DISCLAIMER: No I don’t own them, but if I did the world would be a better place.
SUMMARY: This is a story of lost identities and the struggle to discover who it is you really are.
AUTHOR’S NOTES:I’m not sure how long this series will be yet, but if it seems a bit slow, then I apologise now. I hope I can make it worth your while.
SPOILERS: Anything and everything.
DISTIBUTION: This story’s for all. Anybody can feel free to put it on their site if they let me know about it first. And please do, because I would love to have some work posted!
FEEDBACK: You know you want to.
RATING: R

I found out that there are other types of people… They make mistakes. And they fall down. But they keep caring. Keep trying.
-‘Consequences’.

~*~*~*~*

Dawn glanced uneasily over her shoulder as her footsteps echoed dully around her ears in the desolate darkened street.

She wasn’t unaccustomed to walking the streets of Los Angeles alone at night – even as it was now – far from it. She wasn’t a hooker, but occasionally the club made special ‘house calls’, as her friend Ivy liked to call them; depending on how beneficial the client could be to their establishment. Human underground ringleaders mostly; whoever her boss Harvey wanted to strike up a deal with, and he usually used his girls as they made the process ‘as painless as possible’.

Dawn was a particular favourite of late. She was still youthful and fresh, and her beauty hadn’t yet faded, unlike so many of the other girls who hid the reality behind layers of cheap make-up and lipstick.

This particular client had been a grabby gambling sleazoid – someone the old Dawn would never have thought about associating with. But this new Dawn was cynical and world-weary, and it wasn’t like she could make her living off bachelor parties or fraternity bashes anymore. Those days were long gone.

She would deal. As she always did.

She was alone; or she may as well have been. Willow and Xander weren’t much of a support network – they did what they could, but ultimately they were too absorbed in the tangles Buffy had left of their own lives to worry about hers. And she knew they didn’t exactly approve of her ultimate career path either.

Dawn wished she could make them recognize that none of them had a future in this place. This wasn’t a temporary gig; this was forever.

They were here, forever.

Buffy was back, and they would no doubt expect her to fix everything and the world would go back to normal. And they thought she was the kid.

Buffy’s presence changed nothing.

Dawn wasn’t a child anymore; she didn’t harbour the illusion that one single person could wave their magic wand and change the course of the world from how it was. Not even if that person was Buffy. No matter what Willow and Xander might want to delude themselves with, Buffy wasn’t Wonderwoman.

When Angel had come to tell her Buffy was alive, for one fleeting moment she had had these stupid thoughts, believed that somehow things could change. Angel was naïve too, in that aspect. And somehow he was worse, because he would hear no ill of Buffy, no matter what she had done.

In his favour, Dawn was never particularly fond of him. Sure, she’d lodged a secret crush on him in the earlier years, until she’d discovered he wasn’t the knight in shining armour she’d initially thought, and he’d changed into all the other jerk-wad idiots to grace her sister’s love life. After awhile she’d even come to resent him. When Buffy wasn’t completely wrapped up in her new friends and her new school, her mind would be Angel Angel Angel, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

It had become the same with Spike eventually, only Dawn hadn’t recognised the symptoms at the time because Buffy had kept it to herself. Only she couldn’t really resent Spike… because well, she’d always kind of liked him.

Buffy may have been back, but Dawn couldn’t say she gave a damn – or ever would. She wasn’t about to go running back to her side just to have her up and leave again. It was something the slayer was much too good at.

The youngest Summers now paused mid-step, sweeping her gaze suspiciously over her shoulder again. The feeling that she was being followed had not waned – it had only increased as she went along.

Cutting abruptly into a nearby alley, Dawn scurried onwards at a much faster pace than before, realising she had only made finding herself an easier task as she swore aloud and tripped on her flimsy thin heels. The alleyway was littered with garbage that she could see someone had mildly attempted to clear, but the dream had died quickly, and the new garbage had just been mounded over the old garbage, creating a putrid stench relatively worse that any sewer tunnel she might have spent time in as stand-in slayerette.

Her knee finally gave beneath her as the heel snapped, and Dawn was forced to a halt as she struggled to wrench her foot free of the irritating burden. Above her bent head, the shadows shifted in the corner of her eye, and a breeze pricked at the hairs on her neck.

Dawn slowly lifted her head, sweeping aside her curtain of chin length black hair hindering her view. The darkness seemed to intensify as the buildings closed in on one another on either side of her.

