A/N: You're going to hate what happens in this chapter. But please, just trust me.

Oh, and I just posted a chapter last night, so make sure you don't miss that one.



Power Play – Part 1

"Well, I s'pose this is it, mates," Spike said, sticking out his hand so I could shake it. Instead, I crossed my hands over my chest and frowned at him. This wasn't right, at all! "Don't look so sad, Charlie-boy. You can come visit if you'd like, right, pet?"

At his side, Buffy looked up at him with a smile. "Yeah," she said, turning back to face me. "You're all welcome in Rome whenever you'd like."

Shaking my head, I pulled Spike away from the others, asking, "What're you doin', man? This chick just shows up and off you go? What about Angel?" We both looked through the glass into big man's office, where he was determinedly looking out the window, like he couldn't watch as Buffy and Spike left together.

"What about him?" Spike asked, but I could tell he was hiding how he felt about the other vampire behind that attitude of his. I'd only known about him and Angel for the past couple of weeks, and even though I was having trouble adjusting to how they acted around each other now, I could tell that Angel was much happier than he had been in a long time. Spike filled that hole in Angel's life that had been empty since Cordelia disappeared. But now, the blond vamp was leaving! It just seemed cruel.

"Aren't you supposed to get the visions for him?" I asked, making it about the work and not about their relationship. Though I could see how Angel relaxed in Spike's presence, that didn't mean I understood them at all. Findin' out your boss is into dudes as well as chicks? Just takes a little while to get used to, I guess.

"If the Powers gimme a ring, I'll be sure to pass on the message," Spike assured me, turning to go back to where Buffy was talking with Fred and Lorne.

No, this couldn't happen. No one else who was still alive remembered how bad things could get when Angel got hurt. No one else remembered how cold and ruthless he got after Darla was turned by Drucilla. And though I'm pretty sure he loved her, he hadn't been in love with Darla, know what I mean? But for some insane reason, he was in love with Spike, who was trying to leave town, leave the frickin' country! Instead of letting him go, I caught Spike's arm and turned him back, hissing, "How could you do this to him? How could you leave him like this? I thought you were one of the good guys, Spike. I thought you cared about him."

"Peaches and I were just a fling, Chuck, nothing more," he lied, not hiding the deception very well. "And now that Buffy knows I'm alive, I've got to go back to where I belong."

"You belong here," I insisted.

"You know what?" he snarled, pulling his arm away from me harshly. "Now I'd rather you didn't come for a visit. You can just stay here being all self-righteous like the ponce." He pointed to Angel's back and returned to Buffy's side, putting his arm around her shoulder as if to prove something to me, or himself.

I watched from the spot where Spike had left me standing as he hugged Fred and shook Lorne's hand, saying his goodbyes before following Buffy to the elevator and out of the building. Fred turned to me with a disappointed look in her eyes and Lorne was frowning, making that ugly green mug of his even worse.

Sighing, I waved them off as I approached Angel's door, going in without bothering to knock. Standing behind Angel quietly, I waited for a few seconds for him to say something. Something that would explain what the hell was going on. I knew they'd been fighting about Buffy before they went to Rome, but when they came back, everything seemed fine again. The day after, when Angel and I went to go check on the Capo de Famiglia's resurrection, he seemed so content underneath the rush of catching up with all the work. He'd smiled more than a few times during the course of the day, so I'd figured he and Spike had made up. But Buffy had showed up, and now Spike was gone, leaving all of us and going halfway across the world with Angel's girl. This would not end well.

When Angel didn't say anything, I stepped up beside him and asked, "Are you okay?"

He nodded, sniffing once, his jaw clenched the worst I'd ever seen it.

"Are you crying, man?" I asked, wondering if maybe he needed a comforting hand on the shoulder or something. But that would just turn awkward, wouldn't it? Maybe I should have sent Fred in here instead, but she didn't seem to know about Angel and Spike being together, even though Illyria knew full well. And Lorne would just infuriate Angel further. If there was anything we wanted to avoid at this point, it was angry Angel. If he got it into his head again that nothing and no one mattered, having a place like Wolfram and Hart at your disposal could go a long way to causing the destruction Angelus loved so much.

