Author's notes: Okay guys. Sorry this took a while – the original chapter was a hard "R" (in part 2) and it took me a while to edit it into a PG13 – please someone let me know if I didn't succeed (e-mail me – my address is in my author profile), but I tried to use what's been on the show as somewhat of a guide as to what I can and can't use so hopefully I succeeded – a little warning here for any who might blush easily.

As for the original "R" version – I submitted it to inamorati (see my author's profile for the web address) where my story also resides.

Feed back is always appreciated, especially now that I'm going it alone.

Summary: Previously – Dawn confronted Spike, Willow and Tara performed the spell which – of course – didn't quite go as planned, Warren was duped, and Angelus was foiled again. Wow, busy chapter, and here's another one…

Chapter 13, part 1: Gains and Losses

Wait a minute, Dawn's internal voice warned. Her brain was still trying to process the dead guy on the floor and the fact that Spike and Angel were both in Spike's body. Never mind the not-so-small problem of where Angelus went. And now Willow wanted to continue with the magic when the energy from her last display still lingered like static electricity in the air? The fact that Willow was still on the floor with a nose bleed just seemed like a sparking, downed power line after the tornado had blown the house away; an obvious and redundant sign that all was not well in Kansas anymore. She couldn't be the only one who saw it?

"Y-you can't do the rest of the spell now," she finally managed to blurt out. "You're all… drained."

"But we have to," Willow protested, her mouth a placating smile. "It won't take too much. It's already started." She carelessly wiped the blood from beneath her nose with the cuff of her shirt sleeve.

"If you need to rest," a still-in-vamp-face Spike added. "We can wait." Then he rolled his eyes, and muttered under his breath.

"I-is something wrong?" Tara asked.

Spike quirked his mouth around his fangs. "The Poof is complaining in my head. I told him to sod off and be patient." He snorted. "Would you quit… Fine." He sighed. "He says it's important," Spike snarked. His ridges and fangs receded, and his eyes turned back to their original blue.

Dawn found it odd to watch. Even his posture seemed to change, though she couldn't place what the difference was exactly. When he spoke, though, she knew it was Angel and not Spike. "Are you sure the timing isn't important? The style of the spell reminds me of some of the prophecies we've looked at on our scroll, and the way some of the words refer to dark and light remind me of…"

"References to twilight and dawn," Tara interrupted. "Yes, I saw that too. And you're right. There is a little timing involved. That's why we did the spell when we did. Twilight, representing the end of the curse's hold, and dawn…"

"Being when the effect of the merger will take place," Willow finished. "The new beginning."

Angel nodded then scoffed.

"What?" Dawn asked him, knowing Spike had said something. She smiled. "What did he say?"

"That it sounded awfully symbolic and poetic for a spell," Angel supplied.

Dawn raised her eyebrows and smirked.

"Only not quite that nicely," he added.

"Well, spells in themselves are already quite poetic and literary if you think about it, with all the rhyming and repetition of themes, and…" Willow trailed off when Tara touched her arm. "Okay not so much of interest right now," she conceded. "With the time constraints."

"I thought it was insightful," Angel said with a small smile before his face turned, the look of annoyance indicating his new alter ego was having a good time pestering him.

Dawn just knew she would've loved to hear Spike's comment. She missed him already. "But we have almost 9 hours before sunrise," Dawn pointed out. "We should be fine.

Glancing at her watch, Tara said, "Oh. It's only 9:15. It seemed so much later. I guess the spell took it out of me."

"But that explains why the danger then," Willow pointed out. "Because well, in that time, Angelus could have done a lot of damage if he took over."

"Yes," Angel agreed. "And you better not get any ideas either," he said to Spike, both in his head and out loud. Then he rolled his eyes, explaining, "He just oh-so-politely pointed out that we are in his body, therefore we have a chip."

"That's right," Tara said. "That may take some getting used to for you. Not that you go around hurting people," she pointed out hastily.

"The chip doesn't designate between good and bad humans though," Dawn added with some concern, "so you may have to be a little more careful."

"And we've seen him get zapped," Willow said. She shook her head. "It doesn't look fun." Everyone nodded in agreement.

The conversation came to an abrupt halt with seemingly nothing left to say, and Dawn could feel the discomfort in the room. Willow fidgeted with the paper that held the spell. Tara stared into her lap as she sat on the floor beside Willow. Angel looked around the crypt at nothing in particular. Dawn almost sighed in relief when she got an idea.

"How about I go let Spi- ah, Angel out of the chains while you guys rest?" she offered.

"It should be okay now that they are both in Spike's body and Angelus is gone," Willow conceded.

"Where did you send Angelus by the way?" Dawn asked as she retrieved the key. Willow's mention of the vampire had reminded her of her earlier concern.

"Someplace nasty," Willow said perkily. "Not exactly sure where. A general address of a group of hell dimensions though. I'm sure he'll be very happy there."