She had been trained in the basic forms of combat years ago back in Sunnydale, but it had been a long time since she’d had the need to put those skills into practice. As Dawn’s dark gaze flickered nervously around, she vowed to herself if she managed to get out of this confrontation alive, she would force herself to re-learn everything she had been taught.

Then something detached itself from the murky shadows ahead, and Dawn’s anxiety shifted into something much worse.

Cigarette clamped lightly between his teeth like so many familiar pictures from her short-lived childhood, Spike stepped out into her view, and grinned at her deprecatingly.

“Hello, Niblet”.

~*~*~*~*

“Buffy – “

“You’re ALIVE?!”

The word came out as more of an accusation than a statement, and Angel inwardly winced as Buffy jumped out of the bed and away from him to stare in disbelief. All of the emotions she was feeling coloured her face like the incidence of an angry rainbow; stunned shock, betrayal, anger. Anger most of all.

“Please,” Angel began in a placating tone. “Let me explain before you say anything –“

“Don’t you Goddamn SHRINK me, Angel!” Buffy burst out furiously. “Let’s think about the fact that you LIED to me!” She laughed shortly. “Wow, and should I even be surprised at all? It’s not like it would be anything new. We don’t exactly have the greatest track record on HONESTY or anything.”

Angel’s brow lowered. “Hey”, he protested indignantly. “Now that’s a bit of a cheap shot”. He rose to stand in front of her, and his looming form towered high above her. The difference in their heights did nothing to deter her, if only infuriated her more.

“Then why didn’t you mention this in the first place?” she demanded hotly, pointing at him angrily. “Tell me that? Why didn’t you tell me –?”

“ – BUFFY!” Angel snapped, cutting her off in the middle of her rant. He sighed at the hurt expression that immediately crossed her face. “I’m sorry”, he said evenly, incredible weariness drowning his voice. “But can you please listen to me first before you make accusations? You haven’t been back for long, Buffy”, he said slowly. “How was I supposed to know that…?”

Buffy frowned at this, and her arms drew to rest akimbo. “That what?”

“That THIS would happen”, he said, gesturing around wildly for emphasis.

Buffy’s face clouded over. “Nothing happened”, she responded strongly. “I just needed…”

“What?” he shot back. “Comfort? That’s exactly why I didn’t want to tell you about this. You already have a lot to deal with. Wouldn’t this just add more complications into the mix? If you had known that I was human when you came in here…”

Buffy looked indignant. “What are you saying? That I would have wanted something MORE from you?” She shook her head. “That’s great, Angel. It’s nice to know how you REALLY see me”.

Angel scowled. “That isn’t what I meant”.

“Then what? That I might fall in love with you again?” she spat. “You were right when you said I have too many things to deal with right now. Do you seriously think I would even CONSIDER putting myself through that again after just… everything?”

Angel couldn’t ignore the barb of hurt this comment inflicted, but forced his expression to read vacant. “Fine”, he said flatly, lowering his voice. “Then maybe you should just leave”.

A spark of fear flashed behind her green eyes and she couldn’t stop her surprise. “You’re… what?” she managed out.

He shrugged. “Yeah, maybe that would be best. I mean you obviously don’t trust me enough to do things the way I see as right, do you? That maybe I had legitimate reasons for not telling you about something that alters a lot about the way things stand between us, whether you’re willing to admit it or not.”

Buffy closed her eyes. “Okay”, she whispered hoarsely. “I’m sorry. It’s just… you surprised me. Is that want you want to hear?”

The anger seemed to drain out of him. “I just want you to let me explain”, he said tiredly.

Buffy crossed her arms over her chest in an unconsciously self-protective manner, but she eyed him with something more than casual expectancy. “Go ahead then”.

Angel hesitated now he had the floor, then nodded, and drew in a steadying breath after the heated exchange that had just passed between them. He had forgotten how stubborn and blindly exasperating she could be until now, and the thought almost made him smile.

Almost.

“Okay. It started a long time ago”, he started softly. “A prophecy. It foretold the End of Days, and how I would be a pivotal component in them. Wesley… translated it, and discovered that that role would result in actually averting the Apocalypse, and my ultimate redemption, something called Shanshu.

“Humanity.”

He paused, wetting his lips nervously. He had Buffy’s full attention, and she was watching him so intently it was beginning to unnerve him.

