Angel pressed Buffy up against the elevator doors, kissing her fiercely. She had her hands roaming up the back of his shirt, sending trails of fire everywhere her warm fingers touched his cool skin. They were both emitting little contented growls and moans. When the doors opened, they both tumbled into the private elevator where Buffy was pinned against the back wall by Angel's much larger body.
Just as the doors began to close, Eve appeared and stopped them. "Hope I'm not interrupting anything."
Angel turned with a growl and Buffy glared at the liaison. "You always are. What do you want?" The blonde Slayer snapped.
"Fred's waiting outside. We need to have that meeting."
"Why now?" Angel asked. "It's the end of the day. We're going home."
"This will take ten minutes." Eve stepped aside and held the elevator doors open.
Buffy and Angel both groaned and adjusted their clothing. They went and sat down behind the extra-large desk as Eve went to get Fred.
Once everyone was seated accordingly, Eve looked at Angel expectantly. "Um, I know how difficult it's been going from a small detective agency to running Wolfram & Hart." Angel said, shifting uncomfortably. "And we've all been adjusting, but…."
"It's ok." Fred said. "Wes just gave me the talk. And I'm going to have a good meal and at least 6 hours of sleep, so everybody can just stop worrying. I'm fine. Really."
"Good. That's…."
"Oh for crap's sake!" Buffy snapped. "Eve is pitching a fit because of how much the Practical Science Department's been spending lately."
"Oh." Fred said. "Um…. yeah, I guess I may have gone over my projections by a few."
"$800,000." Eve said. "That's how much you've exceeded your quarterly budget. And the quarter ain't over yet, sweetie." She sat down on the edge of Angel's desk and Buffy glared at her till she stood back up.
"Look, I…. I know it sounds like…. I mean, it is a lot of money, but I…. I'm trying to do something that's never been done before. So, yeah, attempting to recorporealize Spike is gonna cost…."
"Whoa! Trying to do what?" Angel asked.
"Make Spike corporeal again like you asked."
"Uh, no, what I asked for was for you to try to find a way to get Spike out of Wolfram and…."
"It's what I asked." Buffy said.
"You? What? Why?"
"Because he hates being a ghost or whatever he is. He saved the world, the least we can do is save him from purgatory or hell or wherever he's been popping off to."
"She's right, Angel." Fred said. "We accepted the offer to take over the L.A. Branch of an evil, multi-dimensional law firm because we thought we could make a difference. Use the resources of Wolfram & Hart to do something decent. He just saved the world. Vampire with a soul fighting for the good of humanity. Ring anything? He's just like you: a champion."
"Glad I'm not the only one who thinks that." Buffy muttered.
"God, I really hate that word." Angel grumbled.
"Think of what an asset he'd be fighting on our side." Fred said.
"Angel knows what an asset he is because he knows what it's like having Spike fighting on our side." Buffy said, giving Angel serious side-eye.
Angel sighed. He knew when he was beat. "I just want you to be careful, Fred, because I know how charming Spike can be."
Eve hummed an approval, saying, "He is quite the dish, with those eyes…."
"And the hair and the cheeks and…." Fred rolled her eyes. "What do you think I am, stupid? I know he's been playing me with the looks and the smiles. I'm not some idiot schoolgirl with a crush."
"Then what is it?" Angel asked.
"It's about doing what's right. Remember?"
Before Angel could argue further, Buffy said, "It's your department, Fred, so it's your call."
"Just don't be disappointed if it doesn't work." Angel muttered. "Some people can't be saved."
"Sorry we wasted your time, Fred." Buffy said with an annoyed glance at Eve. "Go home and get some sleep, ok?"
"Thanks, Buffy." Fred got up and hurried out, seeing the storm that was about to crash into Angel.
Buffy didn't even look at Eve. "Get out."
Eve didn't budge as she said, "Do you realize how much money you just…."
Buffy cut the woman off. "I said get out. And please, let the door hit you on your way." She waited until Eve had exited the office. "Angel…."
"Don't." Angel said.
"Oh, I'm gonna. You've got to stop ragging on Spike so much! We've had this discussion. You said you cared about him, too."
