Buffy swung a fist at the blue-skinned, horned head slightly resembling a monkey. She wasn’t sure what kind of demon it was, and she wouldn’t tell Willow this, but she really didn’t care.

The demon ducked and kicked out at Buffy’s legs. But they were no longer there. Buffy had flipped over the 6-foot tall demon and kicked it with all the power she could muster in her legs in the middle of its back. The demon stumbled and fell, and Buffy decapitated it with a swipe of her sword.

She swung around, prepared for a fight with the mate of the demon she had just killed. Instead, she came face to face with Spike. The mate was on the ground, a gaping hole through its chest.

“Hi honey,” he grinned.

“Spike,” Buffy acknowledged. She wasn’t that surprised. Hardly a patrol night passed when Spike didn’t show up to help or hinder. She set off, Spike at her side, to another cemetery across town.

Spike looked her up and down. God she was hot. Her low-cut red tank top over black leather pants gave her room to move but didn’t fail to accentuate her assets.

Buffy felt Spike’s eyes running over her body and shivered. She tried to convince herself it was disgust. But she couldn’t hide her quickened heartbeat from Spike. His grin widened.

“So… I got some new pillowcases for the bed. Want to come around later and test them out?” Spike said slyly, trying and failing to hide his eagerness.

Just then two vampires jumped them from behind. Buffy grabbed hers and spun it over her shoulder, very grateful for the interruption. She probably would find herself at Spike’s crypt later, as happened most nights lately, but that didn’t mean she was ready to talk about her new habit out loud.

Buffy dusted the newly arisen vampire easily, but not before a group of about 5 or 6 older and therefore more experienced vampires joined in the fray. Spike had dusted his vamp too and now bore the face of his demon self. He and Buffy moved without a word to each other so that they could fight the new lot back to back. Mr. Pointy in hand, Buffy searched every inch of her body for anger and frustration to turn upon her enemies. She always fought better when she was good and pissed.

She punched one vamp in the face, kicked another in the stomach and ducked a swing from yet another. She spun into the first one, who was regaining focus, staking him quickly, before leaping to the side so as to avoid an axe swing that would have cut her left arm off. She kicked a vampire so he was impaled upon a tree branch, and then there was one. Buffy jumped as he sent a kick to her ankles and landed facing the vamp’s back. She made to punch the back of his head, but he had sensed what she was going to do and ducked. He spun around and punched her in the nose. She avoided most of the blow by going with the movement, but it still hurt. Using speed even the vampire couldn’t muster, Buffy spun and kicked at the same time, sending him to the ground. Defiantly, she stood over him, and brought down the ever-sharp point of her stake.

The dust of the vampires still floating to the ground, Buffy turned on to the familiar path that led to Spike’s crypt. He staked his last enemy and hurried to catch up.

Upon entering the familiar crypt Buffy noticed Spike had changed the pillowcases. It was her turn to grin. Just as he closed the door behind him, Buffy slammed him against it.

“Hey! Wha—“ Spike’s sentence was cut short as Buffy stepped up and kissed him hard on the mouth. He joined in enthusiastically, savouring every moment of Buffy’s passion.

They had barely enjoyed each other’s touch when the earth started to shake. Being so close to the door already, Buffy and Spike didn’t have far to go, but Spike managed to stumble down the stairs before running back up them into the doorway Buffy was now cowering in.

They had endured earthquakes before in Sunnydale. And each of them had led to an apocalypse, so naturally, Buffy was scared out of her wits as the ground slowly but surely stopped moving. She turned to face Spike and saw a mirrored look of terror on his face.

“Let’s find Giles.” Buffy grabbed the door and yanked it so hard it would normally have flown off its hinges. But now, it didn’t move so much as a centimetre. She tried again. Spike joined in. A slayer and a vampire both pulling at the door and it still wouldn’t budge. They were trapped.