“What Wesley… either missed, or misinterpreted was the invasion. He thought… it was possible as being referred to as plagues of humanity, and that’s what caused some confusion. We thought that maybe it was the eventual beginning of the Apocalypse, and so in order to receive my Shanshu… I would have to survive through it.

“Only… one day Cordelia received a vision of a powerful prophet… and this prophet restored my humanity. Obviously, if Cordy had this vision, then we knew this was the Power’s intervention, and that either the prophecy was mistaken … or something had interfered with making things transpire the way they were supposed to. Wesley surmised… that maybe… maybe it was your disappearance that did this”.

Buffy frowned. “You mean I had a major role as well?”

“Yes. As the slayer, it seemed apparent you would. But you… disappeared, and the invasion plunged the world into literal darkness. But I was still gained my humanity. If I’m still important in the grand scheme of things, it won’t be in the way we originally thought”.

Buffy went silent as she digested this. Angel was supposed to prevent the Apocalypse and receive his reward of humanity, yet instead he was forced to live it out in the centre of vampire reign, and the terror and destruction that engulfed the world.

Either something had happened that had radically changed fate for this to happen, or those Powers had one big damn sense of humour.

“So… how long has it been?” she asked at last.

Angel sighed. “Five years”, he admitted. “Just before Wesley… went away.”

“I’ve had time to adjust”, he went on quickly. “Gunn helps me to… stay in shape, so I can still fight them. I’m not as strong as I once was, but like it or not, I still have a significant function in this city, and whether that just means protecting humanity as best I can, then I intend to be ready for it.”

Angel slumped onto the edge of the mattress. “I was going to tell you, Buffy”, he continued softly, carefully evasive as he kept his gaze focused on the carpet. “You just… showed up so unexpectedly, and I wasn’t ready. Whether Cordy and Faith and the others understood that or not, they still kept their silence over it until I told you myself… Though things didn’t exactly happen that way, did they?”

Buffy bit her lip. “No”, she murmured quietly.

Despite his earlier thoughts, he suspected something in her attitude had changed upon this discovery, though he couldn’t be confident that change was good or bad.

Buffy was inwardly wondering why she hadn’t sensed this earlier, but knew at the same time she had been too distracted with her own worries to concentrate on anything else.

God, I’m starting to fall back on old habits, she cursed herself half-heartedly.

“Buffy?” he prompted softly.

She glanced up. “Oh, yeah. Sorry, I…” She paused. “Can I just… think about this for a bit?” she said gently. “I want to… let it sink in properly, I guess.

Something about this answer seemed to deflate him completely then. “Sure”, he murmured.

Buffy heaved a deep sigh. “Angel”, she started honestly, falling down to sit on the bed beside him. She fidgeted agitatedly with her clasped hands. “I didn’t mean what I said, I… You know I didn’t mean it”.

Angel nodded, gaze still planted firmly ahead. “I know”.

“You were right. About things maybe getting complicated. But… but you’re still my… friend, and I understand why you didn’t tell me straight away. And I’m happy for you.” She frowned. “Aren’t you… happy?”

His dark eyes travelled upwards, and she unconsciously shivered under the intensity of his gaze.

“There isn’t really much to be happy about these days. Is there?”

~*~*~*~*

“Spike”.

Dawn didn’t move as he stepped closer towards her, and she forced her eyes to hold his own. He still had that small smirk on his lips that she found relentlessly infuriating, and he took an elongated draw of his cigarette before he spoke at last.

“Well. We’ve certainly grown up, Nibs”, he noted almost casually, giving her an appraising look through the pooling lamplight.

And grown up she was. He was unable to stop himself from noting how attractive the littler Summers was in her early twenties – certainly even more so than her righteous older sister. She’d finally lost the longhaired do and cut it to her chin, the colour now a deep, coal-like black that that made her wide brown eyes all the more striking. Her face, pale and smooth, was much the same, still as haughty as ever, and with that familiar Summers fire that was well known in the Slayer. It was wisped messily around her flushed cheeks a bit too much to be deliberate.

There was a courage and strength in the tilt of her chin, yet Spike somehow suspected it was all for show, for within those eyes he saw a permanently scarred soul. Her lips were full and red even without the aid of her lipstick, and he noticed, admittedly with some level of unease, how sensuous it made them appear.

Dawn returned his look with an impressive sneer of her own, aware herself of his appreciative assessment.

