Author’s Contact: kennie_gajos@yahoo.co.uk
Summary: Buffy finds out what happened between Willow and Angel in LA, Lilah plans to find out how the spell was broken and Willow confesses.
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or any of its affiliates (except some merchandise and some lovely, lovely autographs!). That honour belongs to 20th Century Fox Film Productions (and by extension News Corporation), Warner Brothers Film Production, UPN, Kazui Enterprises, Sandollar, Lazy Dave Productions and Mutant Enemy. I make no profits from the writing of or display of this fanfic. Moral copyright is extended to all original characters and concepts created by me, the author, within the confines of this fanfic. To the uninitiated, this means you must first seek permission before you play with my toys. The song, Bad Day, is sung by Daniel Poulter and I only own the CD, nothing else.
With thanks to: Erica
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
True Love. Real, actual, honest-to-God True Love. It’s so rare
that it breaks all spells. It’s the only way to break the Voluntas
Neco spell that removes the soul of the person it’s sicced on or will;
in extreme circumstances, swap it with another that the first has a strong
bond with. So
had the damned spell worked? Had Angel’s soul switched with the
witch’s? Had they broken it?
Lilah suddenly sat up in her seat, breaking away from her musings. If they had then that meant that Angel had a vulnerable spot. They could exploit that. And there were always ways to tell if a spell had worked.
* * *
Willow was feeling better than she had in a long time. Anya and Dawn hadn’t even asked any questions. They’d just held her while she cried. They’d supported her. She looked around at her friends; all sat gathered around the table at the Magic Box at her request and took a deep breath. It was time to tell as much of her story as she safely could.
"Um, you remember when Angel and I switched bodies?" She asked. The group nodded and waited to see what else she would say. "Well, ever since we switched back, I’ve had a voice in my head. It’s Angelus. Somehow he’s inside me."
The table erupted into pandemonium.
"What?"
"Does that mean that Angel doesn’t have him?"
"I don’t understand."
"What does it mean?"
"How?"
Willow sat down, overwhelmed. "I don’t know. I’ve been researching and researching and I can’t find anything like it anywhere."
"Can you give him back?" Xander wanted to know.
"What are you going to do?" Buffy asked.
"I don’t know if I can give him back. I think it’s like he’s split in two and now Angel and I both have him."
"Does that mean you’re a vampire?" Buffy asked with a frown on her face.
Willow shrugged. "I don’t think so. I can still go out in the sun and I don’t have any homicidal tendencies. Just a voice in my head that wants to rip everyone to pieces."
The others looked at one another nervously and Anya tried to subtly move her chair away from Willow.
"I’m not going to." Willow told them. "He doesn’t control me."
Anya sighed with relief.
* * *
Lilah shut her office door very carefully and swore very loudly. The spell had worked alright. And it had been broken too. Which meant that Angel and the witch had True Love? If they controlled her then they controlled Angel. But how could they get to her? She’d gone back to Sunnydale and was once more under the protection of the Slayer. The same Slayer that Angel had once had a relationship with. There could be something in that, Lilah mused. Besides, if she were wrong it wouldn’t hurt to recruit a powerful witch. The senior partners would be pleased about that at least.
* * *
Dawn turned the door handle with her elbow and walked into Willow’s room for the second time that day.
"Hot chocolate!" She told Willow, flourishing the two steaming mugs she carried. "It’ll totally help you sleep."
Willow smiled and pushed herself into a sitting position. "Thanks Dawnie." She said, accepting her mug and waving Dawn to a seat on the bed.
Dawn watched Willow sip at the hot chocolate for a few seconds before her curiosity got the better of her.
"Why didn’t you tell them about you and Angel?" She asked Willow.
Willow froze. "What do you mean?" She asked warily, trying to act nonchalant.
Dawn looked at her. "The spell was Voluntas Neco right?" At Willow’s nod Dawn continued. "Turns out that the only thing that can break it is True Love."
"That doesn’t mean anything happened between us." Willow desperately reasoned, setting her mug on the bedside table.
Dawn regarded her skeptically. Did Willow really think she was blind?
