1997
"Angel, I was wondering when I'd be seeing you again." Willow sat next to him at the bar, showed the bartender a fake ID, and ordered a dirty martini.
"You never did like beer." He turned in his stool to face her. "I heard you died."
Willow shook her head when the bartender told her the cost. "He's paying."
After Angel paid the bartender, and she left, he repeated himself. "I heard you died."
"Got born. And you'd think I could die, but I'm still tied to her. Same as it's been forever it seems." Willow sipped her drink. "Got a light?"
He picked up a pack of matches from the ashtray and lit her cigarette. "What do you want from me?"
"I had tried letting you come to me, but you've been in town for what? Seven months? Makes a girl feel less than alluring." She sucked in air in comic scolding. "It's unseemly to make the girl come to you."
"What. Do. You. Want?"
"While it's not as strong as it could have been, you still hold some sway over Drusilla. You need to convince her to let me go."
"Why should I? Last time I saw you, you were sticking hot pokers through me and melting half my face off." He gestured to the side of his face still carrying the scars.
She pulled down the collar of her turtleneck. "Are you seriously arguing that I hurt you worse than you hurt me?"
"You haven't been under my thumb for a century. Whereas you say jump and if I don't ask how high, you torture me for a week." He sipped his beer.
"Don't be dramatic, Angelus. I've asked three things of you since you got your soul and only tortured you the one time you said no. And at least I didn't brand you. I still wear the burned version of your tattoo on my stomach. How does Buffy like the scarred look?" She finished her drink and gave him a giddy smile. "Don't worry, I'm not trying to steal her affections from you. I'll give you two years to convince her before I carve your metaphorical heart out. Drive me home?"
Angel tossed a couple bills on the bar for a tip and walked Willow out. "No smoking in the car."
1942
"Considering what you owe me, I don't think I asked a lot of you," Willow said as she heated the tip of the fire poker with a blowtorch. "Why say no? I mean I only asked you to help me save Dru from a mob. And I even gave you decades of advanced notice. And you kept saying no for ten years. So we're not leaving here until you change your mind."
He groaned as the poker dug through his chest. Her placement between the ribs had been perfected in the decades between her torturing him. "I will never say yes. She's a killer. I won't kill her myself, but I won't save her either."
"Do you know how hard it is to skewer someone with hot pokers? The heat doesn't make it easier, but rather the opposite. And I'm tired." She picked up a pistol and shot a hole in the ceiling letting in sunlight. "Ouch, that's hitting your face. Don't worry it won't kill you. It's too filtered for that. But it'll make you wish for death."
"Fuck you."
She kissed his cheek just as it blistered. "I'll be over here when you change your mind." Willow picked up a book and lounged on a blanket.
1880
"Couldn't you for once have refused your precious Drusilla?" Angelus asked as he heated the metal over white hot flames. "Why did you have to point the pathetic William out to her? He's such a doldrum, going on about how Dru's his destiny for the last five years."
"Remember this, Angelus. Remember this when I return you in kind." Willow hissed as he branded her deeply in the stomach with the same design as the tattoo on his back.
"You might be able to survive more than I, but you scar and I do not."
"Challenge accepted."
1875
"Him?" Angelus' disgust was plain. "Rose, why would you point out such a craven creature to our Dru?"
"She wanted a new playmate, and I wanted someone who would be sure to protect her if I weren't around. I know he will." Willow smiled. "I'm going to take a walk. Alone."
"So that's why you did it. She's smothering you. As long as he turns well, I'll keep it between us. Enjoy your walk."
Willow smiled saccharin at him. "You'll keep it between us or I'll make sure you're the oldest musico ever."
"I am done bowing down to you and your morals. If you think you can be more cruel than I can, you will have to prove it. I'll not play nice anymore."
"Ha! Like you've ever played nice." Willow held her stomach. "But if you want to play, I am more than up for it."
1997
Angel pulled up in front of Willow's house. "So the games are on again?"
"The hiatus is over." Willow blew smoke in his face. "And this time I won't hold back. I won't target you, but rather those you care about."
"Does that include Xander and Jesse?"
"Do you actually care about them?" She saw a familiar expression on his face. "I thought not. Toodles."
1999
Buffy tapped her hips with her fingers. "Angel warned me about you, and I always wondered why. You did nothing to hurt me. You spent far more time trying to help me, so I didn't understand his concern. I didn't believe him when he said your lovers were all vampires."
"So is my rapist, you might know him. Tall, broody, scarred face, in puppy love with someone born to kill him. He's also the one that did this." Willow let her robe fall away showing Buffy every hideous scar. "They used to be worse. He chopped me into tiny bits and pieces. And now he won't do me the simple favor of freeing me from my own personal hell. I know that physical pain isn't the same for vampires, even vampires with souls, but emotional pain... I know what would hurt him the most."
Buffy almost gagged at the sight of all Willow's scars. Jesse and Xander hadn't conveyed the full extent of what Angel without a soul had done to her. "He didn't have a soul then."
Willow turned her back to Buffy. "He did this three days ago."
"No." Buffy had to close her eyes from the sight of Willow's skinless back.
"Yes. And all I need to get what I want is just a teeny little thing you'll never miss." Willow turned while talking.
"Will it hurt?"
"I don't know. Does it matter?"
Buffy nodded. "If it kills me, make sure Sunnydale's safe."
"Deal. Shake on it?" Willow offered Buffy her hand.
"What happened to your fingernails?"
"Angel always did like the classics. Shake?"
They shook hands and Buffy felt a stab in her gut that pulled through her body and out her palm. She collapsed and Willow gazed down at her prone body.
"Thank you."