“What the hell do you want?” she snapped coldly. She wasn’t in the mood for another confrontation – especially in the space of two days after six years of nothing.

Spike’s eyebrows shot up at her tone and he flicked the cig across the alley, landing not far from her feet. “I’m sensing some real hostility vibes ‘ere, luv”, he said curtly.

“Aren’t we sharp”, she said edgily.

He could tell she knew just as well as he what his purpose was out here. The Patrol group’s voices drifted perceivably back to them, yet for some reason she was transfixed to the spot, unable to move away.

“Don’t move too far from form, do we Spike?” she noted pointedly instead.

Spike just smirked in response, unable to stop himself from lashing out at her even though he knew it wasn’t really she he hated.

“Can’t say the same for you”, he responded scathingly. “Little bit’s a whore, eh? Just come in from a job, have you then? Vampires in your field of expertise? Might just follow in big sis’s footsteps yet, I’d wager”.

He pursed his lips in thought, pausing for a moment at her hate-filled expression. “Been a while for us though, hasn’t it, cutie?” he said at last. “What is it, five, six years?”

“Six”, she affirmed tightly. She glared. “I take it you didn’t find Buffy in your travels?” she sniped cuttingly. She titled her eyebrow nonchalantly. “She’s back in town, you know”, she went on indifferently.

If she’d expected to hurt him, she was mournfully mistaken. “So I’ve seen”, he replied evenly.

She snorted. “You’ve seen her?” she said distastefully. “Wow, you move real fast. Should’a known you’d still have a thing for her. Even if she is screwing Angel again”.

He flew forward so fast she barely saw the movement, and then her arms were pinned firmly by her sides, and her back was pressed uncomfortably into the hard brick alley wall. She shifted under his solid grasp. “I thought you had a soul”, she spat into his looming face.

His expression was an angry mask as he leaned threateningly into her face. He had never acted like this, not to her, and she had to admit it was frightening.

“Fact is I can kill you ‘ere now, luv, and the soul wouldn’t make it a bloody great issue.”

She swallowed nervously, but didn’t tear away from his face.

He pressed his lips into a thin tight line. “You got your issues with big sis, I get that. Hell, got enough of my own with the girl. Not the easiest to get along with, she is. But I’m not about to get all warm and fuzzy on the bitch, soul or no. Understand? Buffy’s little formers come lookin’ for heart to hearts with their old mate Spike, don’t think I won’t be opposed to rocking the boat with her. Heck, I’d kill you right bloody here and now if I thought it’d mean something, but doesn’t seem like no one much would care if you washed up on some street corner six months from now, does it?”

Dawn struggled with him again more forcefully, and he responded by pressing more harder against her, pinning her legs with his body so they were inches apart and his breath tickled her cheek. Thus just elicited a cold laugh from the blonde vampire.

“She did a bloody good number on you, didn’t she, precious?” he taunted ironically. “To make you hate her like this? Maybe almost as much as I do”.

“You don’t hate her”, Dawn hissed, and to her satisfaction something flickered behind his eyes at her stark perceptiveness. “You never hate her. You’re just like the rest of them, except even worse. Because she’ll never feel the same way, especially now. You were pathetic back then, and you’re pathetic now.”

He really shocked her then, and did something he had never ever done.

Spike hit her.

It was with his open palm, but the force was still enough to drive her head backwards, and her cheek throbbed painfully after he drew his hand away again. “Still as feisty as your bloody skanky bitch of a sis”, he spat, incensed that she had invoked enough anger in him to make him strike out.

He shook his head, stepping back so that there was more distance between them. But Dawn still couldn’t move, and her legs threatened to tremble beneath her as she sagged her back against the wall, as if shirking away from him. But despite the pain still in her jaw, she wasn’t afraid of this particular vampire.

“How the mighty have fallen, eh Nibs?” he said distastefully, looking her over. “Resorting to cheap insults. I’d kill you gladly, you know, you only had to ask”.

“Spike!” a booming voice echoed suddenly down the alley. Dawn tensed at the sound. “What have you got?”

Spike’s icy blue gaze fixed on Dawn’s for a long, silent moment.

“Nothing back ‘ere, mate”, he shouted back at last.

“We’d better get moving soon then”, the voice went on. “Still got time for one more sweep before we should be getting back”.

They heard the sounds of his feet sweeping the gravel as he moved off again, and Dawn’s ragged breathing calmed as she stared at Spike with a deep frown.

