Title: She came back wrong
Author: Semby
Summary: 5 years after Buffy died in the battle with Glory, she may be back… in a way no one expected.
Pairings: Some evil!Buffy/Angelus, eventually real B/A. There are other character pairings, but they're not the focus.
Rating: PG-13, for language, some sexual references, and violence.
A/N: This is an alternate reality which followed canon up until the end of Buffy S5 and Angel S2; later seasons didn't happen, but you may see me taking inspiration from them anyway. No season 3 of Angel means no Connor, and Darla isn't dead. Other differences in this universe will be explained in future parts. (Also, I don't know much about the geography of New York, so I'll be fudging some of that.)
Thanks to: My beta-readers, Ann and Leni. Both a great help, and all remaining errors are mine.
Feedback: Yes, please.
Distribution: Just let me know.
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon is the ruler of all things Buffy, and I'm not him.
Part 1
Angel turned over uncomfortably in the unfamiliar hotel bed. Only three short days ago, a tribe of Glotgens, peaceful demons, came to Angel Investigations asking for help in finding an ancient relic of their society which had been stolen. For them it was used innocently enough, nowadays primarily as a decoration and a reminder of their history, but in the wrong hands, it had the power to do unspeakable damage.
It had taken only a few hours of tracking to figure out who had stolen the relic, and a day more to realize that he had already left the state. It took only a few punches from Angel, much to Spike's disappointment, to convince a snitch who knew about the theft to confess that the culprit was intending to sell it for a hefty sum to a sorcerer who currently resided in New York. With little further prodding, he added that he didn't know how to find the sorcerer, nor did the thief, but that the relic would pass through the hands of a demon bartender in one particular corner of the city before being taken to its final buyer.
At the Glotgens' insistence of the dangers the relic could cause, and the promise of a payment that absolutely delighted Cordelia and made Anya wish she were actively involved in the business, arrangements were made for a trip to New York.
Angel, Faith, Gunn, Wesley and Fred had all gone, the rest staying back to take care of any clients in LA. Even having more than one or two people was only necessary in case something went wrong; they expected it to be an easy job. They'd arrived late in the night, and there wasn't time to get anything really done before daybreak. So Angel was currently attempting to sleep the daylight hours away, while the others retrieved any information they could about demon bars in the area they were alerted to. Angel had woken several hours before sunset and still found himself unable to sleep, but there was nothing he could do to occupy himself until he was due to meet the others for dinner to discuss what they had found. He figured his restlessness was due to his discomfort at being in New York again. He hadn't been back since his rat-eating days, and those were the only memories the city held for him.
After two more hours of not finding sleep, he accepted it was time to give up and get up. He took a long hot shower, dressed, and headed downstairs to meet the others in the lobby.
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"So, there are five demon bars in that area," Wesley informed Angel as they were wrapping up their meal.
"Only one of 'em opens before dark, so we questioned and threatened the guys working there, but I think we concluded that there was no one there involved in the relic transaction, so that just leaves the other four for tonight," Fred continued.
"You know for sure that there was no one there involved? How thorough were you?" Angel asked. He trusted his team, but he just felt more reassured when he was able to do the questioning himself. And when questioning was involved, he knew most demons were not to be trusted to answer honestly.
"Trust us, no one there was smart enough or brave enough to keep anything hidden from us," Faith answered with a grin. "It was an easy hit."
"All right, then, should we check out the other four? I guess us three," Angel said, motioning to himself, Gunn and Faith, "could take one each and you two take the last one."
"Okey dokey," Fred agreed. "You can take 'Thor's Lair', here's the address." She handed him a piece of paper, and assigned the remaining bars to the others. After wrapping up the check, they headed out and split up.
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Not much later, Angel was finishing up with a clearly clueless bartender at Thor's Lair, and was ready to head back and see if the others had been more successful. He turned to exit and stopped when he saw an all-too-familiar face sitting at one of the booths. The face smiled gleefully when his eyes met hers, and she motioned for him to join her, indicating the two drinks at her table. He sighed, but didn't see the harm in having one drink with her, one short conversation.
He sat at the booth. "Drusilla," he greeted with a nod.
She giggled playfully, "My Angel, it's been too long since we've laid eyes on one another."
"Yeah, I guess it has been awhile since the last time you and Darla both happened to be in LA trying to cause trouble and I threatened to kill you if you ever came back," Angel replied dryly. "Did you come here specifically to find me? What are you doing here?"
"I heard a whisper you were near – psst, psst, psst," she mimicked the noise, hands dancing in the air. She smiled, "It made me realize I had to come and say hello. I've missed you. Have you missed me as well? Daddy?"
"I don't really know how to answer that. "
"Well, don't be a nasty boy, my Angel, I ordered this drink especially for your company. It's some lovely scotch. You were always a man who enjoyed a scotch. Keep me company? Please? Just for a li'l while. I get so lonely sometimes," her face creased up in a fretful frown.
"Fine," Angel conceded abruptly, so as to not agitate her. Even though they had been enemies time and again and still were, he always felt guilty knowing that her fragile mental state and thirst for pain and death was his fault. He did what little he could to appease her, and one drink wouldn't hurt.
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Ordinarily he wouldn't have been so affected by one drink. He'd had a high tolerance for alcohol when he was a human, and had to drink far more than any human could consume in a night just to get a buzz as a vampire.
Something was in that drink. Something not natural. Just when he was beginning to realize he'd been very, very stupid for trusting Dru was about the same time his head started getting cloudy. He was vaguely aware of spending far longer at the bar than he had planned. He was vaguely aware that Drusilla led him out of the bar after awhile. He was vaguely aware that they were met in the street by Darla, who gave him a grin, a kiss, and a greeting something along the lines of "Well, hello, my boy. We meet again. How are you feeling?" He was vaguely aware that he still had the strength and ability to fight, but didn't feel the need to; his old girls weren't giving him any trouble or threatening his life. He was vaguely aware that he was led into a building, into an apartment, into a bedroom. He felt Darla lower him onto a bed.
She surprised him by merely giving him one more short kiss and then heading for the door. "Have a lovely night," she whispered in a wicked tone before slipping out and closing the door behind her.
He looked up at the ceiling, confused. He wasn't exactly in his right mind, but he knew there was something odd about Darla and Drusilla drugging him only to leave him in a bed for the night, not even bound. He dazedly tried to look more around the room, when he finally noticed he wasn't alone in the bed. His mouth fairly watered at the young, naked, beautiful female body lying next to him. He slowly, languidly brought his gaze to above her neck. He found the sleeping face of a girl he had never expected to see again.