"I do, but it doesn't mean I want to throw everything Fred's got at him to try and make him corporeal again. She's got better things to do with her time and her department's budget."
"Fred's a big girl. If she wants to help Spike, then she can help him. I'm behind her 100 percent and you should be, too."
"Buffy…."
"This could've been you and I would've moved heaven and Earth to fix you."
"That's different. You and I…. We're together. He…."
"Doesn't deserve to be stuck the way he is now any more than you would if you had worn that amulet."
"What about…."
"Willow doesn't work for Wolfram and Hart. Which is where that amulet came from. This is Wolfram and Hart's fault, so I don't see why they shouldn't foot the bill to fix what they broke."
"When you put it that way…."
"I know." Angel looked over at her with his brown eyes set to wounded puppy mode. "Oh, stop. I'm not that mad at you." She stood up and slid onto his lap. "Take me upstairs."
Angel laughed as Buffy recounted a story of when she and a newly turned vampire had a long counseling session. She was sitting on the counter by the stove in one of his button up shirts watching him cook pancakes. He was in a pair of loose lounge pants and they both had that post-sex glow of happiness to them.
"It was actually very cathartic." Buffy laughed. "Despite ending with me finding out that Spike had turned him."
"I still don't understand how that worked." Angel said. "His chip was still in his head, then, right?"
"Yeah. Maybe he just doesn't remember it going off because the First blocked his memory of it."
Angel flipped the pancakes over and looked at her. "What made you even start talking to that vampire?"
"He knew me from high school. He was a nice guy, I think."
"You don't remember him?"
"Not really. High school was…. Well, I was a little busy to remember everyone I came in contact with. Especially guys." She paused. "Oh …. Where is the high school ten year reunion going to be at? We destroyed Sunnydale."
"You were actually planning on going?"
Buffy shrugged. "Maybe. Who knows if I'll even make it to then?" She ignored the glare he shot her way at the thought of her impending demise. "I think I was just more curious about seeing how many of my graduating class actually made it back alive."
"Well isn't this a cozy scene?" Spike said, suddenly appearing next to Buffy.
"Shop's closed, Spike." Angel said. "Come back and haunt us tomorrow."
"Air's too rarefied up here for my taste, anyhows. Down with the dregs is where I belong, isn't it?"
"You don't belong in the dregs." Buffy said.
Spike smiled at her. "I thought we could hang. Couple of vampires from the old days with their Slayer doing our…. hangy thing."
Angel set the pancakes on a plate and looked over at Spike. "You're starting to feel it, aren't you? How close you are now to hell?"
"What if I am? Not like it's such a big, bleeding deal, is it? If a ponce like you could break out…."
"I never escaped from hell. All I got was a short reprieve. Not even sure how I managed that."
"Oh, put your martyr away, Mahatma. Fred told me all about your great, shining prophecy. Pile up all your good deeds and get the big brass ring handed to you like everything else."
"I'm sorry, what?" Buffy asked.
"You didn't know?"
"Spike…." Angel warned.
"Apparently the big poof here has a prophecy saying that he'll get to be human one day once he's saved the world enough times."
Buffy turned to look at Angel with wide eyes. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because the prophecy's a bunch of bull." Angel said. "They all are."
"Not true and you know it."
"Nothing's written in stone or fated to happen. You save the world, you end up running an evil law firm."
"Or playing Casper with one foot in the fryer." Spike interjected.
Buffy hopped down off the counter and walked over to Angel. "Ok, one: you chose to run this law firm because you believe we can use it for good. Destroy the evil from within. And two: prophecies are not a bunch of bull. I've been a part of enough of them to know that."
"You think any of it matters? The things I did? The lives I destroyed. That's all that's ever gonna count."
"Clearly it's not if there's a prophecy out there that says your good deeds count for something. And clearly you're meant to have your reward!"
"Why?"
"Because I'm here, Angel. We're together. We're fighting side by side. You'll be human again one day and we can finally be two normal people."
"This is why I didn't tell you. I didn't want to get your hopes up."
"My hopes are up because I believe in you, Angel. I believe in us and the good that we both do. Besides, if you really believed you're bound for hell and not the reward this prophecy promises, then why do you even bother fighting?"
"What else are we gonna do?"
