Chapter 35

How long Spike and Willow remained in the room for a while. Angel couldn't hear what they said to each other but they exchanged whispered conversations and Willow giggled and Spike laughed softly and Angel grit his teeth.

Finally, after what seemed an age, they got dressed to leave. Angel felt Spike approach, the blanket came away from the cage and Spike tossed it behind him. He stared at Angel for a moment a small smirk on his lips and a look of triumph in his eyes. "You'll be gone soon enough an' the demon'll be back. When you're a real demon again just you remember you're back 'cos I allowed it. Just you remember whose in charge 'round 'ere." Spike's eyes met Angel's. "Nothin' belongs to you."

Angel watched Spike's back as he crossed the room, placing an arm around Willow's waist and a kiss to her temple he led out of the side door. The door closed with a quiet click that seemed to vibrate around the room.

Left alone, Angel busied himself with examining the lock on the cage and each bar which held him captive. He hadn't dared try it with Spike in the room, the last thing he needed was for Spike to chain him down or sedate him or do something that would prevent him from escaping.

The cage was strong and sturdy, the lock unbreakable and his handcuffs secured tightly to his wrists. He was not getting out of the cage or this room by himself, although Angel had already come to this conclusion. Just as he began to worry that no-one would come, for if no-one came how was to get out of the cage, the door leading out into The Bronze opened bringing with it the sound of music and screams and laughter. Jessie appeared, almost creeping along the wall until he realised the only other person in the room was Angel.

"They left a while ago," Angel offered.

Jessie nodded. He held a mug of blood in his hands and he offered it to Angel. One sniff told Angel it was human blood, he didn't want to drink it, he knew it hadn't been obtained from a willing donor, but he also knew he had to keep up his strength if he was to escape and outwit Spike. He took the mug, his cuffs clinking against the bars of the cage.

No matter what else he was, Angel was still a vampire and vampire's always craved human blood. It had been so many years since he had tasted human blood; the potency of it caught Angel off guard, it flowed through his veins, revitalising him, fulfilling a need in him he had long since though submerged.

"So," he licked his lips. "I don't suppose you've got the key to these cuffs? I guess Spike only allows the really important people to have keys."

Jessie frowned. "I've got the keys. Not that they'll do you any good."

Angel rolled his eyes. "How dangerous do you think I am? I'm locked in a cage, do I really need the cuffs too?"

"Spike's orders."

"To what, make me as uncomfortable as possible?"

Jessie grinned. "Something like that."

"Well, seeming as I'll be restored to the bosom of my family very soon, you want to tell me what the hell is going on around here?"

"What do you mean?"

"Spike," Angel said. "How come he's The Master of Sunnydale? What happened to The Master of the Order of Aurelius?"

Jessie's eyes widened, a look of surprise on his face. "Don't you know the story?"

Angel rolled his eyes. "If I knew, I wouldn't ask, would I?"

"Where've you been living, outta space?"

"It may have escaped your notice, but I'm not really welcome within the demon community."

"No," Jessie shook his head. "It hadn't escaped my notice. Besides, Darla told me all about you."

Angel grinned, "I bet she didn't."

Jessie didn't like the insinuation but he didn't question the remark. He knew Angelus was Darla's pride and joy, he knew that Darla, Drusilla, Angelus and Spike were a family unit going back over a century and it was something he and Xander weren't a part of. The impending return of Angelus made Jessie uneasy, Darla barely had any time for him as it was, once Angelus was back Jessie knew he wouldn't just be on the side lines, he'd barely cease to exist for her. It made his skin crawl.

"When did she turn you?" Angel asked, more to get an idea of the new time line than out of any actual interest.

"Before The Harvest. We met at The Bronze, it was different then," Jessie made a gesture towards the door. "It was all human-centric back then. Spike changed that."

"Spike changed a lot of things."

"Yeah he did. You can do that when you run the town you know."

Angel swallowed his impatience. "I guess you can. But how did he get to run the town?"

"Oh, yeah," Jessie gave a spare shake of his head. "Well, The Master made Luke something called a vessel for the Harvest, so every human Luke killed, all the blood he took, it magically helped The Master to get stronger. It made him so strong that he could break free from his confinement underground, he …"

"… was trapped there by an earthquake sixty years ago, yeah, I know about that. Skip to the part about Spike."

