I'll Wait For You

Chapter 9 - Betrayal

Part 1

Buffy and Angelus were still holding hands when Willow and Xander entered the Giles' house. "Buffy!" Willow squealed as she rushed over to hug her friend. "It's so good to see you. You have to tell me everything about everything." Over Buffy's shoulder she noticed Angelus smiling at the two of them, "Hi Angel. It's nice to see you."

"Hello, Willow. It's nice to see you, too."

During this time Xander remained just inside the door. Joyce noticed this and asked, "What's the matter, Xander? Aren't you happy to see her?"

Ignoring Joyce, Xander spoke directly to Buffy. "You weren't too anxious to see us were you, Buffy? How long have you been back in Sunnydale? A week? Two weeks? You finally decided to get out of bed with your demon lover and come visit your family?"

Angelus was on his feet in an instant.

Realizing his intent, Buffy caught his arm to stop him. "Angelus, don't. Just ignore him."

There was no way that Angelus would ignore that insult. When he looked at Buffy, his voice was low and firm and left no doubt in anyone's mind that he meant every word. "Once, Buff, just this once and never again." He then turned to Xander and when he spoke, the coldness in his voice sent chills down everyone's spine, including Buffy's. "Your feelings for me do not surprise me at all, nor do they bother me; you see, I understand hatred, bitterness, resentfulness and fear because I thrive on those emotions from others. What I don't understand is someone who will not, or cannot, back up what he says, whose only means of offense are harmful and spiteful words.

"I am not Angel. I will not tolerate disrespect from anyone, not for myself or my mate. I have been asked to ignore this display, but never again. If you ever, ever again speak to my mate as you just did, they will be the last words you ever utter." The look on his face and the sound of his voice made Xander shudder and Angelus could smell the fear rolling off him, but fortunately he did not reply to the threat.

Part 2

Less than two months later Angelus and Buffy had returned home via Alaska following their bonding in a ceremony performed by the Ancient and her acceptance by Clan Aurelius.

After the mating ceremony and before the bonding, Aurelius took Angelus aside to have, what some may have called, a father/son talk. He wanted to, no, had to, make sure that Angelus fully understood all of the ramifications of the bond and that Angelus would make sure that Buffy fully understood as well. As far as any of the clan was aware, this would be the first time in history that an Aurelian would bond with a human; what made this even more significant was the fact that the human was a slayer and rumored to be the most powerful slayer in history. The bond would make them, almost, like one being - each one able to hear and feel the other's thoughts and emotions, joys and sorrows, pains, pleasures, and desires, have each other's strengths and be susceptible to the other's weaknesses. Of course, one could block the other's access, but that would be defeating the purpose of the bond. He also cautioned Angelus to make sure that Buffy understood what it meant to be a full member of the clan - loyalty to the clan came first, second only to her bonded mate; at no time could she choose the welfare of any one, human or non-human, over the clan or over her mate. To do so would be considered betrayal of the highest order and would not be tolerated.

Before the talk was over, they asked Buffy to join them. Aurelius wanted to make sure that Angelus and Buffy understood all of the subtle details and ramifications of the bonding. The meeting left the couple more sure than ever that they wanted to proceed with the bonding.

They were very happy newlyweds and had spent a month touring the world on their honeymoon. Angelus was pleasantly surprised at Buffy's understanding of various languages and cultures as they traveled. More than once they encountered a monarch or high ranking government official that had been helped by Buffy and the AWP.

He took her to meet Mr. and Mrs. Templeton who welcomed them to their home and were most happy to see Angelus again and meet his mate. Buffy knew that they were some kind of demon, but they looked completely human and their magnificent home was more a castle than a house. He explained that the Templeton family had lived in the castle for centuries and their home was always an open shelter for any Aurelian.

While the couple was at Aurelius' compound after the bonding, Aurelius learned the reason that Angel's soul was trapped in the ether. His soul could not let go of its pull on Buffy's soul and that was preventing him from continuing on to his final reward. Aurelius created the spell that he promised to Angelus for Buffy to perform one time that allowed her to speak with Angel. Buffy insisted that Angelus remain with her during the spell even though Angel was only aware of her presence.

Together they experienced the sadness that Angel felt at having to leave Buffy without a chance to say a final goodbye to her and to let her know how much he still loved her. It wasn't until then that he realized why he was in limbo - his soul was crying out for her. He also realized that the real reason that his soul could not return to earth was because when he agreed to have it removed, that was the third time that he would lose it and he only got three chances.

"I know that you love Angelus, too," Angel told Buffy. "Tell him I said he'd better take good care of you," he said with a sad smile that broke her heart. They kissed one last time and Angel turned to see his family waiting for him. He looked back at Buffy and smiled, an almost happy smile this time, then he ran to greet his family. With that the spell was broken and Buffy found herself in Angelus' arms.

"I'm glad that he's happy now. He deserves it."