The vampire turned back to face his crypt while Buffy tried the door again, only…

Green fields surrounded Spike, and a spotless blue sky was visible between the leaves of the tree he was standing under.

He turned back to Buffy, who was stunned to see a tree before her instead of a door.

Unable to keep from grinning, Spike looked around. Green meadows, birds singing, sun shining down on him.

Wait.

Sun shining down on him?

“Aaaaah!” Spike cried as he dashed under the cover of the tree Buffy was next to.

“Spike,” Buffy said quietly, “you’re okay. You’re not burning.” She sounded stunned.

But about half as stunned as Spike felt.

“How?”

“I don’t know. But look! You have a shadow and everything!” Buffy’s voice was leaving stunned and turning towards excited.

Spike took a few cautious steps back into the sunlight, and, when he didn’t burn or even start smoking, took a few more until he was in the middle of a green grassy field, staring up at the sun.

“This is excellent pet, it’s just like I had the Gem of Ammara back on my finger. But look, no expensive jewellery on Spike’s hand.”

“It must be something about this place that’s causing it,” Buffy said.

“Well in that case, can we never leave?”

Buffy smiled. Spike returned her grin. This was like a fantasy. Walking through a beautiful garden in the middle of the day with Buffy grinning at him. It was perfect.

The moment was ruined spectacularly by the appearance of a green-skinned, red-horned demon a few metres in front of the couple. Buffy started forwards.

“Don’t love.” Spike half-pulled her back.

“I’m not going to hurt him, I just want to know where we are.”

Spike let her go and followed as she approached the green demon. It looked up just before they reached it.

“Cows!” Buffy was taken aback. She’d never been called a cow by a demon before. Let alone one she didn’t know.

“I – I mean humans,” the demon corrected itself. “I am sorry. The times of harmonizing have just begun. I should not have called you cows.”

“Damn right you shouldn’t’ve!” Buffy pulled Spike back as he tried to control the demon inside him and keep his features human.

“Sorry about him,” she said. Spike scowled at her. “Are there many humans here?”

“No. There are a few, but most are too terrified of our kind now to even look at us,” the demon replied.

“Why – why won’t they look at you?” Buffy asked.

“Because until the queen left, cows – humans were treated as slaves. How do you not know this?”

Buffy didn’t respond. Instead she asked, “the queen? Who was she? Why’d she leave?”

“She was human. She had the visions. She fulfilled her duty as queen, and she fell in love with the Grusalug, but when her companion humans found a way back to their home, she left.”

“How did they get home? We need to go home too,” Buffy asked.

“I do not know. There were rumours of a portal, but such things cannot exist can they?”

“No, no I don’t think so,” Buffy said, looking at Spike. “Sorry, just one more question. Where exactly are we?”

In a downtown L.A. hotel, Angel, formerly Angelus and Charles Gunn sat in the foyer, staring into an office where a petite brunette hurried around, picking up pieces of paper, looking at them for a few seconds, then dropping them again. Winifred Burkle, or Fred, had been doing just this for the past half an hour.

“When do you think she’s gonna let us in on the big secret?” Gunn looked over at Angel.

“When she’s ready,” Angel said. He, like Gunn, was getting thoroughly bored, but with nothing else to do, he stayed put and waited for Fred’s news. And tried not to think of Cordelia Chase. Cordy. The only person he had been thinking of these past few days. He couldn’t forgive himself for not telling her the truth when she’d lost her memory. Now he’d lost her trust and she was staying with his son, Connor. While Connor had strength and cared enough for Cordelia to take care of her, Angel couldn’t trust him. As soon as she was willing, Angel would get her out of there.

Fred finally rushed into the foyer, holding a heap of papers in her hands.

“I have news,” she said. Gunn and Angel looked up at the sound of her voice.

“Finally,” Gunn muttered to himself.

“My research shows – there’s evidence that – that a gateway to Pilea has been opened,” Fred said. “In Sunnydale.”