"I'm getting there," Jessie snapped. "Well, Luke went off to The Bronze with a bunch of other vamps to feed and make The Master strong. It all went off like clockwork, it was like nothing I'd ever seen before. I mean, I could actually see The Master pushing against this invisible force field, or whatever it was; there was nothing there and when he reached out I could see it, you know, where he touched it. Anyway, The Master gets free and everyone's happy. Time to party it up vamp style, you know? Except Spike had other plans."

Angel made a mental note of the first change in the time line. Spike had shown up a year after The Harvest in the other Sunnydale, although Angel couldn't quite see the connection to Buffy. The only thing he could think of was that maybe Drusilla had received a vision of some sort which had altered Spike's plans.

"So, there we are, all down in The Master's lair, all celebrating and stuff when in comes Spike, and he's got Willow with him. Willow was like my best friend when I was human, it was always me, her and Xander, so I gotta say, was a bit surprised to see her there. The Master recognised Spike and thought Spike had come with an offering for him, it didn't exactly go down that way. Spike just stood there, on his own, completely outnumbered and announced he was gonna take over Sunnydale."

Angel rolled his eyes. "Spike always did have a flare for the dramatic. I can image how well The Master took that little announcement."

Jessie snorted. "He was maaaad. Said he was gonna kill Spike. Spike just laughed at him and said he'd like to see him try. Everyone laughed at that, I mean come on, it was The Master against this jumped up vamp. So, they start to fight right, I'm telling you, I'd never seen anything like it before. The Master was strong, I mean he would be, right? He's The Master, he's older than all of us put together, but he didn't fight like Spike, there's a reason Spike's killed two Slayers, its 'cos he's good, when he fights, he's real good. Darla says that the reason Spike won was because The Master had been stuck underground for so long that his fighting skills were rusty. Personally, I think Willow had something to do with it. See, it was pretty obvious The Master couldn't actually match Spike so some of the others went to help him," Jessie shook his head and threw up his arms, "big mistake. Huge!"

"Why? What happened to them?"

"Willow, man. Willow incinerated 'em on the spot. Up they went in flames, hardly had time to scream." He shook his head again a look of disbelief on his face. "Spike got hold of The Master in some sort of arm and head lock hold and Willow did something to him, I don't know what it was, but she took his blood from clear across the room. There were these little drops of blood just floating through the air and she put them in a test tube. I think she swiped it from the science lab, Willow was always good at science, you know. Much better than me and Xan ever were. She held the rest of us back with magic, was nothing we could do except stand there and watch."

"The Master's blood? Why did she want that?"

"Dru was sick, I didn't know vamps got sick," he mused quietly. "Spike needed Sire's blood to heal her. He wanted you, but Willow told me later that after she had looked at the spell she could work it with blood from The Master, what with him being head of the bloodline and everything." Jessie grinned suddenly, "Wills always was the smart one."

Angel made another mental note of the differences in his two worlds. How much use this information was going to be he didn't know. But it was good to know that Willow had the power to dust him with a well-timed spell. This Willow was strong, much stronger than the Willow he knew and Angel had the feeling Spike was responsible for the growth of her magical powers.

"Anyway, Spike staked The Master and asked if anyone else wanted to go up against him. Nobody did so he took over. I mean, it wasn't as simple as that," Jessie admitted. "He did have some opposition, not all vamps followed The Master and not all demons wanted to follow a vamp; but Spike took care of all of them, Willow too. We'd been friends for years and I never knew she was a witch. She can kick some serious ass when she wants to."

Jessie went over to the bar and poured himself a drink. He sniffed at the air, the scent of sex and blood was still heavy in the room but that was nothing new where Spike and Willow were concerned. He fixed a glass for Angel, figuring it would do well to get on his good side, having a vampire like Angelus as a friend could only be a good thing.

"Thanks." Angel accepted the glass. "So, that's how Spike took over the town?"

"Not exactly, there's that business with The Anointed One as well."

"Spike stuck him in a cage and put him in the sun to burn, right?" Angel remembered that from his own world, Drusilla had told him about it when Angelus has returned. Dru's pillow talk could sometimes be irritating and confusing in equal measures, but other times she had some golden nuggets of information which were well worth hearing.

"Right," Jessie gave a sharp nod of the head. "The Anointed One turned up to try and resurrect The Master. His arrival in Sunnydale split The Order of Aurelius, some followed him, others followed Spike; so Spike killed him."

"He never could play nice with others," Angel said.

"No reason to when he's got Wills on his side."

"Was she involved with The Anointed One?"

"Not that I know of," Jessie said. "That was all Spike."

