Part 16

#

Angel tried to shield his face from the exploding glass, at the same time moving his body in front of Buffy. Elia. She was still sitting on the chair, oblivious to the world, unable to defend herself. Angel looked at the Vampires standing outside the window. There had to be a dozen of them.

"Giles!" He yelled. "Are you all right?"

The Watcher looked up, his face covered with a few tiny cuts from the glass, but otherwise seemed unharmed. He, too, was staring at the Vampires.

"They can't come in here. They're not invited."

Angel knew as well as Giles that there were ways around that and looked for a weapon, any weapon. Thanks to the demon that inhabited his body he was almost as strong as a Vampire, yet attacking a dozen of them with his bare hands was not something he wanted to try.

"Get Buffy out of her trance!" Angel yelled, at the same time diving for the open throve where Giles kept his weapons.

Giles was halfway toward Buffy, mouth opening to speak the words that would snap her out of it, when one of the Vampires threw something at him. Angel saw it from the corner of his eye, had a fraction of a second to recognize it as a brick, and moments later it impacted with the back of Giles' head. The Watcher slid to the ground, unconscious, bleeding.

Angel's hands found a loaded crossbow in Giles' throve and he started aiming it when one of the Vampires threw something else into the room. A lasso? Angel was dumbfounded for a moment and it sufficed for the rope to wrap itself around Buffy's unmoving form.

"No!" He screamed, shooting. The first bolt hit one of the Vampires and he crumbled into dust, but another quickly grabbed the rope and started pulling. Buffy fell out of her chair and was dragged toward the shattered window.

Angel dropped the crossbow, no time to reload it, and ran toward Buffy, catching her by the legs. He pulled against the rope, trying to keep her inside the room, his eyes darting around for something to cut the rope with. Why hadn't he thought to bring something from the throve, damn it?

He was losing this tugging contest and his attempts to snap Buffy out of her trance were unsuccessful. She didn't even open her eyes, a smile still on her lips. The Vampires had almost managed to drag her toward the window when Angel let go and instead jumped them.

His first kick caught one of the Vamps in the head and threw him back. The element of surprise allowed him to knock down two others, but he was out of his depth. There was a dozen of them and he was but a man.

A punch connected with his jaw and threw him back into the room, stars exploding in front of his eyes.

By the time he managed to rise again the Vampires were gone. And so was Buffy.

Elia.

#

"Elia?" Darla asked.

"That is what the men said." The minion replied. "They called her Elia."

Darla looked at the girl, the Slayer, and a smile crept onto her lips. Buffy had managed to snap herself out of the trance, but too late to keep the Vampires from chaining her down. She stared up at Darla with impotent fury in her eyes.

"So you are the Earl's long-lost bitch, eh?" Darla laughed.

"Let me go and I'll show you who's a bitch!" Buffy snarled.

Darla shook her head, still laughing, and knelt down in front of Buffy.

"I just wanted to kill you, you know? No fancy plans, no long and exhausting torture scenes, just kill you. I think I will have to do something else, though. I mean, the irony is just too delicious. I had to listen to Angel moan about his lost love for a millennium, you know? And here you are, alive again, a Slayer again."

She reached out with one of her hands and grabbed Buffy by the chin, wrenching her head around.

"Which means that Angel will get to see you die again."

#

"We have to calm down!" Willow said, not sounding too calm herself.

"I'm not calm!" Xander informed her. "Anyone else not feeling calm right now?"

Angel was pacing the room, paying no attention to the sound of crunching glass beneath his feet. They had Elia. Darla had Elia. There was no doubt in his mind those had been Darla's Vampires.

Had Elia been returned to him after a millennium, only to be taken away again?

"We need to go after them." Xander said. "Willy said that a large group of Vampires has moved into a mansion in Crawford street. I'm betting that's where we'll find them."

Giles looked up from the couch, pressing a pack of ice to the back of his head.

"I hate to say this, but without Buffy our chances of taking on a Vampire group as large as the one that attacked us are close to null."

"So we'll do nothing?" Xander asked. "I can't accept that."

"We will do something." Angel said, coming to a cold realization. "But we'll need some help."

"Who could possibly help us against a Vampire group this large?" Giles asked.

Angel grabbed his coat from the wall and started toward the door.

"An old friend." He just said.