"I’m not an idiot. I know something was totally going on between you two. What happened?"
Willow buried her head in her hands. "Mmmph nurf druu burb." She said.
"What?" Dawn asked, deeply puzzled.
"It’s not True Love." Willow lifted her head and told her. "Something happened, and I thought it was. But this can’t go any further, Dawnie. I mean it."
"Because of Buffy?" Dawn asked.
Willow nodded. "I know something terrible would happen if she ever found out, I just don’t know what. But I haven’t heard anything since we got back from LA and it’s been almost three months. I know we didn’t say we’d keep in touch but I thought he’d at least get in contact when he realized that we were sharing Angelus. He would have if it had been True Love. He’d have been worried about me. So I figure it’s not True Love. Or if it is then it’s one-sided. So there’s no point in telling anyone. Where would I even begin?"
Willow looked up at Dawn helplessly. Dawn stared back without the foggiest of what to say to her. Eventually she gently hugged Willow as the young woman burst into tears.
* * *
Darcy was seriously worried now. Angel was coping much better, which was both good and the general idea of the spell she’d performed. But he also seemed to be fixated on Cordelia now, which wasn’t either. How had he made that switch? It should have all been very simple. She’d imply tied the grief he had been experiencing to his time in Sunnydale. He should have still been aware of his feelings for Willow but they would feel like something that had happened three years ago, back in Sunnydale, merely brought to the surface because of Willow’s recent trip to LA. Instead, he seemed to have tied those same feelings onto Cordelia. Which was just plain wrong. And it had been about three months now and she’d still heard nothing from her Sunnydale friends.
Although she sometimes went months without hearing from them, she had thought that Willow would have emailed her at least. Instead, there was silence from Sunnydale. That worried her too but not as much as Angel did. After all, if anything was wrong in Sunnydale they’d have called her by now.
* * *
How to tell the Slayer? How to tell the Slayer?
Lilah thought about it constantly. It was the one part of her plan she hadn’t finalized. She needed someone the Slayer would trust. Who did you use to leak accurate information to a good guy when you were evil? This was one of the very few occasions when she’d have been glad to have Lindsey back. And not just because it would be good to have someone else lined up to take the fall if things went wrong. Again.
* * *
Buffy circled the vampire warily. It seemed unusually confident for a relatively new fledgling. She’d swear it was only a few days old but it knew who she was and didn’t even seem to care.
"I’m not afraid of you, Slayer." The vampire told her. "You’re weak."
Buffy pretended to consider. "Gee, think I’ve heard that from you guys about a thousand times and guess what… every one of you has wound up dead."
The vampire smiled, revealing disgustingly yellow fangs. "You’re losing it Slayer. You can’t even keep a man’s interest any more."
"We’re getting into my personal life?" Buffy asked skeptically. "I don’t imagine you get many dates with that bad breath."
The two of them traded a few blows, each testing the other out. Both of them knew that Buffy could take him; it was just a question of how long he could survive.
"Face it; your friends are leaving you in droves. None of them can stand you any more."
"You’re nuts." Buffy said, landing a good right hook. "You don’t know what you’re talking about."
The vampire’s grin widened. "Angelus and the witch?"
All Buffy could think of was that Willow was sharing Angel’s demon at the moment. "And?"
The vampire stopped moving and regarded her with incredulity. "Voluntas Neco? Can only be broken by True Love? Ringing any bells?"
Abruptly, Buffy staked him and watched him crumble into dust. "A few." She admitted to the dust floating on the wind.
* * *
Anya hung up the phone after a very in-depth conversation about Willow and Angel with Dawn and sighed tiredly. The Slayer’s sister was headed round to her apartment to watch movies with Xander.
The bell above the shop door chimed softly and Anya looked around in surprise to see a very uptight Buffy walk through the shop door.
"What are you doing here?" They asked each other at the same time.
Buffy looked at Anya until she answered.
"I’m doing a stock take and counting the money." She said. "Why are you here?"
Buffy looked around at the many books. "I thought I’d do some research on that spell Willow and Angel got hit with. Find out if it’s got anything to do with them sharing Angelus."