“Like I said, I’d kill you”, he said flatly. He stepped back again, and made to turn away, then paused. “But truth is I always kind of liked you, kid. Just you remember I won’t be so merciful on any of your other pals if they start coming my way.”

He stopped, furnishing her a level stare. “And you might just wish I’d killed you if I ever come across you again, Dawn”.

It was the first time he had used her name, and there was sincerity in his voice that chilled her to the core.

“Will you kill her?” she asked after him quietly.

He looked at her. Real coldness there. Dawn shivered.

“I wouldn’t want to test it”.

~*~*~*~*

Buffy strode slowly through the doorway to the small kitchen niche downstairs, a deep bone weary tiredness settling over her that had decided to move-in since the night before.

She hadn’t slept much since her startling conversation with Angel, instead laid awake most of the night hours listening to the devil and the seraph quarrelling heatedly inside her head until she wanted to knock herself out to make them still.

Angel was right. The fact that he was alive did nothing to make things easier between them, when they had already been on tenterhooks as it was. Trying to accept it? Buffy wasn’t even over the starting line.

“Hey, B”, the muffled greeting startled her out of her thoughts, and Buffy glanced up to realise Faith sat at the small circle kitchen table, bowl of something food-like cupped in one hand, spoon half way to her mouth in the other.

“Oh. Hey”, Buffy said slowly, moving over to join her. She wasn’t particularly in the mood to deal with people this morning, but she wasn’t choosy. Faith was probably a better preference that anyone else around there right now.

Her gaze took in the sludgy, vaguely oatmeal looking substance in Faith’s hands, and she couldn’t stop her nose wrinkling up in disgust.

Faith grinned at the look. “Hungry?” she chirped teasingly.

Buffy shook her head. “Uh, no thanks”.

“I know”, she said knowingly, between mouthfuls. “Unfortunately this is considered flavour country ‘round here. If you’re thinkin’ of sticking around, you better get used to it”.

Faith chuckled at Buffy’s stricken expression.

“Relax, Buff. I’m just playing with you.” She cocked her thumb in the direction of the back door, behind the stairs. “Gunn’s gone off to get us some more supplies. Should be back in half a sec. This was the only thing I could dig up in the meantime, and I’m freakin’ starved.”

Buffy smirked half-heartedly, realising she missed the brunette slayer’s cheek a lot sometimes. “Good to know then”.

Faith paused, regarding her thoughtfully as she chewed, and Buffy settled down on the seat across from her. “So you are stickin’ around a bit then?” she asked carefully.

Buffy’s face went instantly blank of emotion. “Maybe”, she replied noncommittally, eyes downcast on the wood grain table as she traced patterns negligently with her finger.

Faith decided to try another, blunter tact.

“So Angel told you, huh?”

Buffy’s head shot up at the unexpected statement – rather than question – and she couldn’t conceal her surprise. “How did you…?”

Faith gestured to one ear with her spoon. “Thin walls, B. ‘Specially with me being two doors down an’ all”.

Buffy sighed, unusually deflated. “Right”. She frowned. “You don’t live here though, do you? Usually, I mean”.

Faith shrugged. “Not usually. Have my own pad bit further in town that I share with a few others. Then this thing with me being shot happened, and Wes being back, and I figured I’d stay around a while”.

“You don’t… trust him?” Buffy observed.

Faith shrugged, evasive herself now, then scowled. “Hey. You can’t steer me from the topic of conversation that easy. So let me in on the deal. I couldn’t really work out what was happening because there were all these wicked freaky pauses. Started to think you’d done each other in or somethin’”.

Buffy smiled vaguely. “Nice to hear you’re concerned.”

Faith grinned impishly. “Didn’t wanna go check or anything. You could’a been doing other things for all I know. Didn’t wanna walk in on that, no matter how hot I can guess Angel might look in the buff”.

Buffy opened her mouth in surprise, but let it pass. No sense bringing THAT into her case. Might sway her in the other direction all on its own.

God, you’ve been around Faith too long already.

“So?” the younger woman prompted, putting down the utensils so she had her full attention on Buffy. “The curiosity’s gonna kill me if you don’t share. You gonna get back together? Cuz it’d do Angel a world of good, I can tell you that much, girlfriend”.

