"Ah good, you’re awake Miss Summers. I was getting worried," Lilah said. The fun was just getting started now that Buffy no longer had her powers and wasn't evil anymore. Her powers were what freed the darkness inside of her. Take that away, and what do you have left… a good slayer. Lilah felt very safe at the moment because Buffy was sitting in a chair. Wrist, leg, neck, and head straps were currently holding Buffy to the chair.

"What are you going to do to?" Buffy asked, smirking at her captors. They think that they know what's to come, but they have no idea just who or what she really is.

"Well, the first thing we are going to do is torture you a little bit, but rest assured we won't kill you. You won't be able to watch your friends get their hearts torn out if you die" Lilah flashed a wicked smile at Buffy.

Buffy leaned her head down as if she was crying and trying to hide. What she was doing was the complete opposite. Buffy couldn't hold her laughter in, so she burst out laughing.

"You really have no idea just who or what I am, do you?" Buffy asked, still laughing.

"Yes we do Miss Summers, and now we are leaving you. The guard will bring you your food so just stay seated" Lilah responded.

Lilah and her 12 guards walked out in all their glory leaving "poor, defenseless", Buffy all to her lonesome self.

*********************************************

The guard came in with a bowl of soup and a wooden paddle. He raised the paddle and put the bowl on it. He then lifted the paddle to Buffy's face expecting her to lick it like a dog. When Buffy did nothing he set the paddle down and marched over to her chair. He said, "What do you say?"

"I say, that before I kill you I'm going to make you squeal like a pig you fucking bastard," Buffy replied in anger. She would not take this shit from a fat, donut eating guard.

He grabbed his baton and hit her shoulders with it and in response she lifted her shoulders to each blow to soften it. Looking out of the corner of her eye she saw a knife hanging from his belt. She silently grabbed it and slid it under her arm. He finally stopped hitting and said, "Now, what do we say?"

Buffy smiled sweetly and said, "Thank you"

He said "that's better" and he then walked out of the room to play poker with all the other guards.

*************************

When he left Buffy flipped over the knife that was under her arm and cut open the leather band that were holding her arms down. She then undid the other wrist band, head, and neck bands. Kicking out she undid her leg bands. Looking around she found the stone. /Very stupid to leave it here where I can get it if I ever escaped. Oh well/, she thought. When she broke the stone, she felt a rush of power. "I'm back!" Buffy sang.

She then went in search of the other guard to keep her promise.

*************************

"Aw man!" The guard groaned. He just lost another 10 dollars.

"You lose!" Buffy said sweetly. This will be good

All the guards looked at the door only to see the blond prisoner. They first looked at each other and finally rushed to attack Buffy. Buffy flung her arm out and all but the guard that had delivered the soup landed against the wall. Seeing that they were all unconscious, Buffy looked at the remaining guard and sang, "Here piggy, piggy, piggy!"

Buffy's eyes turned black as midnight as she flung her hand out and closed it as if she was grabbing something. All of a sudden the guard's heart got ripped out of his chest causing him to squeal like a pig. As the guard fell to the ground Buffy stepped over his body and out the door ready to go back to her angel.

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The energy backlash was delicious, wonderfully delicious as thousands and thousands of feelings rushed through her. Even though she had only had her ‘new’ powers for a relatively short time, she had felt as if a part of her was missing. Well that and she wasn’t with Angelus. It was amazing how things were between them even after so little time together.

Closing her eyes and shimmering to where she could feel her lover calling to her, Buffy focused all her newly reacquired powers on that one sensation. Flying through space, real and imaginary, Buffy briefly touched everything between the Wolfram & Hart building and the penthouse they had taken over. Exhilarating, it was all that and more, so very much more.

But the best part was when she opened her eyes.

Automatically they focused on Angelus who looked to be in the middle of some type of conversation – though she used that term lightly – with Anya, Spike, and Drusilla. Cordelia, whom Buffy really, really wanted to torture and kill, was tied up in more chains than were necessary. Good, she wasn’t done with the bitch though she supposed she’d have to find out what she had missed before finishing or continuing, really, it was all the same.

All conversation stopped as the group focused on the newcomer.

Before Buffy had a chance to discover what or who they were discussing, before anyone else had a chance of asking her where she was or where she had come form, Angelus had taken the several feet separating them in two long strides and scooped her into his arms.

"Sex? Now? How unfair is that? We’re here to plan her rescue, she’s already rescued herself and now she gets sex?" Anya ranted to no one in particular unreasonably jealous over the fact that Buffy not only got more power than any one person should wield, but a lover who had a great body.