“Hello, I am the Grusalug. Welcome to Pilea,” a handsome, big-built man stood before Buffy and Spike.

“You run this place?” Spike asked.

“I try. We had a princess but –“ he drew a deep breath. “But she left. She went back to your world.”

“Do you know how?” Buffy asked. “We like this place and all, but we – well, I have some friends and a sister back home who are probably worried.”

Spike looked insulted. “You want to leave? I can walk in the bloody sun, Buffy! This place is great! And you want to leave?”

The Grusalug spoke up. “I don’t know why you wouldn’t be able to walk in the sunshine where you come from, but maybe you should split up. You,” he said, gesturing to Buffy, “can leave, and you,” he gestured at Spike, “can stay. I think you’ll like Pilea.”

“Not an option mate. We’re together,” Spike said, grinning stupidly at Buffy, who looked torn between disgusted and pleased.

“I do not know how the princess returned to your world. I assumed you did,” the Grusalug said. “I can give you some housing in the meantime, and work, if you want it. When and if you find a way home, I daresay you shall go.”

So Spike and Buffy set of, map in hand, for a little hut the Grusalug had assured them would be comfortable.

When they got there, Spike refused to go in.

“Come on Buffy! This is only the second time in more than 100 years I’ve been in the sun. Please don’t make me miss any more of it?” he said.

Buffy smiled. She glanced at the hut, then turned back to Spike and, together, they walked off into the sunshine.

“Pilea?” Angel questioned. He hoped not. His experiences there hadn’t exactly been great, and if anything happened to Buffy, again, he didn’t think he could handle it. Buffy’s death had effected him more than he had thought possible. While she wasn’t the only woman in Angel’s life anymore, Angel still loved her and had rejoiced when Willow had resurrected her.

But she wasn’t the only woman he loved. Angel sighed as he thought of Cordy for probably the thousandth time just that hour.

Fred cut his thoughts short. “Yes,” she said, managing to look triumphant about her research and troubled about the portal to Pilea at the same time.

“Do you think there’s any chance it’s not Buffy?” Angel asked rhetorically. He sighed again. “What do we do?”

He and Gunn both turned to Fred, who looked bewildered.

“I – I don’t know,” she said. “I guess I could try to find out where the portal was opened, and start researching for a way to reverse it. Do you really think Buffy’s in Pilea?”

“We can’t afford not to think that,” Angel said glumly.

“But it’ll be better now won’t it?” Gunn spoke up. “I mean – they’ve started peace with the humans there haven’t they?”

“We don’t know that,” Fred said. “We don’t know how much time has passed there for a start. It could have been only a week since they remember us leaving. Also, we don’t know whether all the other demons living there decided to be friendly to humans. Buffy and whoever else is with her might be being treated as cows.”

Angel shifted uncomfortably at mention of this. He could remember all too well Fred being treated as a “cow”, and the thought of Buffy like this made a shudder run through him.

The thought obviously had a different result/effect on Fred, though, because a fierce determination lined her features.

“We’re getting them out,” she said.

“I love it,” Spike said, watching the sun set for the first time in over a hundred years. “It makes me want to say something pretty.” He said this without any embarrassment, and Buffy wondered just how close to the vampire she was getting.

“Mmm, poetry,” she said. “The key to any girl’s heart.”

“Well in that case…” Spike said, and he searched his mind for beautiful words.

“As afternoon melts into night,

For the first time in forever,

I feel as if this beauty,

I should never have seen before.

But as I look into your eyes,

I know that isn’t true.

The greatest beauty of all,

Is standing before me.”

Spike glanced at Buffy, whose face showed nothing short of perplexity.

“No good?” he asked grimly.

Buffy seemed to be making a hard decision in her mind. After a few moments, looking uncertain, she leaned in and kissed him. It wasn’t like it usually was. Not hard and forceful. But soft and sweet. Full of passion. And Spike knew that he had finally broken down a wall in the seemingly infinite defenses Buffy had around her heart.