#

Angel reached the alley where Buffy had fought the Butcher Knight and started to sift through the rubble of the collapsed fire escape. Every instinct inside him screamed to just forget about this insane idea and head toward Crawford Street. He was an Earl, he had commanded battles against armies numbering in the thousands.

Yet against a dozen or more Vampires he was powerless. If he just walked in there Darla would just make him watch Elia die and then transform him into the Knight once more. That was if Elia wasn't already dead.

He didn't allow himself to think that.

His fingers found something beneath the rubble and he needed all his strength to pull it out. When it finally came free he stumbled back, looking at what he held in his hands.

The sword of the Butcher Knight.

Angel took a deep breath and knelt down on the ground, grabbing the blade with both hands, and closed his eyes. He had done this only once before and sworn that he'd never do it again.

"Never is a long time." He murmured, then started to concentrate.

"Well, well, well!" Someone said. Angel opened his eyes.

He was standing in the living room of a mansion, a fire burning in the huge fireplace, and looked at the man sitting in the big chair in front of it.

"To what do I owe the honor of this visit?" Angelus asked.

"We need to talk." Angel replied.

Part 17

###

"I must say, Earl," Angelus said, "I am impressed. No, really. Here I thought the first thing you'd do was run as fast as you can. That's all you have done these past 1000 years, after all. Run away from Darla. Run away from me."

He rose from his chair and walked closer to Angel.

"What is the matter, Earl? Have you finally developed some back bone?"

"I am here to talk to you, Angelus." Angel said, walking over to another chair and dropping into it. The room around them was featureless black marble, white veins running through the walls, the fire place the only break in the monotony.

It was not a place at all, Angel knew. They were inside his mind.

"Darla has your girl, I heard." Angelus said, sitting down as well. "Elia. Who'd have thought? Returned to you after a millennium, that's truly poetic. Too bad Darla has probably killed her by now."

Angel didn't allow his anguish to show on his face, then realized that deception was impossible here. Angelus knew his emotions and thoughts, just as he knew Angelus'.

"Of course," the demon continued, "if she has figured out that she's Elia, Darla might just take her time. Granted, Darla isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, how smart can she be if she brought something like me to Earth, after all, but the minions listened in on your little seance session. Yes, I think Darla will take her time. She'll probably want to make you watch, too."

Angelus laughed and leaned back in his chair. "Now, what do you want to talk about?"

"Us." Angel said. "The two of us. And how you have spent the last 1000 years allying yourself with the wrong side."

"Oh, have I?"

"Yes, you have. Think about it, Angelus! The two of us, we are bound forever. I have accepted that. I think you have, too, you just haven't thought things through to the end. Haven't realized what it means for you."

Angel leaned forward, his eyes blazing with rage.

"Darla is the only one who can summon you forth from my body. You are not strong enough to do it on your own, demon, you know that. I, on the other hand, will always manage to regain control after a time and imprison you again until Darla summons you once more."

Now a smile spread on his lips.

"But Darla won't be around forever. I will see her dead. Maybe not tonight, maybe not next year, maybe it will take me another thousand years, but I will see her dead. Or maybe a Slayer will get her, a demon hunter, or maybe an angry crowd. Darla doesn't age, but neither is she invulnerable like us. Sooner or later she will die.

"The two of us, on the other hand, we will be around forever. And once Darla is gone that means you will be stuck down here for all eternity. Imprisoned in this room, forever forced to do nothing but watch through my eyes. Is that what you want to do for the rest of eternity, Angelus?"

The demon had followed his words without blinking or saying a word, his hands folded in front of his face.

"I am not looking forward to that, no." Angelus finally said. "Yet, like you said, I have had to accept my fate. The Powers That Be have imprisoned me here and they are too powerful for even me to overcome. I am stuck here."

He rose, walking around the confines of this room that wasn't a room.

"The prospect of spending eternity here is not pretty, I admit. But for me, Earl, this isn't a matter of much choice, is it? For the moment, however fleeting, Darla is still around. Still around to summon me forth, so I might as well have my fun while I still can. I will need something to keep me amused the rest of eternity."

Angel shook his head.

"Have fun, Angelus? You don't even know what that means. Look at you!"

Angel rose and walked toward Angelus until the two of them were almost nose to nose.

"You are still the same little demon Darla summoned forth all these centuries ago. Oh, granted, you don't ride around on that big black horse anymore, don't mow down armies left and right. These days you kill a little sneakier, maybe cause a bit more pain to your victims. Is that all you learned, Angelus? A thousand years bonded to me and that is all you learned?"

