Chapter/episode 2: Bargaining, part 2.

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy the vampire slayer

Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer…

"You ok?" Oz asked. Angel nodded. They started running again. Suddenly Angel slowed down, and then stopped completely.

"Angel?" Wes asked, looking at him with concern.

"Buffy." Angel said. He suddenly had a huge urge to go to her grave. He couldn't explain it, but he knew he had to be there. He had to go now. "Keep Dawn safe, I'll catch up with you guys." He turned and started heading in the other direction.

"Angel!" Cordelia yelled. But he was already gone.

Angel ran all the way to the graveyard. He couldn't explain to himself why it was so important to be there. Buffy was dead. It wasn't like there was anything he could do about that. But he just knew he needed to be there.

But he did know as soon as he arrived at Buffy's grave. He let out a cry. The dirt was tossed over and there was a large hole. Looking closer, he saw something had destroyed the coffin. Like something had clawed its way out.

"Buffy." Angel whispered. His mind was spinning. Buffy was dead. As miserable as he was because of this, he had accepted it as true. But this…what was this?

He stepped forward to get a closer look, and something cracked under his foot. He looked down and picked up what he had stepped on. He recognized it immediately. It was a broken urn of Osiris.

Willow.

Willow and the others had brought Buffy back from the dead. Angel growled angrily and hurled the urn at a tree. What were they thinking? What had they done?

He had to find Buffy. It was dangerous out there right now, and she was probably very confused. He knew her scent well enough to track her through the chaos. He left the graveyard.

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"Where could he have been going?" Cordelia asked as the hurried through a back alley behind a building, trying to avoid the demons.

"I'm sure he'll be fine." Doyle said, looking around nervously. "I'm honestly more worried about us."

"Where did Spike go?" Wesley asked suddenly. Everyone looked around, but Spike had vanished.

"Great." Cordelia cried. "Now we've lost Spike."

"Motorcycle!" Oz yelled suddenly. Everyone whirled around, ready for a fight but were surprised to find Spike was riding.

"I found us faster transport." Spike said.

"We won't all fit on that one motorcycle." Wesley pointed out.

"Well duh." Spike said. "There are more motorcycles around the corner. Not enough for everyone to have their own, but enough that we can double up and be fine. I believe you know how to ride a motorcycle?" he added to Wesley.

"Um, yes." Wesley said, flustered. "I do. Where are they?"

Spike led them around the corner, where a bunch of the bikes had been left. Dawn got on Spike's and the led the way. "We've got to find Angel!" Wesley yelled from behind them.

"Right." Spike agreed. "This way, stick together!" They sped off down the road.

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Buffy wandered through the town in a daze. She didn't know where she was, or how she had ended up there. It was so different from where she'd been. There was fire and chaos here…what happened? She was terrified.

She walked down a street and stopped when she saw several of the demons. They were about to destroy something…it was a moment before Buffy could see who. It was…her. It looked just like her. The other her looked straight at her before she was pulled to pieces. Buffy screamed and ran in the other direction.

She didn't stop running until she ran into the leader of the demons. He grinned when he saw her. "The Slayer…or should I say, the robot." He stepped toward her.

Frightened, Buffy's fighting instincts kicked in. She punched the demon and flipped him over. She kicked him. He was clearly caught off guard. She continued to beat him up until she shoved him into a sharp edge of broken debris. The demon fell to the gourd, dead. Buffy stepped back, still frightened by it. She looked around desperately, until something caught her attention.

It was the tower that people controlled by Glory had built last year. The tower she had jumped off the top of the save the world. The tower where she'd died. She remembered it. Maybe if she returned there, she could go back to where she'd been before.

She started towards the tower.

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"Look!" Cordelia cried, pointing up the road from where they were. There was wreckage up ahead, and just visible were the remains of the Buffybot. They stopped.

"No hope of fixing it this time." Spike sighed. "It's trashed."

Dawn walked around and found the head of the Buffybot. It didn't seem to have stopped working yet. "Dawn." The Buffybot said. "There was another me. Where did the other me go?" then it died.

"Must have gone haywire, that didn't make a bit of sense." Spike said.

Dawn wasn't quite so sure, though. "The other me…"but that was crazy. Buffy was dead. Plain and simple. Then she remembered what Angel had said right before he ran off. "Buffy". Could it be…?