"No," Angel insisted, wiping his eyes. "I'm not a crier. I don't cry. I brood."

"Sure," I nodded, staring out the window with him. "But if you wanted to cry, having your current leave with your ex is as good a reason as any."

"They can do whatever they want," he said, his voice turning cold, but far from lacking in emotion. Crap. This was not good. But I couldn't think of how to make it any better. Maybe we just had to brace for the shit storm ahead and hope it didn't mean the end of the world.

"Sure," I replied, leaving him be for the moment and crossing the lobby to my office. I couldn't say I had been completely cool with Angel's relationship with Spike, what with the whole Angelus factor and the ick factor, but this was beyond the pale. I'd never believed Spike would be the one to leave first. He always seemed so devoted, if insulting and foul-mouthed. But I supposed Fred and I had been pretty good before that incident with her professor, when I became a murderer for her. Buffy's arrival had been the something that broke Angel and Spike apart, just like that incident between me and Fred. I didn't know what had happened the night before between the three of them, but it must have been ugly.

I found the glass and the bottle in my desk, pouring out a good portion of the scotch before putting the bottle back. If things were going to go to fuck with Angel, maybe I could just keep drinking until I didn't care anymore. I'd been doing this too much lately – drinking the guilt away. Trying to ignore how sick to my stomach working at this place made me feel. Giving babies away to demon cults so they could be sacrificed a few years later? I hated it. I hated Angel for letting it happen. I hated Spike for breaking Angel's heart, for joining the team and then just abandoning all of us. I hated Fred for clinging to that demon in her brain like she was the answer to everything. I hated Illyria for killing Wesley, and I hated Wesley for dying and leaving me to try fixing this god damned mess on my own.

And I hated myself for so many things, but mostly for putting myself before everyone else and allowing Illyria in, allowing Wes' death.

I finished off my drink, cringing at the fiery taste of the alcohol. I knew I really shouldn't go down this path, given what had happened to my mom, but I just needed something to get through the day. Very few of the cases that came across my desk these days were ones I could actually stand completing – mostly those that had nothing to do with demons or murderers or evil corporations. Which left just about nothing.


After saying goodbye to Spike and noticing that Charles had taken the responsibility for talking to Angel, I found my way back to the lab. Angel had always been so in love with Buffy, and to know that Spike was back with her? I'm sure he was heartbroken. Working with us, getting things straightened out between them, it had seemed that Spike had grown into Angel's good friend, always teasing him with a smile and making him laugh. I was going to miss the Angel that laughed. I was going to miss Spike and his bright hair, his loud voice, his swishy coat. Over the year, Spike had become my friend too, and I was sad to see him go.

It seemed like odd timing, since Lindsey had said we were on the way to a major showdown with the Senior Partners – The Apocalypse. I'd thought Spike would want to help. But since Illyria had been in my head, I missed out on a lot of what had been happening around here for the past two months. When I let Illyria have total control, everything we experienced felt fuzzy to me, muffled almost, until I decided to pay attention again. For quite a while, I hadn't been paying very close attention. Maybe the end of the world wasn't as close as Lindsey thought it was? If Gunn knew the situation better than I, I was glad to let him be the first to talk to Angel. I'd catch up with the vamp later, after he'd had a few more hours to process.

Walking into the lab, I inhaled deeply, smiling as I recognized that peculiar mixture of chemicals and machinery that was more reminiscent of home than the apartment I had downtown. There was the mass spec, and over there was the HPLC, and huddled over that pile of parts in the corner was my one and only employee. I'd just hired a new lab manager, Mary, someone with a good resume and no evil leanings, and she was still rearranging things since pieces of the bomb Illyria had built were disassembled all over the place. I had given Mary the task of trying to figure out how to classify and reorganize all the components, safely.

"I can't believe you almost blew us up," I told Illyria, speaking quietly as I closed the door to my office.