"It hasn’t." Anya said a little too quickly. "Willow, Dawn and I already checked."
Buffy’s eyes narrowed slightly and she took a step forward. "Then you won’t mind if I look for myself, will you?"
"No, of course not." Buffy decided that Anya’s smile was decidedly nervous. "But I don’t know why you’d want to when we’ve already checked."
"Call it a hunch." Buffy said, taking another step forward, which brought her to almost within arms reach of Anya. "Can you give me the book you read now please?"
It wasn’t a request. Apprehensively, Anya retrieved the copy of Fatale Battle Magicks from its hiding place underneath the till. Silently she handed it over to Buffy who quickly skimmed through the pages until she found what she was looking for. Silently she read the description of Voluntas Neco. Anya waited uneasily for her reaction.
When it came it was unexpected. Buffy slowly shut the book and gave it back to Anya.
"Thanks." She said quietly before turning on her heel and leaving.
Anya let out a large sigh as the tension in her body slowly released. The crap had really hit the fan now. She should warn Willow.
* * *
Willow was waiting for Buffy in the living room when she got back. The two of them looked at one another for a long second and then Buffy walked to the fireplace and turned to face Willow.
"So." She said, almost conversationally. "You and Angel?"
Willow shot to her feet. "Buffy, I’m so sorry. I never meant for it to happen. We never meant for it to happen. It’s just…"
"He was there, you were there and you both thought, ‘hey let’s fuck!’" Buffy filled in, anger and jealousy filling her soul.
"Buffy, no." Willow said imploringly.
Buffy shrugged and hardened her heart against her best friend. "With no thought of the consequences? What if he had lost his soul?"
Willow shook her head. "He didn’t."
"Then it wasn’t True Love, was it?" Buffy said, clutching at straws and not realizing or caring that she hurt her friend at the same time.
Willow’s eyes teared up. "It was for me. I think that’s why the spell broke."
"You’re in love with Angel?" Buffy huffed in amazement. Just how long had this been going on? "How long have you been in love with him? Did you do all this just to be with him? What was it, a spell gone wrong? You cast a spell for Angel to feel the same way as you and you switched bodies? And then you had sex with him? That’s sick. Were you even in the right bodies? No, don’t answer that, I don’t want to know. It’s too perverted."
"It wasn’t like that." Willow said, desperately to reassure the hurting Slayer. Buffy had to understand. She had to tell her what it was like. She had to make her understand that it was an accident. That Angel was obviously still in love with her.
"Were you in love with him in school?" Buffy asked viciously, finding refuge in all-encompassing anger. "Was the whole Xander thing a smoke screen? Did you plot and plan to break us up so that you could have him? How could you betray me like that?"
"I didn’t!" Willow cried, horrified that her friend could even think that. "Buffy I swear I didn’t."
Buffy turned away, unable to bear the sight of Willow’s treacherous face. "How can I believe anything you tell me? The sight of you sickens me. Go away. Just go away Willow. I need to be alone."
Willow looked at her friend, who looked back at her as though she was seeing a stranger she didn’t like. She gulped down a sob and walked out of the front door.
Once she was out of sight of the house, she broke into a run. Not caring where she was going or what she was doing she hurtled headlong down the dangerous streets of night time Sunnydale.
When she started to take notice of her surroundings, she realized that she was in the park.
Crying, she threw herself onto the ground near the swing set and sobbed her heart out. She was so miserable that it was some time before she realized that Angelus was screaming a warning at her. She rolled onto her back just in time to avoid the tranquilizer dart that buried itself into the dirt beside her.
* * *
Angelus was unusually restless. Angel couldn’t understand it. It wasn’t as though he was doing anything that the demon especially hated. All he was doing was watching Cordelia as she manned the reception desk.
Somewhere deep inside him Angelus growled angrily and suddenly he was watching Willow fight.
A large group of men in black ski masks, all armed with tasers and tranquilizer guns surrounded the petite redhead who was managing to hold them all off. Willow fought with a lithe gracefulness, almost as though she were dancing with them. She had obviously been crying, tear tracks still snaked their way down her face but she paid no attention to them, concentrating all of her energy on surviving. He called out a warning as one of the men aimed his tranquilizer gun at her back and then he was back in the Hyperion lobby. Angelus roared wordlessly in his head.