Angelus opened his mouth to say something, but Angel cut him off.

"Sorry, I forgot. You have also enjoyed the pleasures of sex. Only problem, Angelus, you haven't done anything with it. Sure, you screwed a dead body. And raped the occasional victim. Is that all Angelus? Is death and suffering all you know, all you are? Because if that's the case, you are nothing at all."

For a long moment the two just stared at each other, then Angelus' lips spread into a smile.

"Great speech, Earl. I'm impressed yet again. You're just making a basic mistake here, I'm afraid. You're saying death and destruction is all I am? Sure, you're right. And I'm happy that way. I happen to like bringing death and destruction. That feeling when my sword slashes through flesh and bone, the smell of blood in the morning, the cries of the dying. I like it."

He leaned forward until their foreheads were touching.

"And I happen to know you like it, too, Earl. You're a warrior. You led thousands of men into battle. Don't tell me you didn't enjoy the carnage! The slaughter! Don't tell me you didn't feel some enjoyment when you were forced to watch me slaughter my victims with your hands."

Angel didn't blink.

"Maybe I did. I never saw myself as a virtuous man, Angelus. I know that there is darkness inside me. The difference between you and me, though, is that for me, the darkness is but a part of what I am. It's all you are."

"And so what?"

Angel walked away from Angelus and sat down in the chair again, folding his hands.

"So here is what is going to happen, Angelus. I'm going to leave you here in a few minutes. I'm going to a mansion in Crawford Street and I will attempt to free Elia and kill Darla. Odds are I will fail, Elia will die, and Darla will summon you from my body."

"Glad to hear you are so optimistic about it." Angelus smiled.

"That is one possible scenario. The other is that you will help me."

For a moment Angelus seemed dumb struck, then he exploded into laughter.

"That was a good one, Earl, really. I'll play. Why should I help you?"

"Because it's a good time to switch sides. Because it will free you from being Darla's plaything."

He rose again.

"And because I'm offering you a deal."

Part 18

###

Darla laughed as Buffy was unable to keep from screaming. Blood was flowing down the Slayer's cheek from where Darla's nails had left deep cuts and the Vampire was greedily licking the blood from her fingers, savoring the taste.

"Slayers," she mumbled, "there is nothing quite like them. I remember each and every one we killed together, my Butcher Knight and I. There were so many of them."

"Did you talk them to death?" Buffy mumbled, trying for the thousandth time to break the chains that kept her bound. They didn't give.

"I never tried it that way." Darla confessed with a smile. "I'm afraid I'm too impatient a girl to do it. I prefer the quicker and more painful versions."

With that she walked over to the mansion's fireplace and grabbed a poker that had lain in the fire for at least half an hour. The tip of it was glowing a dull red.

"I wonder where I should put this." Darla mused. "Do we take an existing opening or make a new one?"

She moved the poker so close to Buffy's face that the heat was making her hairs smolder. She tried to turn her face away, but Darla's hand shot forward and grabbed her by the chin.

"No cheating here!" She said. "I want you to get the full experience."

"That will not be necessary, Darla."

Both Vampire and Slayer looked up to see that someone had entered the mansion. Angel was there, standing in front of the doors. Buffy sighed deeply upon seeing him, only to realize that this was no cause for elation. What was he doing here? He couldn't free her all by himself, not with this many Vampires around.

She saw that he was carrying the sword of the Butcher Knight in his hand and her heart skipped a beat. What was going on here?

"Angel." Darla smiled broadly. "So glad you could join us here tonight. I wanted to be the first to congratulate you. Reunited with your precious Elia after all these centuries. It's a cause for a party, isn't it?"

Angel made a few steps forward, the look in his eyes making the minions that had moved to intercept him step back.

"You always talked too much, Darla." He simply said.

"Do I?" She asked. "Yes, maybe. What can I say? I love talking. Might be one of my faults, but I can live with that."

Angel stopped but a few meters away from her, looking into her eyes.

"One chance, Darla. Let her go now and you can leave here alive."

For a moment she just stared at him, then exploded into laughter.

"Oh, my darling boy. It's so nice to see that you have regained your backbone after all this time. Sadly it will avail you nothing. I'm a conservative in these matters, you see? Those who die should stay dead."

"Look who's talking!" Buffy remarked dryly.