Surprisingly, Angelus agreed. He knew that Angel loved Buffy; after all, he had spent years listening to the soul go on and on about his feelings for the slayer. After the soul left Sunnydale, the mourning over the loss of his heart's desire only got worse.

Part 3

There was some kind of demon uprising expected to happen in LA and Wesley had asked for help from Angelus and Buffy. Through Giles' research, he had been able to find additional information regarding the uprising and what it meant for LA and the hellmouth. Since Angelus and Buffy had already planned to be in LA for the ballet on Friday night, they agreed to stay the weekend and help. Spike was to stay in Sunnydale with the understanding that he would provide backup for Faith if she needed it because it was possible that the uprising might impact demons near the hellmouth.

Buffy was dressed in formal wear (provided for her by Cecil's wife) and in the Giles' living room talking to Willow when Xander walked in and, apparently forgetting Angelus' words from their last encounter, he proceeded to verbally attack Buffy, accusing her of neglecting her slayer duties so she could play Angelus' whore for the weekend. Unknown to Xander, Angelus was in Giles' office speaking with him regarding their planned activities in LA.

Without warning Angelus was out of the office and had Xander by the throat before anyone knew what was happening.

"I warned you, but you just can't keep your mouth shut, can you?" Angelus growled as he tightened his grip on Xander's throat.

Buffy could see that Xander was quickly turning blue from lack of oxygen. She hesitated at first then quietly asked Angelus to let him go.

Angelus was outraged and demanded, "You would choose the life of this human over me?"

"N-No, never."

"You already did," he said sadly. He let Xander fall to the floor and, without another word, went to stand in the middle of the room as he looked steadily into Buffy's eyes.

Within minutes four vampires in warrior uniform and full game face appeared around Angelus. One of them spoke. "Angelus, the Elders Council of Clan Aurelius demands your presence."

Without moving his eyes from Buffy's, he replied, "I am ready."

Each of the two vamps on either side of Angelus laid a hand on his shoulders and a shiver went through Buffy as the five of them instantly disappeared.

Part 4

Less than half an hour later a furious Spike entered the house demanding, "What have you done?"

Buffy didn't reply, but Willow explained to him what had happened.

"Don't you even realize what you've done?" He demanded of the slayer. "Angelus has been taken because of what you did."

Realizing that Buffy wasn't aware of the significance of her actions, Spike explained. Because Buffy was a human, the binding ritual performed as part of the bonding included the condition that said if she ever betrayed her mate, he would be brought before the Elders Council and judged; this might result in his being terminated because her betrayal of her mate was considered to be betrayal of the entire clan. If such a ruling was agreed to by the Elders Council, Buffy would die when Angelus died, since the bonding tied her life line to his.

When Xander heard this, he tried to approach her but paused when he heard Buffy's next words.

"You wanted him dead; you've succeeded."

"But I didn't want anything to happen to you. Don't you see? Once he was out of the way, we could be together."

Buffy stopped him as she bellowed, "What? You and I could never be together. Do you think it was Angel keeping you and me apart? It wasn't. It was me. I never had feelings for you Xander and I never will. If not for Willow, I wouldn't even be friends with you."

"Xander," Willow interrupted, "you're married to Anya for goodness sake."

Both of her friends ignored her.

"Get away from me," Buffy said coldly. "I want nothing else to do with you. Ever."

"Fine. I hope you rot in hell with your demon lover."

The look of pure venom on Buffy's face was one that no one had ever seen before.

"And where do you think you'll go when you die?"

"I'm a human being; human beings go to heaven when they die."

"Is that what you think, that all human beings go to heaven when they die? Because if you do, then you are very much mistaken. I've been to heaven and considering the number of people that have died over the centuries compared to the number that are actually there, only a small percentage of humans make it."

"You were only dead for a few months, you couldn't have seen everybody there."

"It may have been only a few months here, but it was eons there - thousands and thousands of years."

Giles, Willow and Spike muttered words of astonishment at what they had just heard. None of them had ever asked Buffy anything about her time in heaven so, of course, they had no idea how long she was actually there.

She continued. "Hell was made for people with hate in their hearts and there are many people who hoard hatred."

"I don't believe you."

"It doesn't matter to me whether you believe me or not. You will find out." She looked directly into his eyes with a malicious smirk on her face. "We all will."

"You're wrong. I'm not going to hell." He left, slamming the door behind him.

Willow was truly shocked by her words. "Buffy is all that you said true?"

"Not the part about hell. How would I know who goes where?"

"You lied to Xander?"

"Yeah, I did. Felt good too, to see him squirm. You can correct him if you want."

"Buffy, that was mean."

"Oh, and what he said to me wasn't?"

She turned to Giles. "Giles give me the information that you had for Angelus. I am going to LA; hopefully I can help stop the uprising before the Council has time to act on its ruling."

End of Chapter 9