“Fred, honey,” Gunn asked nervously, “you’re sure this is gonna work?”

“Yes,” she said, and paused. “Well, probably.”

Gunn looked less than comforted at this confession. He looked at Angel.

“What do you reckon? Can we deal with probably?”

“If it means keeping Buffy safe, we’ll take it,” he said.

Together Gunn and Angel stepped up to a ritual symbol marked on the floor of the L.A. hotel. Fred began chanting in an ancient tongue. Before their eyes, a large, purple, swirling portal appeared. With a quick glance back at his girlfriend’s nervous but ever-beautiful face, Gunn stepped into the portal after Angel.

Gunn stepped out of the portal onto soft, green grass and surrounded by beautiful, flourishing trees.

“Angel, I don’t think this is it. It don’t look very evil,” he said.

“No, this is Pilea,” Angel said. “It’s when the people here start trying to cut off your head that it looks evil.”

“They’re gonna try to chop off my head?”

“Depends. The Grusalug may have made this a peaceful place, but I don’t know. Best to keep up your defenses just in case.”

“And I got no better defense than this,” Gunn said, flourishing his homemade axe. “Hey, I just realised, sunlight!” he said, looking up. “And you’re in it!”

“Yeah, Pilea completely separates my demon half from my human one. That’s why I can walk in the sun. But if my demon half comes out, run.” Angel said this very calmly, trying to hide the nervousness he felt at being in Pilea again. He had hated it last time. When the vampire had taken over his features, he had transformed. It wasn’t nearly as easy to control the beast Pilea brought out in him than the vampire he hid inside himself in L.A.

“This way,” Angel said. He wasn’t sure, but he thought he could smell Buffy’s scent faintly.

Buffy woke with a shock. It wasn’t Spike’s arms around her that did it. She was getting used to that. And for some reason, she didn’t mind that she was getting used to it. But it took her a few seconds to realise the dark room they were in wasn’t his crypt, but a little hut in some far off dimension called Pilea.

Spike stirred next to her. “Hmm… Buffy,” he said, getting whiff of her familiar scent.

Buffy smiled. He was so cute when he was half-awake. Her smile was wiped off her face, however, at a knock on the door. Spike sat bolt upright at the assault on his sensitive hearing.

Buffy struggled to get out of bed, pull on her clothes and rush to open the door. There was no one here she knew, so a casual visit from friends wasn’t an option. She braced herself for a fight.

But when she opened the front door to the little hut, there was no one there. Grumpy at having to rush out of bed in the middle of the morning so fast for no reason, Buffy shut the door and shuffled back to the bed Spike was still wrapped up in the sheets of.

The attack from behind came so suddenly and strongly that she had no time to counter. Buffy fell to the floor. Before her unknown attacker had time to pounce on her, she backwards-rolled and jumped up, ready to lash out at whoever was there

But her assailant had disappeared. Spike had finally managed to get out of bed, and after one sniff of his nose, headed out the front door in search of Buffy’s attacker without so much as one word to her.

When he reached the door, which was still open a crack from Buffy opening it moments before, it swung back and would have hit him in the head had he not had vampire reflexes. He caught the door in his hands and ripped it off the hinges, revealing a man who looked almost human, apart from the tail protruding from a hole in his pants. Spike struggled to keep his human features as a rush of hatred for this man overwhelmed him. But since falling in love with Buffy, he’d tried to keep his face human at all times. Any reason for Buffy to see the demon in him could make her decide she deserved more than Spike could give her. Besides, he was stronger than the demon his body hid.