Buffy raised an eyebrow at him. "That's a Spike excuse if I ever heard one."
"Hey!" Spike protested. She looked over at him with a questioning glare. "Ok, fair. It is."
She turned back to Angel. "You don't save the world because you're bored or because you have a chip in your head that kind of forces you to fight with the good guys. You didn't get a soul to impress me."
"Hey!" Spike protested again. And again, Buffy shot him a glare. He shrugged. "I'll stop interrupting. Go on with your pep talk."
"Thank you." Buffy looked up at Angel. "You fight for the good guys because that's who you are. You're a good man, Angel. You believe in the good fight. So don't even try handing me that 'what else are we gonna do' line, because I know you better than that." She reached up on tiptoe and kissed him gently. "Now, I'm going to the bathroom and then chowing down on pancakes."
The two men watched her bounce off to the bedroom before Spike said, "So that's it for me, then. I really am going to burn." He shrugged. "Least I got company till then, eh? You and me, together again. Hope and Crosby. Stills and Nash. Chico and the…."
"Yeah, are you done?" Angel asked, going back to the kitchen to get the butter and syrup out.
"Never much for small talk, were you? Always too busy trying to perfect that brooding block-of-wood mystique. God, I love that."
"Not as much as I loved your nonstop yammering."
"The way you always had to be the big swingy, swaggerin' around, barkin' orders…."
"Never listening…."
"Always interrupting…."
"And your hair. What color do they call that, radioactive?"
"Never much cared for you, Liam, even when we were evil."
"Cared for you less."
"Fine."
"Good." Angel set the plates down on the table and paused. "There was one thing about you…."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I never told anybody about this, but I…. I liked your poems."
Spike scowled at him. "You like Barry Manilow."
Angel noticed Spike's attention wasn't on him, but looking at something behind him. He turned, but didn't see anything. "What is it?"
"Don't you see it?"
"See what?"
"Nothing. Too much talk of fire and brimstone." Spike turned to look at Buffy walking back in and stumbled back, startled by something.
"What?" Buffy smoothed down her hair. "I just brushed it. It can't be that bad."
"He's seeing something." Angel said. "Something we can't."
"Spike…." She walked over to him. "What is it?"
"You really can't see them?" Spike asked her.
"Them?" Buffy looked around, but it was only her, Angel, and Spike in the room.
"Ghosts!"
Connor came out of his room. "What's wrong?"
"Spike's seeing ghosts."
"I'm calling Wesley." Angel said, walking over to the phone.
A few minutes later, Buffy and Angel were trying to calm Spike down. Buffy had put on a pair of yoga pants and a sweater and Angel had thrown on a tank top. Connor was dressed in his lounge pants and a Nirvana shirt that Xander had given him. Wesley and Fred walked into the apartment and looked at Spike in confusion.
"Piss off!" Spike yelled. "I'm trying to have a conversation here! Shut up!"
"Who's he talking to?" Wesley asked.
"Ghosts, apparently." Buffy answered.
"Where?" Fred asked.
"Everywhere!" Spike cried. "The blighters are coming out of the woodwork! No, I am not talking to you! Go away!"
Gunn and Eve walked in behind Wesley and Fred. "We just checked with security."
"They do hourly sweeps with the mystics to secure against spectral intrusion." Eve explained.
"So how many are we dealing with?" Angel asked.
"None. Last sweep was ten minutes ago. Spike's the only non-corporeal in the building." Gunn said.
"Check again." Spike demanded.
"Maybe we should go back to the lab?" Fred suggested.
"No, I'm telling you, they're here. You have to check again. Something's happening…. Fred, please, you have to use that perfect brain of yours and get me the hell out of here." Spike faded away mid-sentence.
"Spike?" Buffy asked, looking around for him.
"Where'd he go?" Eve asked.
"He does this sometimes." Angel said.
"We should spread out, see if we can findhim." Fred said. "We just need to find him."
Buffy walked into the lab where Fred was working on equations. She was muttering to herself, "Carry the quotient load across the remainder…. support the imbalance with Lumirea's fourth constant…. I knew it. Damn, I'm good!"
"Did you find something?" Buffy asked.
