Passion, Part One.

Valentine's Day had passed without any major incident, unless of course you counted Xander and his inability to take being dumped well. Miranda reflected wearily, as she poured herself a cup of coffee thoroughly exhausted. She glanced at her sliding glass door, and heaved a heavy sigh before striding across the room and pulling it open.

"Whistler, I know you are out there. You might as well come in."

The demon in question entered the room with a sheepish smile on his face, which Miranda did not return. He sighed, taking in Miranda's haggard appearance, before finally speaking. "I need to tell you some things."

"Of course you do." Miranda shot back. "All cards on the table now?"

"All cards on the table now."

"Start talking then, I have to be at work soon."

Whistler took a deep breath. "I have been keeping some things from you… the first of which being that Jenny Calendar has to die. I know that you could save her, but her future has been written, for her to live at this point would throw everything off balance. I am not sure who would die in her place, and that is a risk I am not willing to take."

"Fine." Miranda did not look happy about that revelation. "When?"

"You know that I cannot tell you that." Whistler actually looked apologetic for a moment. "There's more, actually."

"Acathla?" Miranda's voice was quiet, the emotion behind it unreadable.

"Yeah, you saw that too?

"What don't I see that is related to Angelus at this point?"

"You know that he was originally supposed to stop Acathla from being awakened right? That you allowing him to live was actually supposed to be proven as a good thing when Drusilla and Spike tried to awaken Acathla."

"Yes, but no one foresaw his relationship with Buffy becoming physical when it did… or ever, regardless of what I prophesized when I had the vision of Angelus returning."

Whistler winced at the bitterness that laced her words. "You really know how to hold a grudge don't you?"

Miranda glared at him from across her living room, as she moved to pour herself another cup of coffee, realizing that she had somehow managed to drink the entire cup while Whistler was talking. "You took my powers." She told him, her voice emotionless, despite the look on her face. "You blamed me, because you thought that I had changed the course of history. You did not want to believe me when I tried to tell you what I had seen, and you did not want to hear that he had been cursed with a soul. I tried telling all of you why I did not kill him, why I let the gypsies curse him, but you did not listen. I tried to tell you how to keep him from ever ending up in Sunnydale when Buffy did, but you did not listen. I tried to explain Acathla to you, and you did not listen. You come here now, and tell me that I was right all along, but that you did not want to tell me until absolutely necessary? I officially have no reason to trust anyone from the Powers That Be!" Miranda took a ragged breath, and ran a hand through her hair, forcing herself to calm down.

Whistler raised his hands in surrender. "Mira…My hands are tied. I am just the messenger. Just like I was just the messenger when you lost your powers."

"Ugh!" Miranda exclaimed, fed up. "I will make sure that Jenny Calendar dies. I will make sure that Angelus either gets recursed or killed. I will ensure that Acathla is stopped. Somehow. Is there anything else you want? Because I do not think that I need to remind you that I do not work for the power's that be anymore."

Whistler reached out of placed a hand on Miranda's face, gently tilting her head until she was forced to look him in the face. "Try to let go of some of this hate for us? They are sorry for what you went through, just like they are sorry for thinking that you were a fraud."

Miranda laughed, stepping back out of his reach. "Right. Let it go… a century of beatings, and bruises, dealing with people like Darla and Drusilla, letting William The Bloody nurse all of my scrapes and bruises because he felt sorry for me… Yeah I am just dying to forgive them for that hell, and the additional trauma of having to live like a human for the past one hundred or so years too." She looked at him for a long moment, and then sighed, setting her coffee cup down, and reaching her hand up beneath her hair to massage her neck. "You need to go Whistler."

Whistler gazed at the demoness in front of him for a long moment, and then sighed heavily. "Fine…If you need me I will be around. I don't plan on leaving Sunnydale until this is all over." He didn't wait for Miranda to respond, but turned on his heel and exited her house the same way that he had entered, shutting the door silently behind him.