"I did what I thought necessary," Illyria replied, using my voice and mouth to her own purposes as I let her respond. I wondered if our conversations would ever become entirely internal. Because right now, talking to myself in two different voices, I looked pretty crazy to anyone who didn't know what was going on. "You shouldn't have interfered with my efforts."

"If I hadn't, we'd be a pretty pink mist on the rubble that used to be Wolfram and Hart."

"Such an outcome would be preferable to this existence."

"Aw, Lyrie," I prodded her, "sick of me already?"

"You mean nothing to me."

I chuckled. "Well, that may be so, but don't forget – I'm the one that convinced Angel to stop trying to get rid of you. Even though you tried to blow him up." I wasn't even quite sure why I'd told Angel to leave Illyria with me. I had a suspicion it was because I didn't want to be in this big, overactive brain all by myself. If Illyria was there too, it was easier not to think about everything else. It was easier not to wallow in myself, in my misery over Wes' death. He was gone, and it was all my fault. So if letting a demon inhabit my brain made it easier not to go crazy and start proving mathematical theorems on the walls just to make sense of everything, it seemed like a good way to cope.

"If you had the proper respect for me, you would stay buried and let me have leave of this body."

"Sure," I muttered, sitting down at my computer and opening my mail. Reading quickly, I told Illyria, "It looks like there've been reports of a demon killing people near an old abandoned amusement park."

"Through your memories, I have learned to read your human language," she scoffed. "I know what it says."

"Like it or not," I decided, "we're looking into this."

"Why? Let the demon have his fun."

"Because, Lyrie," I explained once again, "that's what we do. Help the helpless. Fight the monsters because we're the ones that can."

"I would not be opposed to a fight, if you could call it that."

"You know what kind of demon we're up against?" I asked, wondering if Illyria would make herself useful for once.

"The breed is irrelevant. Our strength is matched by very few in this dimension."

"And if the demon came from another dimension?"

"It makes little difference," she scoffed, tilting my head as she stared at the potted ivy growing on top of my filing cabinet.

Unable to turn my head away, I sighed, "What's so interesting about the plant?"

"In this form I cannot hear its song. The world as you experience it is almost as cold and lifeless as the rock you call the moon."

Finally tearing our eyes away from the plant, I printed out the report and stood. Angel would have to know about these attacks. Maybe it would even cheer him up! Having a new case to work on, getting back to what we're really supposed to be doing. Plus, hitting things always seemed to make him feel better.

"Your half-breed king is distressed," Illyria noted at the thought of going to see Angel.

"Well yeah, his best friend ran off with the love of his life. Takes time to get over that!" I shook my head with a chuckle. As much as Illyria knew about magic and the flow of time (which was really quite interesting and completely negated the theory of relativity), she knew very little about human relationships. "But one cure for a broken heart," I said hopefully, "is a mission to help others."

"To aid the helpless," Illyria scoffed disdainfully as we shuffled together a report for Angel, nifty file folder and everything.

"Help the helpless," I insisted. "It's catchier!"

"I loathe you."

"Right back at'cha, Lyrie," I said with a smile. No sense in bending backward for her anymore. Not when fighting with the demon in my brain helped keep my thoughts away from the pull of diving whole hog into theorems or from certain people who were dead. Gone. No more. Damn it, Wesley! I'm gonna kill you for dying on me like that.

"This man you think of," Illyria goaded, "he is not undead and therefore cannot be killed again."

"Well maybe we'll find a way of undestroying his soul, and then when he's back, I'll kill him."

"Will you let me do it?"

"No!" I huffed through the hallways away from the lab and towards Angel's office. "I was just trying to feel better, Illyria. If by some miracle, Wesley does come back, I forbid you from killing him."

"I do not bow to orders from scum like you."

"Yeah, whatever," I sighed, watching as a group of people left Angel's conference room, waiting for the room to clear so I could bring this case to our fearless, if morose, ruler.



Don't kill me! I promise, there's a plan!

I had more of this written than I remembered, so I was able to post again quickly. I'll set out now to write the next chapter so I can get you closer to the point where things will make sense.