Dawn turned around and ran down the street, ignoring the others calling her name and telling her to stop. She ran in the direction the Buffybot had been looking when she talked to her. She raced down the alleyway. She turned a corner…and ran right into Angel.

"Dawn, what are you doing?" Angel asked. "You were supposed to stay with the others." Thinking about it, though, he wasn't very surprised that she had left them to join him.

"The Buffybot." Dawn said, gasping for breath from running. "It broke down, but right before it did it told me it saw another her. And you said Buffy's name right before you ran off. Angel, what's going on?"

Angel looked at her and could tell he'd never get away with a lie. "I think Willow, Xander, Anya, and Tara might have brought Buffy back from the dead." He said.

Dawn's eyes widened. "Is that possible?"

"It's possible, but it's in no way a good idea. The next time I see Willow I am going to give her a piece of my mind, but now we have to find Buffy. Come on, you should stay with me." He looked up and down the alley when he noticed something. "Look at that." He grabbed Dawn's hand and they hurried up to a pile of debris and a demon corpse.

"Looks like he was shoved into that spike right there and killed." Dawn said, examining the body.

"There's only one person I know who has that kind of strength." Angel whispered.

Dawn looked around, and saw something that made her heart skip a beat. "Angel…"

"What?" Angel looked up and followed her gaze. The tower that Glory's possessed people had built last year, where Buffy had died, could be seen perfectly from where they were. "That's where she'll go." Angel said. "That last place she remembers being. Come on!"

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Buffy had climbed to the top of the tower. She stood on the ledge that she had jumped off of the night she died and looked at the ground below her. She remembered jumping of, into the light below her…and then bliss… Maybe if she jumped again, she would go back.

"Buffy!"

Buffy turned and saw someone very familiar to her appear on the top of the tower behind her. She knew that she knew him. She couldn't help but feel like she trusted him.

"Buffy." He begged. "I know you're confused and upset. I know. But please don't jump. Please, come here, over to me." He tried to read her blank stare. "Buffy? Can you hear me?"

"Is this Hell?" Buffy whispered.

Angel almost broke down when he heard those words, but he pulled himself together. "No. I know it seems like it right now, but this is not Hell. I love you, Buffy. I love you."

Buffy saw a girl appear behind him. She knew her too…she felt she had been in this same position before…

And then the memories came pouring back. Buffy had stood in this exact spot, and he had stood in that one, and the girl had been behind him, as Buffy had said goodbye…

"Angel?" Buffy whispered. Angel's eyes lit up.

"Yes." He said softly. "It's me."

Tears filled Buffy's eyes. "Angel…I…I…" she ran into his arms.

"It's ok." Angel tried to sooth her. "It's ok. I'm here, you're safe."

"Angel." Dawn said uncertainly, looking around. "I hate to interrupt a moment like this, but this tower was built by crazy people and I'm not sure it's entirely stable."

As if on cue, the entire tower swayed. "We have to get off of this thing." Angel said. He kept one arm around Buffy and grabbed Dawn with his other hand. They rushed toward the stairs. Just before they got there, the staircase fell. Dawn screamed as she almost fell, Angel's grip on her arm the only thing keeping her on the platform.

"Now what?" she asked, looking frightened.

"Um…" Angel looked around hurriedly. The tower swayed again, and he had a crazy idea. "Hold on to me." He said. Dawn nodded hugged him, also holding onto Buffy's hand. Angel kept his arm around Buffy. "I promise you I know what I'm doing." He told Dawn. "Don't let go."

"Why, what are you going to…ahh!" Dawn screamed as Angel ran across the platform just as the tower was falling over and jumped, holding tightly onto her and Buffy. He took most of the fall, crashing to the ground with the girls landing on his back. It was uncomfortable, but all three of them were ok.

"Angel." Buffy whispered. "Dawn."

"Buffy." Dawn hugged her sister. "I missed you so much."

Buffy looked at Angel, dazed. "Angel, what…what happened?"

Angel looked at her sadly and wrapped his arms around her. "Awful things." He whispered truthfully. "Awful, horrible things."

Sorry that one was so much shorter. I know that in the original the Scoobies actually find her on the streets, but I'm changing it so they find out from Angel in the next chapter. Please review!