"What is it?" Darcy asked, noticing his shell-shocked demeanor.
"I just had a vision." He told her.
All activity in the room ceased and everyone listened.
"Willow’s being attacked."
* * *
She was surrounded. She felt a flicker of anger – how dare they attack her – but she quickly suppressed Angelus’ emotions with the ease that practice brings. They were coming at her from every side. And it wasn’t like on TV. They were all coming at her at once. Why did no one ever fight Buffy like this? She struggled against them, knowing that she was fighting a losing battle and resigned to her fate. Life had been so painful for Willow of late that she almost wished for the release that her death would bring. She just wished that she’d been able to at least see Angel once more. To tell him that she loved him once more. Suddenly she heard Angel shout her name and she turned, a smile lighting up her face as she expected him to see her coming to her aid. Instead, there was simply one of her attackers aiming a gun at her. There was a sharp stinging sensation in her stomach and she looked down to see a tranquilizer dart sticking out of her abdomen. Slowly everything went black and she slid to the floor.
Leisurely, the men approached her and made sure that she was unconscious. They bound her wrists and ankles and carried her to a black van parked at the curb.
* * *
"Willow and Deadboy?!" Xander asked incredulously.
Dawn sighed as the black van parked by the park entrance just ahead of them pulled away. It was all he’d been able to say ever since Anya had come home and warned her that Buffy knew. "Yes Xander." She said impatiently. "Willow and Angel." Worried about what she would find at home she sped up.
* * *
When a group is trained in life and death situations, you’ll notice something very strange.
There’s a moment of complete stillness as they register that their actions will make a real difference. And then everything erupts into chaos. Only, it’s not really chaos, it just looks like it. In reality, everyone knows what role they play and they switch seamlessly into it. But let’s just face it; they look like headless chickens.
Within seconds, Cordelia was calling Buffy’s house, Gunn was picking weapons and Fred and Wesley had headed for the computer and books respectively. Darcy picked up a spare phone line and dialled Xander’s number. It rang…, rang…, and rang. While it rang, Darcy worriedly watched Angel pace and listened to Cordelia’s conversation with Buffy. From the sound of things the Slayer had now knew about Willow and Angel. The ringing stopped as the phone was picked up.
"Hi, you’ve reached Xander and Anya." Xander’s recorded voice told her. "We’re not in right now but if you leave a message we’ll get back to you."
Darcy hung up.
Oh yeah, they were in deep trouble now, thought Cordelia. Buffy knew about Angel and Willow and was clearly pissed and disinclined to lift a finger to help her friend who was currently involved in a fight for her life. Yep, things had officially gone south. Way south.
But Cordelia was wrong. Seconds after her conversation with Buffy had ended Xander, Anya and Dawn had arrived at the house. Within minutes, everyone was organized and searching for Willow. Buffy might have been pissed but she wasn’t that pissed.
By the time Angel and the others had arrived an hour and almost double the speed limit later all of Sunnydale’s parks had been thoroughly searched and no trace of Willow was found anywhere. The various search teams all met up at the Magic Box to discuss their next options.
Angel looked around the table. He was definitely confused. Why was Buffy being so cold about Willow’s disappearance? Why were Xander, Anya and Dawn glaring at him like he’d run a kitten over? And why was Cordelia not looking at him? Was she ashamed? Finally, he asked.
"Buffy, did you and Willow argue about something?"
Nine pairs of eyes turned to look at him in astonishment.
"What?" Darcy asked.
Buffy rolled her eyes. "I know the two of you slept together." She informed him.
"What?" Tara exclaimed her shock and hurt written all over her face.
It was also Angel’s turn to look shocked. "I swear I haven’t."
He said. "Willow and I don’t have the kind of relationship that Cordelia
and I have."
"What!" Cordelia asked.
Buffy choked. "Cordelia too? What are you, on a mission to sleep your way through my friends?"