Darla gave her a venomous glare, then turned back to Angel with a sweet smile on her lips.

"Now, Angel. What next? I can't imagine you would come here, give me that sort of cheap threat, and having nothing else up your sleeve. I mean, you were a great warrior back in the good old days. Not that it availed you anything even back then, but I would think you'd have some sort of master plan to take me out and free your lady love."

"Something like that." Angel said, lips spreading into a smile of his own.

Darla looked at the sword he held in his hand.

"Is that it? Angel, you should know better. You share but a tiny portion of Angelus' strength and his sword will not do anything for you. Boys!"

The minions moved closer to him, encircling him, cutting off his retreat. Angel briefly glanced at them, his face showing no worry, then turned back to Darla.

"I wanted to give you a chance, Darla." Angel said. "I don't know why, but it doesn't really matter. I knew you wouldn't take it."

"I think I am getting bored of this now." Darla said. "I just can't decide yet whether to kill her now and then turn you back into my wonderful Knight or do it the other way around. It's a difficult choice."

"Don't worry!" Angel said. "I will make it for you."

Darla looked at him, confused. Angel just smiled.

"By Bond of Blood I call the Might." He began.

"What is this?" Darla asked, not believing that she heard him utter those words.

"Of Fire From Hell, Inferno's Light." Angel continued, his body beginning to tremble with unleashed energy. Buffy looked at him with wide eyes, every bit as surprised as Darla. What was he doing?

"I Curse My Soul with Satan's Bite." Angel said, dropping to his knees. The sword was still clutched in his hand and now sparkled with an unearthly radiance. Darla was screaming but her words were drowned out by the roar of power surrounding Angel now.

"Arise Angelus, Butcher Knight!"

Buffy had to avert her eyes as the brilliance lit the entire mansion, burning away all the shadows, causing the Vampires to hiss in fear. Angel's voice turned into a scream and then into laughter. It didn't sound like his voice anymore.

The light faded and where Angel had knelt but moments before now stood the huge form of the Butcher Knight, grinning from ear to ear.

"I love that song!" The Knight announced and laughed again.

Darla was clearly confused, but her smile had returned upon seeing her beloved Knight in the flesh again. She moved toward him.

"Angelus! I missed you very much."

She reached out to hug him, but was immediately discouraged by his lack of response. She looked up into his amber eyes and couldn't quite comprehend what she saw there.

"What is going on here?" She asked. "Why did that fool free you on his own? Angelus, tell me!"

For a long moment he just smiled down at her, making her fidget where she stood. She had seen that look a thousand times before, the only reason she needed so long to identify it was the fact that he had never looked at her that way.

That look that told the object of his attention that she was already dead.

"I am really sorry to tell you this, Darla." The Knight said in a voice that didn't hold much regret.

Before Darla even had time to register those words the Knight lifted his blade. Only moments later the first of Darla's minions exploded into dust.

"I got a better offer." The Knight grinned.

Part 19

###

Buffy had seen the Butcher Knight several times now, once in real life, once in her dreams. Both of those times he had fought against her, or Elia, and she had been too busy with staying alive to really watch him.

Now she could. And he was magnificent.

Angelus was a weapon made flesh. Every inch of him was a killing machine, moving with the grace of a large cat, the long sword a part of his arm. He moved like a shadow, too fast to follow, and killed whatever came into his way.

A dozen Vampires tried to overwhelm him and they all died in seconds, crumbling into dust in the path of the Knight's blazing sword. Buffy blinked and it was over. Only Darla and Angelus remained, the dust slowly settling around them.

"Angelus!" Darla screamed.

"You rang?" He grinned at her, walking closer, playfully whirling his sword in one hand.

"I conjured you forth from the darkness!" She screamed at him. "And now you betray me?"

He shrugged.

"What can I say? Comes a time a man has to go his own way. Don't take it personal, darling! I just felt it was time for a change."

The ancient Vampire stood face to face with the Etrigani and stared at his cold eyes.

"You made a deal with the Earl."

"I would call it a business association myself, but whatever works for you. Suffice to say that he made me an offer I could not refuse."

He slowly raised the sword and moved the tip of it over Darla's heart.

"My part includes killing you, I'm afraid."

Darla hissed and jumped him, something the Knight hadn't expected. The two tumbled to the floor in a flurry of arms and legs that carried them outside Buffy's field of vision. She heard the sounds of battle, but couldn't turn her head far enough to actually see it.