"So that's the story of Spike's rise to power, huh?"

"Well," Jessie began thoughtfully, "There's the rampage with the witches too."

"Rampage? What'd he have against witches?" Spike had been on a fair few rampages in his time, slaughtering entire towns at a whim and Angelus had been right there beside him to enjoy the bloodletting and bask in the fear. They hadn't needed a reason to begin a reign of terror, boredom was often a pretty big motivator, but it seemed to Angel that everything Spike had done in this Sunnydale he had done with a reason and a clear goal in mind. That in itself was new enough to warrant Angel's interest. Spike really would be a force to be reckoned with if he could only curb his impatience and his impulses.

"It was after the Anointed One died, a group, no wait," Jessie's lips pursed in thought. "It's not a group of witches is it?"

"Coven," Angel supplied, wishing the boy would just get to the point. Jessie was still a newbie vampire surrounded by vampire's older and stronger than he was, but because of his bloodline and his friendship with Willow he had been elevated to the top of the food chain pretty quickly. Angel had the feeling the kid found it lonely at the top. He didn't have the experience to know how to wield his new found power and was surrounded with older, more dominant personalities than his own. This was probably the first time he had found himself in the position of actually holding all the information and was relishing in it.

Jessie took another gulp of his drink. "Oh yeah, that's right. A coven. Well, at this point Sunnydale was just starting to get good; for the demon's I mean; Spike had the Mayor on board and everything. There was this deputy Mayor, Andrew or Alex or Allan, um, Allan I think. Anyway, he wasn't on side, he joined up with this coven of witches and they tried to take Willow out; they did some spell, put her in a mystical coma. Spike didn't take it well. He went after the deputy Mayor and ripped him apart, then he went for the witches."

Angel could just imagine how that had played out. Spike had always been emotional, and if someone he loved was threatened he was an unstoppable force until the threat had been eliminated.

"I wasn't there," Jessie continued. "Me and Darla stayed behind to watch over Willow. Dru went along, she was much better by then, and she said even she had never seen anything like it before. Spike tore them all to shreds. When each witch died the hold they had on the spell over Willow eased up and she woke up. Spike started tracking down all the witches in town and Willow drained them of their magic. She was stronger when she woke up from the coma, even me and Xan could feel it and we're new to all this stuff." Jessie laughed and finished his drink. "Wish I was there to see it. Man, you don't cross Spike and live to tell about it."

"No," Angel murmured, he knew just how violent Spike could be. Spike was strong and fearless, he fought tooth and nail for something he wanted and he loved just as fiercely. Angel was under no illusions that Spike would do all he needed to do to protect Willow. "So, Willow wasn't as strong as she is now before the coma?"

Jessie shook his head. "Nah. Darla said she could feel the change in her as soon as Willow's eyes opened. Darla said they were black, Willow's eyes I mean. I don't know, I didn't notice, was just glad Wills was alright."

"But how did she get so powerful?"

Jessie shrugged. "Some sort of witchy thing I expect, I don't know. Something happened when she was in the coma though, I know that much, but only Spike knows exactly what happened. Even Xan hasn't been told."

"How did they meet, Willow and Spike?" In his version of Sunnydale the only reason Willow had been on Spike's radar was because she was best friends with a Slayer. They had essentially met through Buffy. Willow's botched soul restoration had drawn them closer together and Angel, even though he didn't like it, could understand it. If Spike had bumped into Willow on the street without knowing she had any link with Buffy, it would just have resulted in Willow becoming his next meal, there was nothing overly remarkable about Willow to render Spike's interest; at least Angel hadn't thought there was. Now he had to re-evaluate; Spike and Willow were very much together in this reality and Buffy was nowhere to be seen.

"That I don't know," Jessie admitted. "They aren't very big on the sharing of private stuff. I was turned before Xander and he said that he had no idea Spike was in Willow's life before he was turned."

Confused wrinkles popped up on Angel's forehead. "Why did Spike turn Xander?"

"Wills asked him to. What Willow wants Spike makes sure she gets and what Spike wants Willow gives him. It's a share and share alike kinda relationship."

"Which will only include the two of them, believe me," Angel warned. "It comes down to you or Willow and Spike will snap you like a twig before you can blink."

Jessie made a show of looking unconcerned but Angel didn't buy it for an instant. Everyone had that survival instinct in them whether they were human or demon. "Darla mentioned a librarian earlier, don't tell me Spike's biggest nemeses is a librarian?"

