Anya had spoken. She was right, and the Slayer knew it. A quick glance at Angel confirmed he knew it, too. “You came here for a reason, whose we don’t know, but someone here needs to start asking the multitude of questions about those reasons. If no one else has the guts to I will. Whose reason? Who stands to gain? Who stands to loose? What possible gain is there to taking The Slayer and transplanting her with another?” 

Not taking her eyes from Elizabeth, Anya addressed the rest of the group. “I know you’re all reflex people; living on the Hellmouth nothing surprises you anymore. You all roll with the demon punches or whatever, but get a grip! You’re so focused on single-mindedly getting Buffy back that you’re not looking at anything else, and you need to.” 

She held Elizabeth’s eyes saying what no one else will. “If you found Angel, the souled vampire, here, who did Buffy find there? With so many similarities in people, in your and Buffy’s lives, I’m willing go to Vegas on my speculations. Anyone else want to follow my train of thought?” No one else did, though it was obvious by the sickly expressions on all their faces that what Anya was speculating was something they all realized now. An uneasy silence followed her question. 

“No? Okay, I’ll put it into words then, since you refuse to see it. I’m betting Buffy met Angelus, Scourge of Europe.” 

She looked at Elizabeth a moment longer as Elizabeth shook her head no. “Anya, Angelus and his Family from my world were legends, but they were legends who disappeared over a hundred years ago.” 

Anya lifted an eyebrow, amused at their naivety before walking back to where Angel stood stiffly against the wall. He knew what she meant; he knew it and believed it. Anya held his gaze knowingly. “I wasn’t here for Angelus’ emergence a couple years ago, but I heard. You and I,” she said bluntly to Angel, “Are demons…were demons,” she amended. “We know more than they will ever grasp or understand unless they became one themselves.” 

Her glance included Spike who had also followed her train of thought and was surprised by the steady knowledge there. He knew exactly what she was talking about and had probably wondered it before she brought it up. Her eyes narrowed at the younger vampire. Then why had he said nothing before? 

Addressing Angel once more, she asked, “Angelus, presented with the opportunity for achieving what he wanted the most, would he take it?” Her words drove a stake straight to the heart of what Angel was going through, as well as what might be happening elsewhere. 

He’d know, Angel silently agreed, Angelus would know and take it in an instant. Take Buffy/Elizabeth in an instant. Angel knew that Anya was right, but what could he say? Nothing, he could say nothing to that. His eyes moved over Anya’s shoulder to where Elizabeth stood across the room. They both knew the truth in Anya’s words. 

Elizabeth because she often thought that Angel was much like Angelus, but both refused to admit it to anyone, especially themselves. Angel because he knew his demon, knew him better in the last weeks than he had since regaining his soul over a hundred years ago. 

Muttering filled the room from the rest of the gang, now panicked by things they hadn’t allowed themselves to think about before. That wasn’t possible, they thought, was it? Giles felt a twinge of guilty fear – he’d kept so much from Buffy when Angelus first made his appearance in Sunnydale. Was this now his punishment? Willow and Xander refused to believe it; they’d seen the way Angelus treated Buffy. That wasn’t love; it wasn’t anything but the need to kill her. Wasn’t it? 

Cordelia murmured to Wesley, “Xander has finally found someone nuttier than he,” though her words were forced humor. She recognized a truth in Anya’s words and Angel’s silence she never wanted to know. 

Giles shook his head, finally forced to consider things he’d rather not; Anya was right. This is a valid concern. “But Buffy has faced Angelus before,” he reassured the group, wondering where these lies came from. “She wouldn’t be that susceptible.” 

Elizabeth shook her head, pale, knowing, wondering. “Wait a minute here, people, let’s not go off the deep end-” 

Anya smiled pityingly, holding Angel’s gaze with knowing eyes. They both know what Angelus wanted, has always wanted: Buffy. Presented with the chance again, what would he do? Just what he always intended to do; differently but still with as much ruthlessness and enthusiasm as ever. 

“No way,” Xander insisted in a wrong and misguided tone. “No way would Buffy go near that psycho again in any universe!” 

Anya turned from Angel to she scanned the room. Such mortal fools. 