Spike spun around at the sounds of more men entering his and Buffy’s little hut from the back door. Four men now surrounded Buffy, and Spike wasn’t sure whether these guys were too human for her to kill. He moved towards her even as she spun into motion. He witnessed a back kick almost knocking the head off one of them before he too started moving. A low kick to one, a punch in the face of another, and now Spike’s worst enemy was not these men, but the demon inside him as it threatened to take control of his violent actions. A fist out of nowhere caught him in the nose, and his defenses were down. The demon took hold of him and he felt the sharpening of all his senses that happened whenever his vampire took hold. He grabbed a man who was rushing at him by the neck, and with a sickening crack, felt his head dislocate from his spinal cord.

All the men were down now and Spike spun to face Buffy, who delivered a less than loving uppercut to his chin.

Spike’s was shocked more than hurt. He finally thought he was getting somewhere with Buffy and she punched him. He knew it was too good to be true.

“Spike?” she called out, disregarding him on the floor, as if she was looking for someone other than him but by the same name.

“Right here luv, recovering from that right hook of yours,” he said, still lying on the floor.

Buffy took no notice of him. Instead she left him there with the men who had just tried to kill him and jogged out the front door.

“Oi!” he yelled. Spike sprung to his feet and chased after her. He wasn’t the type to sit there and accept this from Buffy. He’d have an explanation or the last word.

But for some reason he had a great desire to kill the men he and Buffy had left unconscious on the floor. Not just to kill them, but to eat them.

“Angel man, I’m beat,” Gunn said. He’d been following his vampire boss all through the night, in search for a woman he’d never met, in a near-hell dimension of which his girlfriend had been a prisoner for 3 years. Gunn plopped himself down on a rock just as Angel reached a small wooden hut. He looked back.

“This is it. I can smell Buffy.”

“Okay, I’m still not used to the whole smelling her thing, but if I don’t have to walk anymore, I’ll be happy to do some breaking and entering,” Gunn replied.

The two men approached the hut cautiously, wary of attack. Then Angel dropped all pretense and kicked down the door. Gunn looked up, an expression somewhere between what the hell are you doing? and why couldn’t I kick down the door? on his face.

“I was getting impatient too,” Angel said sheepishly.

Angel and Gunn entered the hut, trying not to make a sound, Angel more successfully than Gunn. There was no sign of Buffy anywhere, but it was obvious a massacre had occurred. Men were strewn about everywhere on the floor. But what stunned Angel was that their guts had been completely ripped out of their bodies and strewn everywhere too.

“Your girl is really messed up, Angel,” Gunn said.

“This wasn’t Buffy,” Angel replied, very sure of himself.

“But you said—“

“I know what I said. I can still smell Buffy strongly here. But there is no way she would have done this.”

“Well something did, and I really don’t wanna end up looking like that,” Gunn said, indicating one of the men on the floor.

Spike was on a rampage. He had no idea what was causing him to act like this, but he didn’t like it. Which was strange for him. He’d always loved chaos. Especially causing it. So now he was able to cause it again, what was stopping him?

Buffy.

Just the thought of her made his heart leap.

But it wasn’t enough to stop the beast inside him from wanting mayhem. Death. And destruction. This was what the vampire craved, and for the first time in his un-life, Spike felt he couldn’t quite get a grip on that side of himself. He couldn’t force it to stop.

His heightened sense of smell caught something on the wind. It was a different smell to that of the almost-humans who inhabited this world. And somewhat familiar. Spike couldn’t remember who or what it was, but it was definitely familiar.

A figure stepped out in front of him. And Spike remembered. He lunged.

Buffy wandered through seemingly endless fields of green grass and sunshine, but it all seemed much less beautiful without Spike with her. Funny, that.

But where was he?

Buffy replayed the fight at their hut in her head. She could remember seeing Spike in the doorway, glaring at one of the almost-humans with tails. Then she’d been jumped and she hadn’t seen Spike since. The heat of the battle had taken over her and she hadn’t taken notice of anything but the various body parts of the men that she could hurt.

“Spike?” she called again. But her heart wasn’t in it. Not 24 hours ago Spike had been telling her poetry and had his arms wrapped around her. Now he was gone. And Buffy couldn’t figure out why.