Jessie laughed. "Sort of. He's an ex-watcher if you can believe it. He works in the school library. Mr Giles. He's a pretty big pain in the ass for someone in a tweed jacket."

"Why hasn't Spike just killed him? If he's got the Mayor on board why can't the Mayor bring him in like he's going to do with the girl, the witch?"

"I don't know," Jessie rolled his shoulders and leant against the bars of the cage. "Spike has his reasons, he always does."

"And they're usually pretty self-serving," Angel said. "Spike will do what best suits Spike, he always has. What about this Ascension? What's that all about?"

Irritation washed over Jessie's face and his eyes clouded. "Need to know basis."

The short reply told Angel all he needed to know. Jessie was apparently not on the list of those who needed to know. Angel doubted that there was anyone other than Spike and Willow who really knew what was going on where the Ascension was concerned. But, the Ascension could wait, information and escape had been his primary goals and Angel was fairly certain he had all the information he was likely to get out of Jessie. It was time for the escape.

"You'll never be on the "need to know list", you talk too much and forget who your enemy is. Either way it doesn't really matter, you're not going to be around much longer." Angel gave the confused boy a winning smile before reaching through the bars and cracking Jessie's neck.

Jessie slumped to the floor right at Angel's feet. Angel clicked his tongue against his teeth. "Should have kept your distance. Rule number one; don't get too comfortable with the enemy."

He was able to retrieve the key to the cuffs and the cage out of Jessie's pocket. Stepping out of the cage Angel stared down at the boy for a moment unsure as to what to do for the best. If all went according to plan Giles would help him reverse the wish he made and everything would go back to normal which meant Jessie would once again have died three years ago at The Harvest. He didn't need to kill Jessie now.

Angel wasn't sure why, but he didn't want to kill the kid. Maybe it was because he knew Buffy had gone into The Master's lair, risked her life for, as she had phrased it "a potential friend" and she had failed to save him. Even though she wasn't here and had no knowledge of anyone in Sunnydale in this reality, Angel felt it was almost like slapping Buffy in the face if he killed Jessie. He couldn't do that to her.

He decided the way out was not through The Bronze, Angel felt he could probably fool anyone he met into believing he was Angelus; but if Darla, Dru or Xander were out there they would know his soul was still intact and back in the cage he'd go. He had no idea where Spike and Willow were and he really didn't want to end up in an altercation with either one of them.

Spike would have emergency exits in place, for himself and Willow if for no-one else. A quick survey of the room led Angel to a ladder to the second floor and from there he made his way onto the roof.

Relatively safe under the cover of night, Angel went to the edge of the roof and peered down into the street. Loud music and laugher floated back at him along with the smell of freshly spilt blood. The streets were crawling with demons of all varieties, they were openly fighting and feeding; the Lords of the Manor. Spike had turned Sunnydale into a demon's playground.

Knowing there was nothing he could do to help the poor unfortunate humans who had somehow blundered into the clutches of a demon or two, Angel turned away from the street. The best way to help the people of Sunnydale was to undo all that he had done. Angel scowled as he jumped from rooftop to rooftop making his way to Giles apartment; was it some kind of screwed up destiny of his to always hurt the innocent people around him in way form or another?

He made it to Giles place without incident. It was quieter in this part of town, the residents having enough sense to keep within the four walls of their houses with the curtains drawn and the lights on low.

Taking the stone steps two at a time Angel had a moment of panic as he wondered whether this was the right place to try first, perhaps Giles was at the library or out on patrol.

Giles too had the curtains drawn and the lights down low, but standing outside the front door Angel could hear people talking and moving about in the apartment and his shoulder sagged with relief. He didn't worry about how he was going to explain everything to Giles, he decided to just come out with it, no beating about the bush, there wasn't time for that.

Angel rapped loudly on the door and the room beyond went still.

Someone peered at him through the curtain but there wasn't enough of them for Angel to work out who it was. He assumed it was Giles and shifted his weight awkwardly. If Giles was so cautious about even opening the door to him would Giles believe his story? It was only now occurring to him that Giles might not believe him. What would he do should Giles refuse to help?

Angel stamped down the rising panic in his chest. It would do no good and he wasn't prone to panicking anyway. There was always a way around things, there was always some way to sort things out and he would find it, alone if necessary, providing he kept a clear head and one step ahead of Spike.

His plea for help died on his lips when the door opened and Angel came face to face with Jenny Calendar.