Riley came off the wall abruptly, drawing everyone’s attention. “I’ve sat here listening to all this, I’ve put up with being treated like a piranha because I look like someone that came from her time.” His hand shot out at his look-alike girlfriend hurt and angry over her reactions to him. 

“But this is beyond too much! I refuse to sit here and listen to anymore insinuations that Buffy would fall for a soulless monster, much less the pitying looks I keep getting because he’s here.” A jerky nod toward Angel who was scowling at him, a low rumble aimed at the insolent boy. 

Spike choked on a laugh while dragging in on a cigarette. Giles glared at him, but Spike ignored that, too. “Can’t help it; with Captain Clueless it’s just so damn easy.” 

“Spike,” Angel warned his GrandChilde with a glare. He didn’t like Riley, not one bit, but Spike’s commentary helped no one. Spike shrugged but lapsed into silence. 

Taking a moment to sneer at Spike contemptuously, Riley continued. His eyes roamed the room, meeting the gazes of those who had thus far either accepted him wholeheartedly – Willow and Xander – or not – Anya, Giles…everyone else. “Buffy is with me now and has been for sometime.” His hard gaze locked with Angel’s condescending one. 

“Whatever they had, is over...finished…as dead as the corpse against the wall is.” The angry silence stretched as the others looked away from the former commando, unwilling to say a word to his anger. “And there is no way Buffy would let a monster, regardless of what version or time she’s in, prevent her from doing her duty or returning to me.” 

Spike laughed, Angel sneered, and Anya sighed, a look of reluctant compassion crossing her face but only for a second. How far into the denial world was Riley sunk? Honestly, had he no idea what kind of woman the Slayer was? Especially this one? Shooting Willow a level gaze, Anya instructed, “Tell him.” 

Willow’s gaze flickered, darted to Riley, then away again. 

“Tell me what?” Riley demanded, “Willow?” Riley’s angry gaze searched the room but no one seemed to want to tell him whatever Anya wanted him to know. “Giles?” 

“Anya don’t,” Xander protested, standing and starting to make his way to his eccentric girlfriend. 

“No!” She flashed a look at Xander, and he stopped in his tracks, wondering if she had any demonic powers left he didn’t know about. “We don’t have time for this, Xander, and I can’t help it if you don’t see it.” Turning back to Riley, Anya shook her head in disgust. 

“My god, you’re all pathetic!” She exclaimed to the single clap of encouragement from Spike and the silently locked eyes of Angel and Elizabeth. “I don’t know how Buffy had the patience to let you live in your little fantasy worlds. It was probably just simpler for her to let you believe whatever you want, than it was to try and pound the truth into your thick heads, because it would be a non-stop job.” 

She held Riley’s gaze, pointing at him and saying commandingly, “Listen up little man; what you tell yourself to keep going is your business, but out here in the real world the rest of us…” She paused, looking around at the room and smirked, “Well, most of us at least. It’s all about facts and the cold-hard-truth.” 

Her gaze swung back to Riley. “I don’t know the Slayer as well as Willow should; we don’t exchange long confidences, don’t have heart to hearts, and I doubt we ever will. But even I know some unrelenting truths about her that will never ever change. Whether this lot here will ever have the guts to put the truth into words, is another story, and one I could care less about.” 

She laughed, “I doubt Buffy cares either, since she long ago gave up stating the patently obvious. But my gut tells me the bad is coming, and what you choose to do with the truth well… No one can say afterwards that you weren’t warned.” 

Her gaze shifted briefly to Angel holding his. “The only reason she was with you was because she couldn’t be with the one she wanted.” Angel’s eyes flared briefly, before his gaze became hooded once more. Elizabeth and Spike caught it, no one else did; how blind were these people she’d gotten herself involved with? Anya wondered who was stupider, them…or her for letting herself be dragged down to their level. 

“No,” Riley shook his head in the denial she’d just accused him of. Anya flicked him an impatient look. 

“YES,” she insisted, confidently. “Look at their faces; they know it, have always known it; even if they don’t have the guts to say it. Buffy loves Angel, has always loved Angel even after he left her she still loved him.” 