Had she done something wrong? She couldn’t think what.

She realised what she was doing and laughed to herself. What would Xander think if he could see her now, wondering what she’d done to offend Spike?

He’d come back. He always had.

But what if he doesn’t? Buffy couldn’t help the panic that swelled through her at this point. Spike wasn’t a boyfriend, definitely, but he’d come to mean something to her and she couldn’t stand it if another man left her.

Where had he gone? Why couldn’t they talk it over if Spike really didn’t want to go back to Sunnydale? Buffy wondered if he’d changed his mind after they’d been attacked. Probably not. He was Spike. He’d get beaten up wherever he went. Buffy laughed to herself again.

But the laughter didn’t help the worry in her heart. How was she going to get out of this? And if she did figure it out, would Spike choose to remain here? Where he could walk in the sun?

When did everything get so messed up?

Maybe she could die. Then she’d go back to Heaven.

No! Buffy couldn’t believe she’d just thought that. Her friends needed her, back in Sunnydale, or else they wouldn’t have resurrected her. And she wouldn’t let them down by being so selfish. The world needed her.

She was the Slayer.

Angel fell, the giant beast on top of him. He was still in shock. It couldn’t be. Not another one? Here? In Pilea?

“Angel,” Gunn asked, “what is that thing?”

Angel didn’t answer him. The beast was now punching him, endlessly, incessantly. He said instead, “run.”

Gunn was confused, but he didn’t need to be told twice.

Angel felt better with Gunn gone. It wasn’t that he didn’t have faith in Gunn’s abilities; it was just that against this particular demon, Gunn had no chance. And he always fought better without having to worry about protecting somebody.

But it couldn’t be. Another vampire in Pilea? How?

Then his mind put two and two together.

Buffy.

A portal had opened to Pilea from Sunnydale. Buffy was probably here. And this vampire had probably fallen through with her when she was fighting it.

Angel forced himself to concentrate on the fight. He wouldn’t change. Wouldn’t let the vampire take control. Not when he wasn’t sure his human half could overpower it when he wanted it to.

His attacker, a vampire from Sunnydale that could not be identified because of the creature it had become, was now in the process of bloodying Angel everywhere. His face was bleeding. His arms were bleeding. His strength when he wore the human guise just wasn’t a match for this beast.

Angel had to face the truth. He was getting beaten. Badly.

He had to change. It was do or die. And he wasn’t going to die and leave Buffy here to face this by herself.

Speaking of the Devil, Buffy happened to turn up at that moment. Angel could just make out her ever-gorgeous figure in his peripheral vision. Gunn was with her.

Angel received another punch in the face for his lack of concentration. The vampire rose up inside of him, responding to the attack. And this time Angel let it take control. He didn’t care at that moment if Buffy and Gunn saw him as one of these creatures he was fighting. His first priority had to be to live. Or as close as he could get to living.

Buffy and Gunn both gasped at Angel’s transformation.

Angel felt the power within him enhance instantly, and all of his senses sharpened. Quick as lightning, he rolled his weight around, so that he was now on top of his assailant. It was payback time.

“What—?” Buffy left her question there.

“If Angel’s the same as that, then that has to be a… a vampire,” Gunn said, his mind working quicker than Buffy’s. He’d been warned and he suspected something like this might happen when Angel changed.

“Spike,” Buffy whispered. Gunn didn’t hear her with his human hearing. But Angel did.

Spike? This was Spike he was fighting?

Angel let out a punch quicker and more powerful than any before and Buffy knew he had heard her.

She had to stop him. The problem was, the two vampires were now rolling around so much that Buffy was getting confused. Which was Spike and which was Angel?

It didn’t matter. She wouldn’t let either one kill the other. She started forward. Gunn, a stranger to Buffy, but obviously a friend of Angel’s, tried to stop her. She batted his arm away effortlessly.

