Chapter 1

Buffy felt the wooden tip of the Slayer's stake penetrate her back and then her heart. It was over. She had gone after Angelus' killer and the damn Slayer had bested her too. Now she felt her demonic spirit lift from her crumbling body. After 300 years of living... Well, un-living, it was over.

Or at least, she thought it was. Buffy opened her eyes and looked around. She was laying in wet grass in a cemetery. "What the..." Her body was suddenly wracked with a cough and Buffy felt like her insides were on fire as they tried to force their way up her esophagus. Then she felt it. The sickening beat of a heart inside her chest. "What the hell is going on here?"

Buffy struggled to her feet and looked around. She was definitely in a graveyard and she was definitely human. But how. She replayed the last moments of her vampiric life. The Slayer had tricked her with magicks. She hadn't been where Buffy had thought and then the stake and now this. A tingle went down her spine and Buffy whirled to find three humans standing behind her.

"Buffy! What are you doing?" The red headed girl asked.

"Excuse me?" Buffy felt a wave of dizziness and she lurched forward. The tall male caught her and steadied her.

"You should be in bed." He said to her.

"Yeah. Half the school is out with this flu. It's serious. We're all concerned with how awful you look." The dark haired girl said.

"What's going on?" Buffy asked, pushing away from the boy. "Who are you people?"

"What?" The boy asked. "Buff, it's us..." Buffy stared at them, completely confused. "Me Xander, you Buffy."

"I know who I am." She snapped at him. "It's you who I don't know."

"Wow, this flu must be worse than we thought." The red headed girl said. "She's losing it."

"Awe, so soon?" A familiar voice said behind her. "And I didn't even get to have fun with her yet."

Buffy wheeled around, a smile growing on her face. "Angelus!" She went to throw herself into his arms, but he must have thought it was an attack because she felt his fist connect with her cheekbone and her human body went down with another wave of dizziness.

"What's the matter, lover? Not feeling well?" Angelus started to lower himself down to her, but then Xander, Willow, and Cordelia were on him.

Buffy struggled to gain some sort of composure, but the spinning her head seemed to be doing made anything of the sort impossible. She focused on the ground below her, trying to make the world stop spinning. Grasping the headstone in front of her, she struggled to pull herself to her feet. She lost track of the others as she felt the world slip away again and she blacked out.

"Buffy!" Xander rushed over to her as Angelus walked away from them. "Buffy?"

"We have to get her to the hospital." Willow said.

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When Buffy awoke, she was laying in a hospital bed attached to beeping machines and bags of fluid. She still felt sick, but she had no clue why. Who had those humans been? Why had Angelus attacked her as he had? Never in the 200 plus years they had been together had he ever raised his hand against her unless she had asked him to. Now she found herself human and sick and hospitalized.

"Oh, you're awake." A nurse said, walking in. "Your friends are worried about you."

"Friends? I have no friends."

"So who were the people that brought you in here? Kind strangers just passing by?"

"Do not mock me!" The nurse raised her eyebrow, but continued to check the machines and bags of fluid. "Tell me, what year and place is this?"

The nurse just shook her head and said, "This is 1998 and you're in Sunnydale Medical."

"Sunnydale? Where is that?"

"California." Buffy tried to sit up, but the nurse pressed her back down. "You just need to stay here and rest. That hit you took to your head must have been worse than we thought. I'll get the doctor."

"No!" Buffy pushed the nurse away and found that she could do it with ease. There was a moment of confusion, but Buffy shoved it aside and got up out of the bed.

"Stop!" The nurse yelled.

Buffy punched her, knocking her out cold, and then headed for the door. A stinging sensation in her arm stopped her and she ripped the IVs from her arm. The machines started to beep wildly and Buffy ripped the plug from the wall. She grabbed the jacket lying on the chair near the door and slipped it on. Luckily they hadn't put her in one of those ghastly robes and she was still in sweat pants and a small T-Shirt.

As quietly as she could manage, she slipped from the room and down the hallway. Searching, Buffy tried to find an exit sign, but instead found herself rounding a corner into a waiting room where the humans were waiting. She back peddled, almost losing her balance, and hid around the corner.

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"She had no clue who we were, Giles!" Willow said.

"And she practically threw herself at Angelus." Cordelia said.

"I'm sure it's just the flu." Giles said. "It's been pretty bad at the school and the news says it could get worse before..."

"Giles, it's gotta be more than a flu. Maybe Angelus has done something to her." Xander said.

"Like what?"

"I don't know. Put a spell on her!"

"Yeah!" Willow agreed.