Riley looked the room over as they all turned away or looked down; all except Spike who smirked knowingly. And Angel who only had eyes for Elizabeth, who stared back at him with equal longing and understanding. 

Willow looked up, then, compassion clear in her gaze for the man. “She does care for you, Riley.” 

“Care,” Anya enunciated, “Doesn’t equal love. And you better open your eyes to it, buddy, because it’s stupid and naive to assume she’s going to return to you unchanged.”

Devastated at having his doubts, insecurities, and reluctant fears pulled out into the open, Riley looked at the two people in the room he considered his friends . But neither Willow nor Xander looked at him in return. It was then he knew that Anya told the truth. Shaking his head uncomprehendingly, he tried one last time. “You act like this is a done deal, but this is all merely speculation!” 

They had no idea. Anya sighed impatiently, lifting the pages with the spell Willow and Giles were sure would work to switch Elizabeth and Buffy, she enumerated the points they still didn’t seem to get. 

“A Scourge of Europe who disappeared mysteriously with his childer…never been explained and rumored to come again. A mysterious mate that’s as steeped in mystery and as legendary as he, inspiring equal amounts of fear and respect as he? Darla, his sire, rumored to have been killed by an especially strong Slayer, except the Slayer was in Russia?” 

Anya shrugged as if it didn’t matter to her at all. “But you tell yourselves whatever you need to sleep at night,” her voice was condescending and disdainful. “All I’m saying is you may not be able to fix this no matter what you do. And when it all goes to hell, my car will be packed and me and my mutual funds will be heading as far and as fast away from Angelus – in any and all dimensions – as I can get.” 

Her gaze locked once more with Angel, as if she knew the internal debate the soul and demon were having. “If you’re smart, you’ll at least consider the fact that if Buffy has met up with Angelus in Elizabeth’s world, then he’s going to be as reluctant to let the source of his fascination go as this one is.” 

Willow jumped up then, her anger a palatable force. She refused to believe that. Elizabeth and Buffy switched, it was as simple as that; Elizabeth was here with them, and Buffy was there with Giles and Cordelia. There was nothing more to it, and Anya was making all this up just to get back at them for ruining her career as a vengeance demon. 

“No!” Her eyes flashed dangerously, a black power that was as much warning as it was denial. The ground shook and thunder rolled in the background of the once sunny day. Tara stood to immediately calm her lover, her accepting silence broken by Willow’s outburst. 

Anya looked at the redhead in surprise. She had no idea Willow was so strong – that couldn’t be good, not for any of them. An out of control witch was no one’s friend.
~~~~~~~~~~
Spike watched Angel and Elizabeth as they walked slowly back to the mansion. 

All Anya’s very valid arguments had been for naught – they were still going through with the spell, and those annoying Scoobies were just as steeped in denial as they had been yesterday. How, he wondered, had they managed to foil all his plans for the past two years? How had they managed to always win? They were deeply stupid when it came to a great many things, and still, they always managed to come out ahead. 

This was one time they weren’t going to, and Spike couldn’t wait to witness it. 

If this spell worked, and Buffy did return, Angel was leaving with Elizabeth. It didn’t matter what she wanted, him to stay here or not. Angel was going to Elizabeth’s world with her. And if Buffy really had found Angelus – and Spike could see no reason why she hadn’t – then it was equally likely that that Angelus was going to tag along with her when Red pulled her back. 

What a messy nightmare.

Still Captain Cardboard’s humiliation had been an entertaining diversion. It would almost be worth the annoyance if the Scoobies did manage to drag the Angelus from the other dimension back with the Slayer. Just to see that Angelus meet up with the Soldier boy sniffing after his Slayer. This Angel wasn’t faring at all well in keeping his claws and fangs off Soldier boy, but he was much more interested in Elizabeth – for now. 

It was only a matter of time before Riley was dead – Spike hoped he could dance for joy in his entrails. 

Except that Spike was actually looking forward to it. Two Angelus’, Two Slayers. What fun that could be. 

“Miss Edith tells me that new players have arrived,” a voice drifted to him from the shadows. “Tell me, my Spike, what games have you been playing without me?” 

Spike turned to the shadows, a smile on his face. “Dru, pet,” he said, “You have no idea.”

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