The two vampires unraveled themselves from each other on the ground and stood up, facing each other, both looking tired, but neither more than the other. It looked like their power was evenly matched.

Buffy stepped between them. They both growled at the interference. Then, before Buffy’s eyes, Angel changed. He was now the Angel she knew once more, handsome features bloodied and hair matted. But Angel nonetheless. “Spike?” he asked.

Buffy nodded once and turned back to him. Angel looked on, always eager to watch his vampire grandson getting whooped. But Angel got the shock of his un-life. Buffy put on a calm face and spoke to the crazed vampire that she had always hated.

“Spike,” she said calmly. “It’s Buffy. Angel changed back and I believe you can too.”

And again to Angel’s astonishment, Spike changed. Just like that. Because Buffy wanted him too.

He started froward, ready to kick the peroxide-blonde vampire’s ass. But Buffy flung an arm out to stop him. Angel couldn’t get over it. She didn’t want him to hurt Spike?

“Buffy, what—?” he began to ask but she interrupted.

“Angel. Spike. You are not to hurt one another. Not until I understand what’s going on. No, wait. Never. But I still want to know.”

But suddenly the green grass surrounding them disappeared and was replaced by streets and alleyways. The sun that had been shining overhead was replaced with a pale full moon.

The two vampires still faced each other, Buffy still in between them, Gunn still off to one side, but now they were all in the back streets of L.A.

As confusing as it was, Buffy had to get a hold of herself. The two vampires she cared for (and she realised that she cared more for Spike than even she wanted to admit) were about to fight. And Buffy knew it would be to the death. She had to do something.

“No!” she screamed hurrying forward so she was between the two of them.

She turned to face Angel. “Angel, please. Don’t do this,” she said, but for all the notice he took she could have been talking to a brick wall.

“Please!” she screamed.

Walking towards Spike she said, slowly, calmly, “Spike, please. Don’t do this.” She paused. “For me.”

Spike looked into Buffy’s deep brown eyes, longing for him to stop this. To be the bigger man. Spike didn’t give a damn about being the bigger man. But he could see how much this was hurting her. He didn’t want to be the cause of her pain. He couldn’t bring himself to hurt the woman he loved.

Angel watched, amazed, as Spike backed off. Just like in Pilea. This was getting to be too much. Spike wouldn’t hurt him because Buffy asked him to? He couldn’t accept that. He couldn’t love her without a soul. It wasn’t possible. If Angel couldn’t why should Spike?

Angel was even more amazed, however, when Buffy leaned in to Spike’s now human face and kissed him.

What was going on here? He was Spike! The guy Buffy had sworn to kill. The guy who’d tried to kill her hundreds of times. And now she was kissing him?

“Buffy wha—“

But Buffy cut him off. “Angel,” she said calmly. “We need to talk.” With a glance back at Spike, Buffy walked up to Angel and, with a moment’s hesitation; Angel followed her around the corner behind him.

“Buffy, what the hell are you doing kissing Spike?I” Angel was furious. He couldn’t – wouldn’t believe that she and Spike were together.

“I don’t think that’s your business,” she said coolly, looking him in the eye.

“He doesn’t have a soul!”

“He’s changed Angel. He doesn’t need a soul to be good.” Then she added, “and he loves me.”

“He can’t love you! He can’t love without a soul!”

“Maybe you couldn’t, Angel, but Spike is different. He loves me. I can feel it. And he’s a better man than you’ll probably ever give him credit for. He takes care of Dawn, and my friends. And he gives me anything and everything he can.”

At this Angel fell silent.

“Spike has changed—“ Buffy began, but Angel interrupted.

“It’s not change Buffy! When did you get so dumb?! He’ll never be anything but a monster!”

“He’s not any more of a monster than you are, Angel. He’s good.” And with that she turned on her heel, around the corner, took Spike’s arm and led him away. Angel was left dumbfounded.