"I've never heard of Angelus putting a spell on someone to drive them crazy. It doesn't fit his repertoire." Giles said. "Then again, Buffy is a Slayer, therefore she's a... a beautiful challenge to him. He loves going after Slayers, but now that his souled counterpart has fallen for Buffy... I can't imagine the tortures he might think up."

"Yeah, he's been pretty brutal so far." Cordelia said. They all paused, remembering the late Jenny Calendar.

"Yes, well... Buffy's in danger while she's incapacitated here. We cannot leave her alone."

"I agree." Xander said. "Maybe we should work in shifts."

"Yes, that's a good idea, Xander. I suppose you'll want the first shift."

"Of course."

"What about Buffy's mom?" Willow asked.

"What about her?" Cordelia asked.

"Well, she'll want to know how Buffy got that bruise on her cheek and why she's in the hospital. Has anyone called her?"

"I just got off the phone with her." Giles said. "She's in LA at the moment, but she's going to try and make it home within the next day. I assured her that Buffy was fine and that we would watch over her until she returned to Sunnydale."

"Oh."

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Buffy was dumbfounded for a moment. A Slayer? She was a Slayer? How had this happened? That little Slayer tramp Amerie had done this somehow. She had used her witchcraft and her Slayer's blood to send Buffy to this terrible world where she herself was the Slayer and Angelus was trying to kill her instead of seduce her. And this Slayer that she had become was not a traditional Slayer. She had friends. She had a mother. That was just... wrong. This whole place was wrong.

Turning away, Buffy walked the opposite way and slipped into another hallway. She searched harder for an exit, fighting off another wave of dizziness. A red exit sign glowed above a doorway to her right and she shoved it open. All around her, alarms went off. It was a fire exit. As best she could, Buffy ran across the parking lot that stood in front of her. She ducked behind a van towards the end of a row of cars just to catch her breath and fight off more nausea. Damn her humanity. Damn that Amerie.

Catching her wits, Buffy got to her feet and ran off into the night.

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Angelus watched the hospital closely. Buffy was supposed to be in there, but people were streaming out due to a fire alarm that had been triggered. Someone towards the rear exit was talking about one of the nurses being attacked and a patient may have escaped. He was starting to lose interest in them when a motion in the corner of his eye caught his attention. It was a little blonde figure running awkwardly away from the hospital.

Angelus would recognize that lithe body anywhere. It was Buffy. He smiled. The hunt was once again on and her little friends wouldn't get in his way this time. Turning away from the hospital, he silently ran after Buffy. She was moving at a much slower pace than he knew she was capable of and her movements were jerky. Every now and then, she seemed to almost topple over, but she was a fighter and she fought to stay on her feet.

Something was off about her. He couldn't place what, but even in the graveyard he had felt it. If it hadn't of been for those damn humans, he could have investigated further. Now... Now she had no clue he was behind her. But where the hell was she going. She acted like she had no clue where she was.

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Oh this damn place! Buffy thought. She was lost. Sunnydale! There was no Sunnydale in her world. She missed her world. She had been feared the world over and a revered leader of the underworld for over 250 years. She had been made by Darla in 1705. Darla had been intrigued by Buffy's beauty and her manipulative nature. One night, Buffy had been walking boldly by herself through her estate's garden when Darla had offered her eternal life.

Without hesitation, Buffy had bared her neck and allowed herself to be turned. Over the years, Buffy and Darla had become close, but eventually they had wanted more than just the company of each other. In 1753, they had gone to Ireland and Darla had discovered a beautiful human being. His name had been Liam and he had been such a scoundrel. Unfortunately for Darla, Liam had taken to Buffy instead. Pissed off, Darla had abandoned Buffy in Ireland with Liam. Deciding that Liam would make a perfect match for her, Buffy had changed him in the heat of passion.

For over 200 years, Buffy and Angelus, as he had renamed himself after his sister had mistaken him for her brother's angelic spirit, had torn a bloody path wherever they went. Even the Master, the oldest living vampire and the most powerful, had shown them the proper respect. Darla had seemingly disappeared after the Liam incident. It hadn't slowed Buffy and Angelus down in the least bit. They were passionate about their kills and their love for each other. They loved hunting Slayers. It was a hobby for them. Over their 250 plus years together, they had killed countless Slayers.

But that all changed when they had gone after Amerie. The Slayer had been special. She had been born to a powerful witch and tapped as a Potential. Her Watcher had been highly skilled in fighting, but unfortunately for her, not the magicks. No amount of magic could have saved the Watcher from Buffy and Angelus. They had brutally raped and murdered the woman and left her for the Slayer to find. It had driven Amerie over the edge and the Slayer had began to train herself in fighting and learning to harness her powers as a witch.