Fastening his lips firmly on hers, Angelus ignored the others in the room and walked into the bedroom. His intent was quite simple though he refused to admit it to anyone but himself. He wanted Buffy, needed her and was – in some small portion of his being – scared for her when she had literally disappeared from his sight.

Moving with preternatural vampire speed, he divested Buffy of her clothing, his lips never leaving hers. Roaming hands moved quickly over her, arousing to the point of pain even as her own small warm hands clasped his hips. Working quickly to undo his pants, rip his shirt off those wonderfully broad shoulders, she played her fingers over his straining cock.

The growl that escaped his lips caused Buffy to buck her hips upward, aroused past the point of caring. Guiding him into her heated depths, Buffy wrapped her strong legs around him, urging him to move within her.

Stretching her arms high over her had, Angelus held still for long unbearable moments. Releasing her wrists, Buffy grasped the headboard and purred his name, moving under him again. Finding her mouth once more, Angelus set a punishing pace, moving swiftly in and out of her in his rush to reclaim her.

It was strange, she hadn’t been gone too long but he needed to reassert his dominance over her even if it was only for his Childers' sake. The fact that he was beginning to look upon Buffy as more of an equal than anything never entered his mind as her silken walls clamped around him, triggering his orgasm even as she shouted her own.

His face shifted and his teeth fastened on Buffy’s neck, piercing the scar that branded her as his. Drinking briefly from her, he relished the power that flowed through her, spicing her blood with something almost indefinable - something seductive, dark and addicting.

Collapsing atop of her, Angelus felt her warm hands roam lazily along his back, tracing his spine and cupping his ass. Her legs were still locked around him, refusing to let him go. Buffy sighed once, a dreamy sound but did nothing to move him off her.

"Where were you, baby?" Angelus finally asked, lifting his head slightly as he did so.

"Wolfram and Hart… Lilah and I are going to have a little talk very, very soon"

Eyes narrowing even as he withdrew – reluctantly – from her body, Angelus growled, "What did she do…?"

"Let’s join the others, I’ll tell you my story if you tell me yours - especially why Drusilla and Spike are here"

Standing, pulling her up as he did so, Angelus grudgingly admitted they needed this in order to form their plan. He’d have plenty of time to show his lover all the ways they could enjoy each other. Licking his lips at the remembered taste of her blood, Angelus wondered how quickly they could get this part of the night over with.

Walking into the main room, Buffy looked around at the gathered beings. Talk about your eclectic group. And she thought her life had gotten that much stranger when she’d inherited Willow’s power. Fifteen minutes later she had finished telling her story, telling of Lilah and the monks, of guards and their stupidity and her escape.

"So then," Spike said lighting a cigarette. "Wolfram & Hart our next stop? I can’t imagine they’ll be all that pleased with the fact that their prized possession escaped. Then again, this Lilah chick may already be dead"

Buffy shook her head. "Oh, no, she’s not dead, I’m pretty sure she’s resourceful enough to live through this little embarrassment. And she’s mine, understood?! She’s mine" Everyone nodded as she glared at the group. "Spike, what exactly are you doing here?"

"Came to see my erstwhile Sire, heard about the brouhaha and decided to join" Seeing Drusilla looking at him in the way only she could manage, he added, "I had this weird feeling, directed me here, don’t ask me how, but I just knew I was needed" He snorted at the assemblage before him. "Somehow I never guessed it’d be for this, though. Tell me, Slayer, how’d you get so powerful?"

"Willow," Buffy answered honestly enough though Spike didn’t need to know more than that. "She went all grief crazed on us, the black magick that inhabited her left when she was overcome with grief and found a new home in me"

Spike nodded, eyeing the way Angelus was way more possessive towards her than anything or anyone he, Spike, could remember seeing. It was a little disturbing. And, rational or not – and it was not rational, Spike was the first admit that – he was jealous. His sire had never looked at him that way, never acted that way around him and he was the favored for a number of years.

Still, he had his mate by his side – Spike was almost positive, almost, that Drusilla would take him back – and mayhem to chaos. Now that that stinking, soddin' demon had so kindly removed the chip from his head he was ready to reclaim his place in the world, and if it was by his Sire’s side, so much the better. "All right, so what's your plan mate?" Spike asked Angelus.

"Well first off…" Angelus began, but was interrupted by a vortex.

"Not again!" chorused the group including Cordelia, who had just woken up. They were all swallowed into a vortex where once again, they landed into the ballroom of Wolfram and Hart. When they looked up, they saw Lilah, Gavin, and Darla deep in conversation.

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TBC....