Buffy shrugged, averting her gaze again. “I don’t know”, she muttered, suddenly wished she hadn’t ventured outside her room at all. “The timing’s always been off for us. And there’s just so much…”

Faith was intensely curious by this point. “So much what? History you mean?”

“More than that”, Buffy said emphatically. “There’s a lot of stuff… Angel doesn’t know that might make things… complicated. Even more than they are.”

Faith cocked an eyebrow. “Enlighten me then? Come on”, she insisted, tapping Buffy lightly on the arm. Buffy realised almost dimly that things were much improved between the two slayers, and she found she was glad for it. She needed all the friends she could get these days, and she and Faith had always shared a sort of… bond that she had missed in the girl’s absence.

“What stuff, Buff?” Faith prodded.

Buffy sighed, knowing they weren’t speeding past the topic any time soon, not with this persistent Faith on her back. She knew she could trust her, which was extremely odd considering their history, but she knew she could. If she was to confide anything, here it would stay.

“Like… Spike”, she admitted at last, releasing an unknown grip of tension tightened around her heart.

Faith frowned, uncomprehending. “What about Spike?” she asked, confused.

“I… slept with him”.

Faith burst out of her chair. “What?! You SCREWED that worthless piece of vampire?! Holy shit, you’re really serious about this, aren’t you?”

“Faith!” Buffy hissed, eyes darting around in terror.

Faith waved a dismissive hand. “Don’t fret, Angel went out ages ago. No one’s here.”

She blew out her breath between puffed cheeks, and then slumped back into her vacated chair. “MAN! This is so… not Buffy-like. I mean you were always so –“

“If you start in on me being the fucking fair haired good one, I will beat you to a bloody pulp”, Buffy snapped seriously.

Faith held up her hands in defence. “Okay, okay. Jeez, witness me backin’ off already.” She hesitated. “I still don’t really… understand”.

Buffy closed her eyes. “Angel knows… something’s up between me and Spike”, she muttered. “But I don’t think he knows just how far it went. I mean it was obvious back at the prison that there was something… not right, but you being… well shot, I guess you were too distracted to pick up on it. Angel…”

“Is an idiot when it comes to what’s right in front of his face”, Faith finished, not without affection. “I know.”

She worried her bottom lip, a nervous gesture of hers that Buffy recognised.

“Buffy”, she said seriously. “Do you really think that would matter? In the end? So you made a mistake, you sleep with one of the undead. Which by the way, I’m started to see a pattern there…” She quickly went on at Buffy’s darkening expression. “But anyway, I’ve always thought Angel’s feeling for you were pretty damn clear. I mean, sure he’d be upset, but in the bigger picture he’ll barely bat an eyelid because he knows you would never do anything like that without good reasons”.

She crinkled her brow. “You had… reasons, right?”

Buffy moved her shoulders. “Well, I was all… back from the dead. Again”.

Faith nodded in satisfaction. “See? Exactly the punchline here, Blondie. And I’m not opposed to a little pick-me-up screw myself, know what I mean?”

Buffy frowned at her, but knew she had to correct her.

“It wasn’t just once.”

Faith whistled through her teeth. “Ok–ay. Despite what I said? I wouldn’t mention that little fact to Angel if you can help it. I mean once is enough of a shocker. And I don’t think he’s too hopped up on the dude, either. Which come to think of it, makes two of us. He did shoot me, after all”.

“I didn’t forget, Faith”.

She met her fellow slayer’s eyes, and there was something communicated there, a profound empathy that told Buffy Faith really did understand.

They were a lot alike really; maybe that was why Buffy had been able to accept her so effortlessly again. She finally understood what Angel had been trying to say when he told her that everyone made mistakes. Everyone fell down.

“Buffy-“ Faith started softly.

Buffy warded her off. “Don’t Faith”, she responded quickly. “It’s all past”.

Faith nodded, with a small smile. “If Spike’s at least partially responsible for this new you?” she said. “Maybe I can almost forgive him on the shooting deal”.

Their moment was abruptly interrupted as the back door burst in on its hinges, and a moment later Gunn appeared, completely out of breath and extremely tense, features twisted and taut with anxiety.

“Good, you’re here”, he exclaimed breathlessly. He gestured over his shoulder. “You guys should… come see this… Angie, she’s… You better come”.

He started off again without waiting for them, and Buffy and Faith exchanged a worried glace before following closely after into the bright sunlight.

Gunn sprinted off down the alley ahead of them, and the only sounds were their wheezing breathing and their feet pounding hard on the gravel.