Fred jumped and slapped a hand to her chest. "Buffy!"
"Sorry! Didn't mean to scare you."
"It's ok. You can't exactly help being stealthy what with being a Vampire Slayer and all."
"Yeah. So, you found something?"
"I think so." Fred turned back to her notes. "Just cancel out the radical…. Which causes a feedback wave that liquefies half of Los Angeles."
"That…. Doesn't sound like something we want."
"Oh! I'll never figure this out!"
"You will. I know you will." Buffy felt a sharp spark of pain on her shoulder and she yelped.
"Are you all right?"
"Uh…." Buffy turned around in a circle. "Spike?"
"You think he's here?"
"Something just touched me. It felt like…. a spark."
Fred moved towards Buffy, but she let out a yelp. Buffy turned, expecting to find Spike, but it was Angel. "Oh! Would everybody please stop doing that?" Fred griped.
"Sorry." Angel said. "I just wanted to let you know…."
"Angel, something was in the lab just now." Buffy said. "I think it was Spike."
"We did another sweep with the mystics. They didn't find anything."
"Screw the mystics. I know what I felt." She looked up at him and he knew that look.
"What are you thinking?"
"Do we have people that can do a séance?"
"We should callWesley." Fred said.
Wesley, Fred, and Gunn were sitting at the table in the darkened conference room across from Buffy, Connor, and Angel. All of them looked a little apprehensive about what was about to happen. Wesley had contacted some of his people and they had called in their best psychic. Eve was bringing the woman up now.
"Perhaps we should reconsider this." Wesley said.
"You think?" Gunn asked. "Seen enough horror flicks to know these things always turn out ugly." Eve escorted a pretty blonde woman in a red dress into the room. "I stand corrected." Buffy rolled her eyes at Gunn.
"All right." The psychic said. "Let's get to it. Eve tells me that you've lost a ghostie."
"Well, he's not actually a ghost technically." Fred said. "More of a…."
"Yeah, whatever." The psychic sat down at the head of the table. "Now, I have pilates at the crack of why-am-I-awake? So we're gonna move this right along. I will mutter a few calming words to get us into the zone, and then we'll see if we can scare up your missing spook. Ok. Clear your minds…. which, judging by the looks of you, won't be that hard."
"Should we hold hands?" Buffy asked.
"Only if you're lonely. Now, zip it and let me do my sweet funky." The psychic inhaled deeply and then loudly exhaled. "I call upon the guardian of souls, the keeper of the passage. Let our breath flow from what is to what has passed. Bless us with the presence of the lost. Grant us communion with the world beyond our reach. Give voice to those who can no longer be heard. I beseech you, open your gates…. reveal your secrets." The woman's eyes popped open. "I sense a presence. Very close…. So much pain…."
"He's in pain?" Fred asked.
"The dark soul…. so much suffering. It's coming… it's coming…. Oh, god. I can feel it. The dark soul…. it's here. It's…. it's the R…. It's the…." The woman grabbed her own throat, trying to pull at her necklace as she choked.
"Whoa!" Gunn cried, jumping up from the table.
"What's happening?" Fred asked.
"Spike, stop it!" Angel demanded.
"That's notSpike." Buffy said, going over to the psychic. "Whoever you are, let her go!" The woman sat up and gasped. She seemed to be regaining her composure despite the slight nosebleed. "Are you all right?" The woman's head suddenly exploded in blood all over Buffy.
Buffy sighed as she rinsed the blood off of her under the hot water of her and Angel's spacious shower. Being covered in blood wasn't new to her, but having a human woman's head explode on her was. Brain bits were apparently harder to get out of your hair that demon blood.
She finally felt like her hair was clean after the fifth wash and ran some conditioner through it. When she opened her eyes after rinsing that out, she noticed the word REAPER written in the mist on the glass door. When she went to get a closer look, the glass suddenly shattered. Buffy jumped back as the bits of glass fell to the ground.
Grabbing a towel and making her way carefully through the broken shards, she went into the bedroom's extremely large walk in closet and got dressed quickly. Angel, Wesley, Gunn, Fred, and Connor were downstairs in Wesley's office researching dark souls. Ignoring the water dripping down the back of her shirt, she rushed down to Wesley's office. "Reaper!" She blurted as she ran in. "Cross reference with the word 'reaper.'"