On her way to Angel, Dawn noticed Warren's body and hurriedly grabbed one of Spike's sheets to cover it, shivering as she did so. She then quickly moved to Angel and unlocked his wrists, watching him as he looked at his hands strangely and turned them over as if he'd never seen them before. Which, she guessed, in a way he hadn't. At least not as part of himself. She turned apologetic eyes to him.

"It's gonna be weird, huh?"

"A little," Angel said with his usual dose of understatement.

Hearing Willow take a deep breath, they both turned eyes on her.

"I think I'm ready," she announced, then looked at Tara with a small apologetic smile. "Are you ready?" At Tara's nod she added, "If you want to do it alone…"

"We can both do it," Tara answered, taking Willow's hand.

Maybe it was only her imagination, but Dawn thought she noticed a hint of trepidation in Tara's voice; a note of concern that maybe Willow was slipping back into her old ways too easily. Dawn hoped it was only her imagination. She didn't want to see a return of the Willow she saw that night of the car accident. She took a breath and reminded herself, it's only a little spell, then watched as the witches completed the merging.

*******

Gnash growled in frustration as he watched the scene play out in the statue's eyes. Fine, he thought. If Spike wanted a soul so badly, well now he had one. Happy torment to him. That stupid Angel just had to figure it out at the last minute. If he hadn't transferred himself and demon Spike into Spike's body, the loss of connection would have surely meant the traitor vampire's defeat, and Angel might have been stuck with Angelus forever. Of course they might have staked him as soon as they found out.

He sighed. Perhaps this was better in a way. Sure Angelus was somewhere in an alternate dimension, but Gnash had experience with those as well as dimensional travel. With the right spells, he'd find the vampire eventually. Then he could bring him back. When no one would expect. After they'd forgotten all about him. The demon smirked. After a stint in a hell dimension with time to stew about it, Angelus was likely to be good and angry when he got back. That'd be just fine with Gnash. Perhaps this hadn't gone so badly after all.

*********

Power sucked and surged all around him, making his body feel like it was being battered back and forth amidst the crackling energy. He'd been through dimensional upheaval before, but never quite like this. It was going on too long with too much power, and he saw more than one dimension flash by him as he was pulled along through the rift. Finally he seemed to slow, getting a good look at on odd sight before he flashed through one last rift and landed in a heap on a hard surface.

With a low growl, Angelus sat up. In front of him, an eerie reddish cast glowed on a horizon which held nothing discernable but jagged, barren rock against a ruddy sky. The sky itself similarly held nothing familiar - no sun, clouds, moon or stars that he could discern. Perhaps that glow on the horizon came from a setting sun, or maybe the light just emanated from the rocks themselves. Well, he'd find out soon enough he guessed. Perhaps a better question was - where the hell was he? Wherever it was, it didn't look promising. There didn't seem to be any other creatures in sight. He sniffed the air then, catching the scent of other beings somewhere. Not recent, but there. The vampire smirked. This would be no Girl Scout picnic, but he'd make do for now until he could find his way back somehow. Besides it was certainly better than that last dimension he'd plowed through. What the hell had been with all the shrimp anyway?

*********

Buffy moved a hank of her hair to her nose and inhaled as she walked into the living room. "Unh," she exclaimed, shutting the door behind her. An extra long shower would be required to get the grease and Double Meat Palace smell out of her hair. She listened to see if anyone was home, sighing when she heard no familiar rustlings from Willow or Dawn. Recalling a conversation from breakfast that morning, Buffy guessed her sister had decided to go to her friend Terry's after all. Weird that she didn't take her backpack though, Buffy thought when she caught sight of the indispensable teenage accessory leaning against the wall by the front door. Her brain filled with big sisterly ire. If Dawn isn't doing homework at Terry's, she better be home by ten or… no going to the mall for a month. She nodded her head in satisfaction at the thought. It was time she took responsibility for disciplining her sister.

Buffy moved into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, groaning at the thought of eating anything substantial at this time of night. She settled on a yogurt, thankful that someone had gone shopping, and ate it as she headed upstairs.  As soon as the yogurt cup was emptied, she practically clawed the uniform off her body and threw it into a corner of the bathroom. "This job will do stuff to you, Buffy," echoed in her brain, complete with British accent. She ignored the memory and turned the water on. All she wanted was to wash it all away, wash everything away, and for the next half hour that's what she tired to do.

*********

"I don't feel any different," Angel said to Willow. He tried not to look concerned, but was sure he was failing miserably.

"That's okay," Willow told him, her voice almost too confident. "I felt it happen." She turned to Tara for confirmation, and the other witch nodded succinctly.

"You likely w-won't feel the entire effects until dawn. You'll be in a kind of limbo until then. Neither one of you in control until the spell completely binds you together. But Willow is right. I felt the magic go through us. Your soul and Spike's demon are tethered together, and the effects will be complete as soon as the sun rises."