“Hope she’s okay”, Faith grunted.

Buffy looked at her, as they ran side-by-side, just keeping Gunn in their view. His fear seemed to act as adrenaline, and he was well ahead of the slayers at the other end of the alley, and turning a corner.

“You know her?”

Faith nodded. “Yeah”, she rasped. “We’ve done a few patrol busts together. Real nice chick”.

They swerved the corner, and slowed their pace when they saw Gunn pull to a stop up ahead, over a dark shape strewn to the side of the alley, where two others were already gathered. He was hunched over to catch his breath, but nothing could hide his evident distress as Buffy and Faith pulled up short beside him.

“Gunn, what’s…?” Faith trailed off.

Buffy followed her gaze, and her heart contracted painfully.

Lying on her back, head tilted up to face the sky, was the lifeless figure of a young black woman, twenty-five or six at most. Her silky black hair was spread unkemptly around her features, and her mouth was open in a silent scream of terror, but it wasn’t her mouth that Buffy was involuntarily drawn to.

Her eyes.

They were missing.

“Jesus!” Faith hissed, hand flying to rest on her forehead in shock.

Angel was crouched by the woman’s motionless form, and he glanced around at his friend’s voice.

“This wasn’t a vampire”, he said flatly, rising slowly to his feet. His gaze locked momentarily with Buffy’s before averting away.

Gunn was shaking his head to and fro. “She didn’t deserve that, man”, he whispered, eyes wide and bloodshot. “She didn’t deserve that”.

For the first time Buffy saw the result of his trip around them, a brown paper shopping bag full of goods strewn carelessly over the concrete ground a few metres from Angie.

Another guy standing by Angie’s feet that Buffy thought was called D.J spoke up. “What about demons?”

Angel was already shaking his head. “They’d be lucky to get in the city gates alive. Let alone make their presence known like this”.

Faith closed her eyes, and Buffy gently grasped her forearm, allowing her to brace herself against her. Faith shot her a weak smile filled with gratitude, but her thoughts were quickly diverted by D.J’s next words.

“What about witches?”

Buffy tensed for a small moment, inadvertently reminded of Willow.

Faith frowned. “Witches?”

“They might… want the eyes”, Angel explained quietly. “For harvesting.”

“They wouldn’t kill anyone around here!” Faith said loudly. “Not with us so close. No one with any sense would kill anyone here, and definitely not one of our own.”

Angel frowned at Faith’s outburst. “Someone who doesn’t know the area might. Most of the Wicca’s don’t come into this sector very much. They tend to stay to their own turf in the commune”.

“Those people aren’t going to risk themselves like this”, Buffy protested.

Angel looked at her. “We have to consider any option, Buffy”, he said, tone equally icy.

Their standoff was interrupted before anything further could happen, as a male voice called out from the road up ahead.

“Angel, man? We got the truck. Do you want us to bring it in?”

Angel turned away from her, and nodded his go at the figures silhouetted in the bright daylight at the end of the shadowed roadway. “Go ahead”.

Buffy narrowed her eyes, and felt something tug roughly on her sleeve. She turned around to see Faith staring at her pointedly, and give a slight shake of her head that left nothing unclear as to what she was referring. Buffy nodded in response, stepping back as the pick-up truck began to back into the narrow space.

A moment later, both doors slammed, and the two occupants got out and approached Angel. She could only catch snippets of their conversation, but she got the gist. They were going to move Angie, so they could take her back to her group where she was to be cremated.

Vampire or not, they could never take that risk.

Buffy found herself bothered by how the situation was handled, and hearing Faith muttering unintelligibly under her breath beside her, guessed the other slayer felt a similar way.

The three men, as well as Gunn, who looked to be in too much shock to contribute more than a few terse words to the conversation, finally separated, and started to remove something from the back of the truck.

They were closer to Buffy and Faith now, and Buffy frowned, finding something distinctly familiar about one of them.

“Ryan?”

The men both turned at her voice, and she was indeed faced with Ryan’s probing dark eyes, that lit up in surprise at the sight of her.

“Buffy?” he exclaimed.

“What are you doing here?” she asked haltingly. She was actually quite pleased to see him again.

His eyes ticked down to Angie, who had now been covered over in a blanket. At least she had that dignity.