"Where'd you pull that?" Connor asked.
"It came to me in the shower."
"Here it is." Angel said, holding up his book. "Matthias Pavayne, dark soul number 182."
"Pavayne…." Wesley went over to his computer to do more research.
"Well, there's not much here." Angel lowered the book some so Buffy could look at it as well. "European aristocrat, 18th century. He was a doctor, nicknamed 'The Reaper' for performing unnecessary surgery on his patients."
"Well, what kind of surgery?" Fred asked.
"The kind you don't recover from." Wesley said. "There's a file on him in internal archives, classified histories."
"He worked for Wolfram & Hart?" Gunn asked.
"Color me shocked." Buffy muttered.
"Not exactly." Wesley said. "'Word spread of his unorthodox practices…. fled to California, still under Spanish rule at the time. His arrival coincided with a rash of brutal, ritualistic murders. Pieces of the victims placed in a manner suggesting an intimate knowledge of the dark arts."
"Pieces?" Fred asked.
"'The slaughter continued for the better part of 20 years. The perpetrator was never caught.' At least…. not by the authorities."
"What, you're saying Wolfram & Hart took this guy out?" Angel asked.
"Why would they do that?" Connor asked.
"Sounds like their idea of employee of the month." Gunn added.
"Because they needed his blood." Wesley said. "'Representatives from Wolfram & Hart were looking to build a new branch in what would eventually become Los Angeles. Unfortunately, a Spanish mission was already resting on the site their seers recommended.' They needed an appropriate sacrifice to deconsecrate the grounds."
"So this place is built on the blood of a mass-murdering psychopath?" Buffy asked.
"It would appear so."
"Again, color me shocked."
"But if Pavayne's half as bad as he sounds, he should've been roasting his chestnuts in hell centuries ago." Gunn said.
"You said something about the dark arts, right?" Angel asked. "Maybe he knew enough to figure out a way to stick around."
"That might explain why the mystics can't get a bead on him, too." Fred added.
"What I still don't get are all the ghosts at Wolfram & Hart." Buffy said.
"But there aren't any." Wesley said.
"That's what I mean. High-risk employment. People die here all the time. This place should be full of spooks. So…. what happened to them?"
"Maybe this Pavayne character's munching on them." Gunn said.
"There's a comforting thought." Connor cringed.
"Whatever he's doing to them, we need to get Spike back before he's next." Fred said. She rushed out of the room suddenly.
Wesley, Connor, and Gunn went after her. Angel walked over to Buffy. "Came to you in the shower?"
"I think it was Spike." Buffy admitted. "He wrote it on the steamed up windows."
"Remind me to punch him in the face once he's corporeal again for being a peeping vampire."
Buffy rolled her eyes. "It's nothing he hasn't seen before."
"Yeah, well it's not his to see."
"Hello, possessive-boyfriend-guy."
"Sorry. I just…. I finally have you…. All of you…. and I'm not looking to share you with anyone. Least of all Spike."
"You're not sharing me with anyone, Angel. Especially not Spike. I'm yours. Mind, body, soul, and everything in between. I'm yours. Spike respects that."
"Not if he's sneaking up on you in the shower. Remind me to punch him in the face for being a peeping vampire."
"He needed to tell us about Pavayne. No punching Spike for that." She took his hand. "Come on. Let's go science Spike back into corporeal land." They headed down to Fred's lab where Connor, Wesley, and Gunn were staring with their mouths agape at Fred. She was writing formulas on the windows with a dry erase marker.
"That's never good." Angel quipped.
"What? Oh, no, I…." Fred looked around. "I just ran out of white board. I'm not crazy. Again."
"Just scary smart." Gunn said.
"You really think this will bring Spike back?" Connor asked.
"Well, I had to extrapolate a new variation on interdimensional plasma dynamics on the fly, but…." Fred glanced at her equations. "If the math holds…."
"All right." Angel said. "First we'll try to get Spike back, and then we'll deal with Pavayne."
"Wait. For this to work, it's going to require a massive surge of dark energy to catalyze the process."
"How massive?" Buffy asked.