"What?" Spike asked, shrugging when he noticed Buffy glaring at him. "I just wanted to join the conversation." He turned away, adjusting his coat.
"Hang on." Darcy said, holding her hand up to ward off anyone who attempted to speak. "Let’s start at the beginning. Angel, you don’t remember you and Willow?"
"What about me and Willow?" Angel asked, genuinely confused.
"You don’t remember the Voluntas Neco spell?"
Angel nodded slowly, thinking about it. She would have to ask a question about the period in his life that was still hazy, he thought resignedly. "Sure, Willow and I switched bodies because she restored my soul. Then we broke it." He smiled, pleased that he could remember.
Tara’s mind was working overtime. She’d always known that Willow had a Soul Bond with someone, but she’d assumed it was with Oz. Having known about the Soul Bond she’d also known that whatever happiness she and Willow shared would only exist until her soul mate turned up. She’d been amazed when Willow had chosen her over Oz, thinking that it meant that the Soul Bond was weakening and perhaps they’d form one of their own but it looked like that hope was over.
"Okay." Darcy nodded to herself, pleased. If she could understand where the spell that had screwed with his memory went wrong then hopefully she could put it right. "Do you remember how?"
Angel thought carefully about this question. "Uh, sure. True Love."
Darcy knew exactly how it had gone wrong now. "Who gave him mind-altering substances?" She asked.
There was complete silence as everyone looked at everyone else and then Gunn stepped forward. "He and I got drunk together. I thought it’d be good for him."
Cordelia hit him. "You idiot!" She told him.
Darcy nodded. "He tagged his memories of True Love back to a woman from Sunnydale and I’m guessing that he saw Cordelia first, right?" Cordelia nodded and Darcy sighed.
"Angel!" She turned back to the bewildered vampire. "I need you to look into my eyes and think very carefully about this question. Whose True Love broke the spell?"
Angel concentrated and she snapped the spell. His brow instantly cleared as for the first time in months he had his usual perfect recall.
"Willow." He breathed, memories of their time together running through his head. His head snapped up. "She’s in danger, we have to find her."
"W-we will, don’t worry." Tara told him reassuringly. So this was Willow’s True Love? If he could just hang on to his memories then he would be good for her, she decided, ignoring the emotional pain she was in to put the well-being of others before her own as usual.
"So, you just forgot about Willow?" Anya asked.
"If it’s True Love and you slept together then why didn’t you lose your soul?" Xander asked, suspiciously.
Angel shrugged. "She must have found someway to bind it while she was in me. And I think Angelus likes her."
"That might explain why she’s been sharing Angelus with you." Dawn said thoughtfully.
"What!" Angel yelped, horrified at the thought.
There was a loud thump as Darcy banged her head against the table and let it rest where it had fallen. "Why does nobody tell me these things?" She asked the polished surface of the table. "And ow." She added as an afterthought.
"Ever since she came back she’s been sharing Angelus with you and you didn’t even notice?" Dawn asked Angel, ignoring Darcy for the time being. "No wonder she thought all the True Love was on her side."
Angel flinched and his eyes clouded over as he mentally tortured himself for the pain he’d put her through.
"You really love her don’t you?" Buffy asked, her eyes gleaming with unshed tears.
Angel looked at her. "I’m sorry." He said simply. "I don’t know how or why but I know that we’re linked. Something connects us and I don’t know what it is."
Buffy nodded briefly, once. "I’m not happy about this." She warned. "You both lied to me. But we need to find her. As quickly as possible, so what’s the plan?"
* * *
Willow surfaced quickly and painfully, immediately aware that something was wrong. Groaning in pain from a beating she must have taken while unconscious, she raised a hand to her aching head and looked unsteadily around her.
Things were definitely not good, she decided. She was in an Initiative-style room, strapped to what felt like an operating table. The walls surrounding her were completely covered in white tiles and there were several scary-looking instruments lined up next to her. Along one wall was a plate of mirrored glass.
"Good morning, Witch." An anonymous female voice said from the mirrored glass. Willow flinched and her restraints tightened.
Behind the mirror, Lilah smiled in anticipation. It was time to find out if Angel had a True Love.
The End