"I made you!" She heard Darla scream. "I can unmake you as well!"

"Women and their empty promises!" The Knight retorted and suddenly Darla was in Buffy's field of vision once more, flying halfway through the room and landing on the floor in a heap.

Angelus slowly walked up to her, still smiling.

"We had a nice time." He told her. "I will always remember you. Nicest piece of undead ass I ever met."

Darla jumped to her feet to rush him again, but this time the Knight wouldn't be taken by surprise. Darla came to a crushing halt and looked down to see the Butcher Knight's huge sword firmly embedded between her breasts, the tip protruding out her back.

"Angelus!" She whispered.

"Don't go sentimental on me now!" He chided her.

He pulled the sword out of her body in a shower of dark blood, then whirled around and took off Darla's head in the same motion. For a moment the headless body just stood there, frozen in shock, then time caught up with her.

The sound of settling dust was the only sound to be heard inside the mansion for a long, long moment.

"Angel?" Buffy whispered.

Angelus turned his eyes upon her and smiled.

"Not quite, deary. The good boy made a deal with me, can you believe it? A deal to save you."

He laughed and raised the sword above his head. Buffy's heart stopped for a moment, convinced he would kill her now.

The sword arced down and sheared clean through the chains that held her down.

"Sorry!" He laughed again. "Couldn't resist that look on your face."

He sheathed his sword and Buffy jumped to her feet, unconsciously taking a few steps back from the towering form of the Butcher Knight.

"What happened here?" She asked him. "What kind of deal are you talking about?"

The Knight shrugged.

"I guess he can explain that better than me."

He closed his eyes and a voice not his own burst forth from his lips.

"Be gone Angelus, Butcher Knight
Be banished back into the night
The new day's dawn shall be your ban
Return once more in form of man!"

Buffy had to avert her eyes from the glare. When she looked back the Butcher Knight was gone and Angel stood in his place, looking at her.

"Are you all right?" He asked her with deep worry in his voice.

Right then Buffy didn't care whether she was Elia or not, whether her feelings for him were real or just memories of a former life. She launched herself into his arms and the two embraced each other with desperation, each needing the assurance that the other was alive and well.

After what seemed like an eternity they let go and looked into each other's eyes, searching for answers.

"What deal did you make with the Butcher Knight?" Buffy finally asked.

Angel closed his eyes, sighing deeply.

"Let's go to Giles first, beloved. I want to get out of this place."

Buffy nodded, looking back at the dust on the floor. For Angel it was the end of a millennium of being haunted and stalked by this Vampire, the end of a flight that had lasted ten centuries.

It was also a beginning, though. She just didn't know of what.

Part 20

###

"A deal?" Buffy asked him.

Angel just nodded.

Giles looked at the two people sitting on his couch, lost to everything but each other. The situation these two were in bordered on the ridiculous, Giles realized. A 10th century Vampire Slayer, reborn as a 20th century Vampire Slayer, and a 10th century Irish Earl, who survived the centuries by being bonded to a demon, just returned home from fighting an over 1000 years old Vampire who had first called that demon into existence.

"What kind of deal, Mr. Fitzpatrick?" Giles asked him.

Angel blinked, as if just now remembering that Giles was present, then looked at the Watcher.

"I knew that I had no chance of saving Elia ... Buffy from Darla on my own. So I looked up Angelus and offered him a deal. He would help me defeat Darla. In turn I would ..."

Giles waited until Angel found the strength to continue.

"I would give him freedom." Angel said finally. "One year out of every ten I would give him freedom."

For a long moment both Giles and Buffy just stared at him.

"Are you mad?" Buffy finally found her voice again. "You allow this thing freedom? He will start killing people as soon as you let him out and ..."

"No, he won't." Angel interrupted her. "All part of the deal. I ... convinced Angelus that he has missed out on a lot over the centuries. That there is more than just killing to be enjoyed. It's part of the deal we made. When ... when he does kill it will only be those who deserve to die."

"And who exactly decides who deserved to die?" Giles asked him, not happy with the way this deal was shaping up.

"We both will, together. I know what you are thinking, Mr. Giles, but me and Angelus are one. One in body and, to a certain degree, one in mind. It's one of the few positive points of our relationship. None of us can lie to the other. Angelus was getting quite sick of being Darla's toy and is looking forward to some time of true freedom. He will keep his part of the bargain and he knows that I will, too."