"The equivalent of nuclear evil."
"Well, where the hell are we supposed to find that?" Angel asked.
"Well," Wesley offered. "There is a legend that tells of a volcano deep in the forbidden jungles of South Africa…."
"Or I might know a place a little closer to home." Gunn interrupted.
Buffy gripped Angel's hand tightly as the white light faded away to reveal they were standing with Gunn in an endless white room that vaguely resembled a warehouse. In the elevator, Gunn had punched in a series of buttons and a big white button had appeared at the top. When he hit that button, the elevator had flared white and dropped them in this place.
"The white room?" Angel asked.
"Why do you think they call it that?" Buffy asked sarcastically.
"How are we still in the building when we're standing in a place that technically doesn't exist?" Gunn asked.
"So, this is your brainstorm?" Angel asked. "You want to try and to snip off a piece of the conduit that connects Wolfram & Hart to the other dimensions."
"'Want' may be a hair strong."
"Last conduit took the form of that creepy little girl. No telling what the new one's decided to look like."
"Actually, it's not that bad…." The growl of an animal could be heard around them. "If you like cats."
"I'm kind of a dog person." Buffy said.
The animal snarled. "Ix-nay on the og-day."
"Um...look, we're not here to ruffle anything." Angel held up an empty container. "We were just wondering if we maybe could borrow a couple of whiskers or…."
The animal snarled again and Gunn took the container from Angel, walking a few steps away. "Whoa. Hey, easy. It's me. Charles Gunn. You know I wouldn't be here if the situation wasn't heavy. Just asking for a little help: Me to you, personal favor. What do you say?" There was a soft growl and then a black panther appeared walking towards Gunn. "Yeah. Who's a good kitty?"
"It's kinda pretty." Buffy said. She and Angel stiffened as the panther turned its eyes on them. It began to slowly circle them and Buffy moved slightly closer to Angel. The cat finally came around and sat down in front of Buffy. She looked at Angel and Gunn uncertainly before reaching out to pet the cat.
As soon as her fingers touched the velvet fur, the white room became dark. She turned away to find that Gunn and Angel were gone. Voices chanted around her, but she couldn't see anyone. A doorway appeared behind her and the frame was ablaze with unnatural fire. She blinked and discovered she was surrounded by robed figures. Behind her, a figure was being beaten by three robed men. She rushed to help him, but her hands went right through him.
Turning to call for help, she was startled as Angel suddenly appeared as he jumped through the flaming doorway. She breathed a sigh of relief that he was there, but he couldn't see her. She tried to call his name, but it sounded muffled. Angel walked over to he beaten man and hauled him to his feet, pulling the bag off his head.
"Thank you. Thank you." The man said.
Angel's face change and he bit into the man's neck. He drank the man's blood deeply before stepping back and twisting his head, breaking the man's neck. He dropped the body to the floor as one of the hooded figures moved forward. The figure had on a mask on, but the red hand it raised gave it away as a demon. The demon's hand glowed with a fiery symbol on its palm as it reached out to Angel's bared chest. It pressed its palm over Angel's heart, branding him.
"The circle entwined." The demon said behind his mask.
"Embrace this worthy son." The group intoned.
"The thorn draws blood."
"The thorn is the power, and the power is absolute."
The demon held its hand out to Angel. "Welcome to the fold."
Angel reached out and shook the demon's hand.
The room flared white again and then Buffy was standing between Gunn and Angel in the elevator. She felt light-headed and fell back against the wall. Angel turned and grabbed her, holding her up. He and Gunn were saying something, but it was muffled.
Then a bubble seemed to pop and she could hear.
"Buffy?" Angel asked. "Are you ok?"
"What happened?" Buffy asked.
"What do you mean?"
"I…." She saw the container had dark liquid in it. "It gave you it's pee?"
Gunn looked at the container in confusion. "This isn't…."
"You were there." Angel said. "You were petting the panther and it allowed Gunn to take some of its blood." He gestured at the container.
Before Buffy could say anything, the elevator doors opened. They walked into Fred's lab where she, Connor, and Wesley were setting up the machine. "Make sure it's calibrated to minus .058." Fred ordered Wesley. She turned to Gunn. "Did you get it?"