"What's going to happen then?" Angel asked. "What will… What will Spike feel?"

"We can't be entirely sure of that," Willow said. "He'll be there somewhere, but how much control he'll have if any…" She shrugged. "It will likely be like it was before with Angelus but with a little more affect from Spike because of the binding and all."

Nodding, Angel turned his head to see Dawn staring at him with a slightly annoyed look. He'd though he felt the tingle of a penetrating teenage stare. "Dawn," he began.

"I should be getting home," the teen interrupted with a huff. "Buffy will be worried about me." She moved towards Willow and Tara in anticipation of a departure.

"He made me promise to visit you," Angel mumbled.

Dawn gave him a weird look. "What?" she almost laughed.

Angel cleared his throat. "He made me promise to visit you," he repeated. "So he could see you. At least once a month. A weekend."

Dawn's eyes started storming over, and she likely would have gone off on a teenage rant if Angel hadn't let Spike take over. He watched the teen's face change as she saw the ridges and fangs come forward.

"Nibblet, now don't be like that. I intend to keep that promise."

The resolve on Dawn's face crumbled, and she fell wordlessly into his arms. Spike held her awkwardly at first, but then with more conviction, rubbing his cheek against the top of her head. It was odd to Angel that he was the one more uncomfortable with the embrace than the demon. Then he felt some pain as the teen squeezed him tighter. "Oi, Bit," Spike complained. "Not quite up to snuff yet, and you're stronger than you look."

And it was true. There were no outward physical manifestations on Spike's body from the fight he'd had with Angelus, but there were aches and pains in the appropriate places. Perhaps the only consolation seemed to be that the broken ribs had pretty much healed themselves. Angel thanked whatever powers gave them accelerated healing that at least this was the case.

"Sorry," Dawn said sheepishly as she backed off, and once again joined Tara and Willow. Both looked tired and drawn. "I'll hold you to that though. You'll be sorry if you don't visit. I'll make sure of it."

Spike smiled around his fangs. "I have no doubt, pet." Then he turned to the women. "You guys go home. Rest. I'll let you know if something odd happens come sunrise."

"Not unless you want to be a crispy critter," Willow pointed out. "We'll come by to check on you, okay?"

Nodding, Spike changed back into Angel, almost with little thought. "Make sure that you get enough rest first. That's the most important thing. Just in case something bad does happen, you'll need to be at full strength."

"Nothing bad will happen," Willow assured him. "I felt it. The magic worked. I know it did." She nodded emphatically then frowned and pouted, her hand cradling her obviously aching head. "Rest now," she said forlornly.

Tara couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, we'll rest."

"I'll take care of… of…"

"Warren," Dawn supplied for Angel when she noticed the direction of his gaze.

"Put him near the entrance… no the east wall gate. We'll call it in anonymously in a few hours," Willow said. They all knew the police wouldn't ask any questions. Such was the norm in Sunnydale.

"We'll see you tomorrow," Tara told him, giving him a smile as the three moved towards the crypt door. "We'll get all this magic stuff then."

Angel watched them go then sat to rest for a moment. He'd need a bit of time to recover before he took on the task of removing Warren's body.

*********

One towel wrapped snuggly around her body, Buffy rubbed her hair with another towel while bitch-slapping that little voice in her head that told her using two towels was an unnecessary burden on the laundry. Ha! She'd use them both at least twice more before throwing them in the wash. Use of two towels justified, she though triumphantly. Once finished with her hair, she hung that towel on a hook on the back of her door and moved towards her bed to grab the pajamas from beneath her pillow. Being dressed for bed would add just that much more impact when she scolded Dawn for being late. Never mind that she'd have to redress to patrol around two or so. She felt like using troll logic today so… Her forehead furrowed as she noticed a note on the bed. That hadn't been there before.

She read the first part of the note quickly, but her mind stumbled over the part that mentioned Angel and binding his soul. She read that part twice more, a knot forming in her stomach. Oh, God. What does this mean? It'd been what she'd wanted for so long, but at the same time, the thought terrified her. What will Angel think of what I've become and… oh, he has to know about me and Spike. She sat down on the bed, her legs unable to support her. Her breath quickened as she read the next part. She'd thought it couldn't be harder to take than the last part, but she'd been wrong. "Spike, what did you do?" she whispered aloud. He was killing himself, or close enough to it, just so she could be happy. Oh God, she thought, the strange conversation they'd had the last time she saw him now making perfect sense. That's why he'd wanted to know if she still loved Angel. And her answer had encouraged him to go through with it.

Flinging the towel aside, she yanked clothes from her dresser, dressing hurriedly. Maybe there was still time… To what, she thought. Stop this? Is that what she wanted? She shook her head. She'd figure that out when she got there, when she found him… them. Less thinking, more dressing, she scolded herself. In another two minutes, she was flying out the front door, and the pictures rattled in response for the second time that day.

TBC – part 2