Angelus had gone after Amerie's mother and left her broken corpse in Amerie's bed. Instead of breaking the Slayer's spirit, it had spurred Amerie on. The two vampires worked tirelessly at finding new ways to torture Amerie. They had even changed Amerie's lover into a vampire, but that had only pissed her off further. One night, Angelus and Buffy had been hunting a young man that Buffy had become slightly obsessed with on the side when Amerie had taken them by surprise. She had fought well and used her magicks against them. Buffy had managed to escape Amerie, but Angelus hadn't been so lucky. Amerie had made sure Buffy had seen her beloved Angelus' demise. She had left the vampire screaming and crying over her dead lover's ashes.

Buffy had been foolish to think that she could have taken that Slayer on by herself. She should have just gone to find Darla and begged her help. Instead, she was now stuck in a sickened Slayer's body, stumbling through a town that didn't even exist in the world she had known and loved. And a tingling in her spine told her someone was following her. Great, I look like a puny human, which I am, AND I'm sick. It didn't even occur to her that it could be Angelus. And then the world started to spin around her again. She fought as hard as she could, but her body couldn't handle it any more. She toppled over, fully expecting to hit the ground, but something stopped her. She didn't have time to see who it was as she lost consciousness.

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When she finally regained consciousness, the first thing that she realized was that she wasn't lying in wet, cold grass. She was lying in a big, warm bed and a fire was burning in a fireplace across the room. For some reason, she expected to be tied up, but to her surprise, she wasn't. A part of her was a little disappointed.

"What are you going to do with her, then?" An English voice asked. She didn't recognize the voice, so she knew it wasn't that Giles guy.

"I was thinking of keeping her here. Letting her get well again... And then I'll kill her." Buffy knew that voice.

"And you don't think you should tie her up? When she wakes up, she'll try to run."

"Then I'll be here to catch her." There was a sound of metal banging on concrete and then a door slammed.

Buffy finally found the strength to slowly sit up and look around the room. There he stood, looking as beautiful as the last night she had seen him. He stared at her, waiting for her to say something. It seemed like he expected her to try and run because his stance wasn't as casual as she remembered it. He looked slightly ready to pounce. "I'm not going to run." She said.

"Really?" He arched an eyebrow at her.

"I really don't know why you think I would."

Angelus looked surprised and slightly amused at that. "I have every reason to think that you would run."

Buffy decided to ignore him. She looked down at her body. It was the same as before. Her hair was shorter than she liked. It didn't matter, as soon as she figured out how to get back to her world and destroy Amerie, she would work on getting her Angelus back. She eyed the Angelus standing across the room. Then again, maybe the answer wasn't so hard to that last task. "Uck! This body is disgusting." She looked at Angelus. "Do you have a shower and some clothes I could change into? Maybe if I could get clean, I could think straight and this whole situation wouldn't be so bad."

Angelus snorted. "Do you really think I'm letting you out of my sight?"

She rolled her eyes. "Then come join me. You've never held yourself back before."

He looked stunned. "What?"

"Oh, that's right. You're supposed to be trying to torture and kill me, not play our usual games... Well, not that those aren't our usual games. I guess here, you're really trying to torture and kill me. Damn, I hate this place."

"I didn't hit you that hard. Maybe it's the flu that's got your head so out of it."

"Please, Angelus, I am above these petty human feelings and weaknesses."

"Or maybe it's not the flu."

"Oh, is the chimp catching on now?"

His face contorted to rage for a moment, but then he calmed himself and stared at her. "Don't push your luck, Slayer."

"Oh! How dare you curse that name upon me! Slayer!" She spat the word out. "Slayer! I hate the very thought of it!" Buffy pushed herself to her feet and glared at Angelus. "If you ever use that word against me again, I won't hesitate to..." She stopped. What was she saying? Her Angelus stood right in front of her. Whole. Undead. "Oh, Angelus..." She rushed over to him and threw her arms around his neck. "My Angelus!" Buffy relished the feel of him again. After two weeks without him and a night's ordeal, she felt momentarily at peace. Until he pushed her off of him.

"What is wrong with you? We're enemies! I hate you. You hate me."

"Oh don't be silly."

"I've been trying to drive you crazy and kill you for the past five months! I expected some insanity from you, but this! I have no clue what THIS even is!"

Now Buffy was angry. He had insulted her AND pushed her away. A string of curses and threats flew from her mouth in Italian, her favorite language. She even used his real name, a name she only used when she was incredibly mad at him, instead of Angelus. It ended with her shoving him into the wall and storming across the room to stare into the fireplace.