Giles shook his head, but knew that it was too late. For better or worse the deal was made and the Butcher Knight would roam the Earth one year out of every ten. He shuddered with the thought, even though he had never seen the monster in person.

"Giles," Buffy said. "Could you leave us alone for a moment?"

Again the two were looking only at each other and Giles didn't need any further encouragement.

"How could you do this?" Buffy asked Angel when Giles was gone. "How could you bargain with this monster?"

"How could I not?" He asked her back. "You are Elia, Buffy. The woman I love. Returned to me after a thousand years. I simply could not lose you again. I could not allow it."

She saw the look in his dark eyes and knew that he spoke the truth. More than that, she remembered. Remembered the man he had been to her in a life not her own, yet still hers. She remembered being Elia now and knew that the man who had been her husband in that earlier life had, in fact, been completely unable to do this any other way.

A tear rolled down her face. Angel's hand reached out to tilt her head up until she looked at him again, his thumb rubbing away the tear.

"Don't cry, my love." He whispered to her. "I don't want to see you sad."

She moved away from his touch and wrapped her arms around herself, more tears springing from her eyes.

"I ... I don't know, Angel! I simply don't know how to react to all this. I just found out that I've lived once before. I remember large pieces of that life now. I remember loving you, but I'm still not sure how much of that is just memory and how much is true. And now this! You make a deal with the monster you've hated all your life to save me. What am I supposed to do now? Can you tell me that?"

He looked down.

"I can't tell you what to feel, Buffy. I can only tell you what I am feeling. I would have done everything to save you and to me it is worth the price to see you alive and well."

She wanted nothing better than to just fall into his arms and be Elia, the woman he loved, the woman he needed. She was that woman, she knew that now, she just wasn't sure how much of her was that woman. Who was Buffy Summers then? What did she want?

"I ... I think I need some time to figure this out, Angel!" She finally told him. "I need to ... to find out where the boundary is between Elia and Buffy. Who I really am. What I want."

He nodded. There was sadness in his eyes, but it seemed he had expected nothing else.

"You will have time, Buffy. A year's worth of time, to be exact."

"What?" Her eyes snapped back to him.

"One year out of ten, Buffy." Angel said. "Starting tonight."

She couldn't believe this. "You will leave? You will turn into Angelus tonight and stay gone for a year?"

"It was the only bargain he would accept. I will leave tonight. A year from now I will be back and by then ... by then I hope you have found out who you are ... what you want."

He rose and reached for his coat and the gleaming sword of the Butcher Knight, which stood right next to the couch. Buffy was frozen for a second, then stood up and walked up to him.

"I will be here." She told him. "I ... I can't promise you anything beyond that, Angel. Sorry, but I ..."

"I understand." He just said, one hand softly caressing her cheek.

She looked up at him through teary eyes and managed a smile.

"Elia loves you, Angel!" She told him. "Never doubt that! You are the most important thing in the world to her."

He nodded and brushed the lightest of kisses on her lips. Without any conscious effort on her part Buffy's arms went around him, pressing him closer. She didn't know how long they stayed like that, she only knew that it hurt when they finally parted.

"I will wait for you, my Angel!" She told him.

"And I will come back." He told her back.

Then he was gone.

#

"So much mushy stuff." Angelus complained.

"It's what makes life worth living," Angel told him, "and maybe you will learn that someday."

Angelus shook his head, a smile crossing his face. He was walking toward Sunnydale's bus station, seeing as Darla had wrecked Angel's car. The sword and a few other possessions were gathered in a bag and slung over his broad shoulders.

"Where do we go?" The phantom voice of Angel asked inside his head.

"You are the one who wanted to show me the fun sides of the world, remember? Mr. tour guide, that's you." He shrugged. "I guess out of this town first. Then maybe Disney Land. I've never been to Disney Land."

"I haven't either." Angel said.

"Okay, then Disney Land it is. And please stop brooding about your girlfriend, okay? Gives me a headache. You'll have her back in a year."

"I hope this year passes quickly."

"Oh, I think it will. Time always passes so quickly when you have fun. And I plan to have lots of fun, Earl, old buddy. Lots and lots of fun."

The two men in one body continued to walk down the dark street and a slight chuckle escaped the now ill-named Butcher Knight's lips.

"You know, Angel? This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

"As if!"

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