“Helping out my brother”, he explained. He frowned. “I didn’t think…I wondered what had happened to you”. He glanced at Angel, who had approached when he realised there had been a lull in their activity. “Guess you found what you were looking for?”

Buffy nodded slowly. “Yeah.”

“You know each other?” Angel asked carefully, and Buffy swore there was more than idle curiosity behind his glance. Something more like… jealousy?

“Ryan helped me out when I first got to L.A.”

Ryan’s friend had already turned back to his task, and Gunn had moved in to help him.

Ryan shot Buffy a grim look. “You knew Angie?”

Buffy shook her head. “No”.

She knew her presence here must be strange to him, and she remembered he had no idea of her past. She didn’t really want to get into that particular conversation right now.

“Faith?” she said gently. “Let’s go back inside now, okay?” It was clear the sight of her friend’s body had shaken the woman, and she slowly nodded her brunette head, as if awakening from a daze. “Oh. Yeah. Sure”.

Buffy smiled at Ryan briefly, as Faith started off ahead of her. “Nice seeing you again”.

“Yeah. You too”.

Her gaze darted over Angel, to see he was watching her guardedly. She quickly turned away, and started after Faith’s departing back.

They were standing not far from the entrance to the apartment when Buffy paused, sensing movement upstairs. Her green eyes ticked to the second floor, and she saw a shadow in on of the windowpanes.

Watching them.

Faith paused on the stairs, and strode back to her side in concern. “Buffy?”

Buffy blinked, and the image disappeared. She pointed to the window.

“What room is that, Faith?”

Faith wrinkled her brow. “Oh… uh, its usually a spare. It’s Wesley’s room for now.”

She tilted a perfectly plucked eyebrow. “Why? Somethin’ wrong?”

Buffy started, and then hastily shook her head, but she couldn’t quell a deep sense of misgiving welling in her gut. “No, no. Nothing… wrong”.

She glanced at Wesley’s window with one last wary expression.

“Nothing”.

~*~*~*~*

The shadows were thick around him as he watched Buffy retreat back inside the building, and Wesley drew the curtain across, so the sunlight could no longer invade the room.

Buffy.

She was trouble.

He had hoped her preoccupation with Angel would distract her long enough, but he realised his foolishness. He had underestimated her, and it was underestimating a slayer that could be his ultimate undoing if he wasn’t careful. He was being too sloppy, too eager to get things completed, and now he was going to have to be twice as alert.

This was going to slow him down.

He turned to the pentagram still marked starkly in the wooden floor, and the red amber glowed in the darkness, invoking the dark magick surrounding it. He had covered it with a ratty throw rug when he wasn’t there, which seemed to be less and less now.

But if the others were concerned for his reclusive behaviour, they weren’t saying anything.

The Summoning was too close to arouse any suspicion. If Buffy and Faith and anybody else got too close to the truth now, it would ruin everything. His carefully laid plans, perfected over five long years trapped in his prison, wasted. Pushed on by his bitter hatred.

It was like a disease for him now, this hatred. So absolute it blocked his senses until he could see nothing else.

He wanted nothing more that to see Angel suffer as he had.

For once the bloody ponce isn’t feeling too guilty on that front, he thought disdainfully.

He pushed the thoughts away, focusing on his latest accumulation, wrapped carefully in a damp towel. He withdrew them now, placing the offering accurately in the centre of the pentagram.

The eyeballs seemed to stare up at him accusingly when he took a step away, and Wesley couldn’t help but avoid their condemning stare. The memory of the woman’s pleading screams echoed in his head, and he forced them to disappear.

It didn’t matter. None of this mattered.

Angel didn’t realise the vampire’s true intent, but he did.

Humanity was allowed to exist for now, while its numbers were still reasonably high. Disease and poverty would soon see to that, if not the vampires themselves. Then the fun would really begin. Then the vampire’s takeover would truly be complete. They had eternity, and they were surprisingly patient these days.

One day the world would be as it was, the vampire’s would really lead, and the humans nought but their humble slaves.

Wesley had once had complete conviction in the slayer and all she represented, but he had no such qualms now. Buffy would not be able to stop this from coming to pass, nor Angel, prophecy or no.

So Wesley would get there first.

If they knew, perhaps they could appreciate it. To be fair, he wasn’t giving them a choice in the matter. But what choice could they really have? In the end, perhaps he was working for Good. He would extinguish the vampires; turn them to dust with their ancestors.

He was only taking the world with them.

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