Gunn handed over the container. "Make it count. Told me we ain't getting anymore."
"It talks? I didn't hear it talk." Angel said.
"Maybe you weren't listening right."
Fred put the flask into a metal tube in the machine. "All right, I think we're almost ready."
"How do we let Spike know?" Connor asked.
"Won't have to." Wesley said.
Fred reached over and turned on the machine. "This baby puts out enough juice to light up ghost city. Anything remotely spectral around here is about to get the tinglies." The machine whirred loudly and a few minutes later, Fred's scanner began to beep. "He's here. Spike, step into the circle! Hurry! We've only got one chance at making you corporeal agai…." She was suddenly cut off as she grasped at invisible hands clutching her throat.
"Fred!" Wesley cried.
"It's Pavayne!" Gunn yelled.
"He's killing her." Angel said as he, Buffy, and Connor charged forward. They were hit by an invisible barrier and thrown backwards. Suddenly, the machine activated and a figure appeared on the floor in the middle of the ring. Buffy and Angel got to their feet and walked up to the machine's ring while Gunn and Wesley went to help Fred. Connor moved up behind his father.
"No. No!" Pavayne yelled. "Defilers! I'll cut you into nothing! I'll feast on your brains. I'll swim in lakes of your own blood."
"You'll shut the hell up." Buffy said, punching Pavayne so hard he flew across the room.
Spike suddenly appeared next to her. "Don't kill him. If he becomes a spirit again, we'll never stop him."
"Fine. No killing." Buffy moved towardsPvayne. "Just a whole lot of bruising." She punched him again in the temple, knocking him out.
Buffy stared out the window of the penthouse later that night. Connor had gone out with Nina for a midnight stroll. Wesley, Gunn, and Fred had all gone to bed. Angel was down in permanent storage with Eve locking Pavayne in his cell there.
Buffy had wanted to clear her head and figure out what that vision had been. So, she had retreated to the penthouse and gave Angel a run for his money in brooding. She was certain that she hadn't been meant to see that vision. Nothing indicated to her why she should feel that, but her gut told her the conduit hadn't meant to show her that. Or if it had, then why? She looked down at the piece of paper in her hand that she had drawn Angel's brand on. It was a circle with spikes or thorns sticking out of it.
"Hey." Angel said behind her, startling her. Her hand automatically balled into a fist and crumpled the paper. "A little jumpy, huh?" He watched her smooth the paper back out. "What's that?"
"Have you ever seen this before?" Buffy handed him the slip of paper.
Angel examined it for a long moment. "No. Should I have?"
"I don't know. I was hoping you could tell me what it is."
"I've got no idea." She searched his face and knew that he wasn't lying. "Are you ok?"
"I don't know, honestly." Buffy walked over and sat down on the couch. "Earlier…. In the elevator…. I was coming out of a vision."
"A vision? I thought you only got those in your dreams."
"Usually, yeah, but when I touched that cat…."
Angel came over and sat down next to her. "What did you see?" Buffy stared at his face for a long moment. So long that he started to worry. "Buffy?"
"I saw…. You. You jumped through this doorway that was on fire and then you killed someone. You were surrounded by these figures in robes and one of them branded that symbol into your chest. It was…. An initiation, Angel. For you."
"I killed someone? Are you sure it was me? Maybe Willow's spell…."
"I know the difference between Angelus and you. I've always been able to see the soul behind your eyes. Trust me, it was you." Angel looked down at the symbol. "I don't know what this means yet, but we can't let it happen."
"Visions usually have a way of coming true."
"Not this one. We won't let. I mean…. Look, I wasn't there with you. Maybe…."
"What?"
"Maybe something happens to me and it…."
"Drives me over the edge." He nodded. "That's not entirely out of the realm of possibilities. We can finally be together and if I lost you now, I…. Well, it wouldn't be pretty."
"So, we'll stop this. We will figure this out."
"You sound so sure."
"I got this vision for a reason, whatever it may be. And we're together now. Nothing will keep us apart again."
He reached out and gently cupped her face. "I love you, Buffy."
"I love you, Angel." They closed the distance between them, neither of them admitting how scared they were of this vision coming to pass.