16

16

Buffy recoiled inwardly at the emotions carried in that one uttered word. So much pain… longing… love? How could this be? How could this be Angelus, when he sounds so much like her Angel?

Buffy steeled herself against her conflicting emotions, tightened her grip on the wooden stake in her hand and repeated, "Where's Spike?"

"He's safe," Angel answered. He cautiously started to move towards the woman standing in the centre of the destroyed living room. "He's with Cordelia and Wesley."

"Good old Cordy and Wesley," Buffy snorted, fighting down the doubt concerning the man slowly edging towards her. "Guess I know why they didn't call with the good news. Did they make willing minions? Or did you have to break them like you did Drusilla?"

Angel frowned. He was getting a little irritated with the blonde woman's tone. "What? No! Buffy, listen…"

"I don't have to listen to anything you have to say, demon. Not anymore! Now let's just fight and get it over with. I have an appointment for a manicure at 10."

Buffy leapt at Angel, stake raised. Angel sidestepped the Slayer easily, blocking her spin kick and a roundhouse punch, but not returning the blows.

"I don't want to fight you!" he said, ducking another punch.

"Oh, really?" Buffy sneered between a fruitless jab of her stake and yet another blocked kick. "Let me guess. You want to try again? See if we can make it work this time? Sorry. Been there, done that. Not interested."

Angel stepped into Buffy's space with lightning speed, pinning her arms to her side. "Damn it, Buffy! Will you shut up and listen!" he all but shouted at the struggling woman.

Buffy bucked in the vampire's hands, but his preternatural strength was enough to hold her fast.

"I'm not him," Angel tried to explain. "I'm not the one who attacked Will, or you."

"Lies!" she spat and wrenched herself free of Angel's strong hands. "I will not listen to more of your lies, Angelus!"

Angel drew back as if struck. Hearing Buffy calling him by that sadist's name had wounded him more than any punch or kick she might have delivered could.

"I'm sorry to interrupt this highly entertaining little melodrama of yours, but actually Brooding Boy's telling the truth."

All the blood drained from Buffy's face as she watched Angelus emerging from the shadows he'd been hiding in. "How…?" she stammered, her mind reeling. "Who…?"

"Oh, allow me," Angelus offered with a deep bow. "Let me introduce myselves. I'm Angelus, the evil fuck that's going to kill your friends, kill your family and kill you. He…" the amused vampire pointed to his growling Other. "..is Angel, your pitiful, soul filled ex-boyfriend who'll be doing his bestest best to stop me. Isn't that right, Brother?"

"Angelus," Angel growled warningly, moving protectively in front of Buffy. "It's time to make amends for all your evil. It's time for you to die."

"Are you ready?" Angelus asked knowingly. "Are you ready to kill me?"

Angel answered by leaping at his twin, fangs bared and fists swinging. Buffy could only stand back and watch the bizarre scene play out before her. Her mind couldn't quite grasp seeing the man she loved more than life itself and the demon she hated to the depths of her soul together in one room tearing each other limb from limb.

"That tender farewell you had out there… so very touching," Angelus sneered into Angel's face, bringing his fist up to crash into the ensouled vampire's jaw. "It just made me want to puke!"

"Jealous that I have someone to say goodbye to?" Angel asked cuttingly. He wiped the blood his soulless brother had forced from his lip away and leered at Angelus.

The idea of Angelus being jealous of this pathetic carbon copy enraged him. He roared and flew at Angel, fists flying, but Angel expected this move. In fact, he counted on it.

With one fluid motion, Angel seized the reaching clawed hand of his adversary, stepped to his left and twisted. An antique oak table exploded under the dispatched vampire's bulk.

Angelus growled dangerously as he pulled himself to his feet, wiping dust and wood off his shirt. "Good move, Brother," he said, keeping his back turned to Angel, not wanting to unveil the stake he'd salvaged from the ruined table. "But not good enough." His movements were a blur; the stake turned a deadly wooden missile seeking the other vampire's soul-carrying heart.

Angel's reaction matched his evil twin's in speed and accuracy, the blade slicing through the air only registering when the piece of wood meant for Angel's heart ended its path on the floor in two neat halves.

"Seemed adequate to me," he drawled, taking immense pleasure in Angelus' impotent fury.

Angelus backed up to the wall, his watchful eyes never leaving his opponent. "Swords it is then," he said determinedly, picking one of the mounted blades from the wall and testing it in his skillful hand.

With powerful battle cries, the two vampires charged one another. The clang of steel meeting steel rang out.

"You can't defeat me," Angelus hissed in Angel's identical face. "I am you."

"You're wrong, Demon!" Angel answered. He blocked a swipe from his evil Other's sword and twisted with his wrist, sending Angelus' sword crashing to the far wall. He drove his demon to his knees with a well-placed kick and said as he brought the sword down, severing Angelus' head from his shoulders, "You are nothing but a bad memory."

"Goodbye," Angel whispered to Angelus as he watched the demon's body turning to dust, sifting to the floor.

Sudden pain knifed through the victorious vampire's chest, forcing him to his knees. Angel screamed, clawing at his body as the remaining part of what used to be Angelus fought for dear life.

"Angel!" Buffy cried from the corner she stood frozen in.

Her lover's cries of agony spurred her into motion, carrying her to his side. She laid her hand, ice cold with fright, on Angel's chest and felt the searing heat radiating off his skin as the defeated demon escaped the body that held it for over two and a half centuries.

"Angel?" she whispered, feeling the slow pulse thumping against her palm.

Angel looked at the hopeful face of his beloved. "Buffy," he breathed. He reached up and cupped her warm cheek, feeling the wetness of her tears.

"Angel," Buffy sobbed, not daring to believe the actual breath touching her face. She showered kisses down on her beautiful, human man's face, tasting the life flowing through him.

"I love you," Angel whispered, trying to convey an eternity of emotion into his words. His final words.

"Angel? No… no… no…" Buffy chanted, shaking her head in denial. She refused to believe that Angel, her soul mate, her love, was dying right before her eyes. She watched as the light of Angel's soul dimmed from his dark eyes that bathed her in so much love. She watched as the breath stopped passing through his lips and the beat of his heart ceased.

"NNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!" The wail tore from her broken heart as Angel's lifeless hand fell from her cheek to his lifeless body.

**********************

"He won." Spike's words broke the deafening silence that had fallen on the people gathered in Xander's living room.

Cordelia pulled her hands free from Spike's. She hadn't let go of the blonde vampire since they drove away from the mansion what seems like a lifetime ago. "Oh no…" she choked back a sob, not wanting to hear the truth being spoken by her friend's vampire Childe's.

Spike didn't want to hear the words out loud any more than the crying woman backing away from him. He stood and tenderly folded her into his arms, his own tears drying in her dark hair. Quietly, he spoke the words his blood was screaming.

"Angel's gone."