This story takes place after Buffy's twentieth birthday, but before Crush. Feedback can be sent to cobalite@yahoo.com. No flames please, they give my deleted messages folder indigestion. I own nothing. Please don't sue, all you'll get is my CD collection. Angel leaves something in the library, and his otherself finds it. Spike starts writing poetry again.
We, we're standing strong
'Cause of what you've done
This one goes out to you, you, you
You make us feel like we've just begun
And this one goes out to you
Black and Blue: Everyone
By Cobalite Ice
Angel looked ragged the next morning. "Did I leave my coat here?"
Giles distractedly pointed towards the table. He'd spent all of last night with that Riley fellow trying to decipher the prophecy, and they still couldn't figure it out. The disturbing realization that Jenny Calendar was unknown to Riley, who claimed to have met Buffy less than two years from now, was terrifying. "More dreams?"
"All she'll say is she hurt me. Don't hit me when I say this, but she's awful distracting at night. I think I slept for five minutes tops."
"I can only imagine." Giles rubbed his eyes. "I'm supposed to meet Jenny for coffee. There's a college student, Riley, coming for these papers. Make sure he gets them?"
"Sure." Angel grabbed them, and sat down after grabbing a dream dictionary. He wondered if stabbing your boyfriend was in there. A few minutes later, a young man, presumably this Riley walked in.
Riley did a double take as he saw Angel sitting at the table. 'Wrong Angel.' It seemed so odd to see the broody man relaxed. "Is Giles around?"
Angel shoved the ream of paper in his general direction. "He left this for you. Are you the code breaker?"
"I guess you could say that. This is a real difficult one, there's several key numbers." Riley stared at the numbers swimming on the page. "I need more sleep."
"So do I. It's my girl that prophecy's about. We're hoping it will help us end her dreams. They're really horrible."
"Dreams?"
"Yeah. She dreamt about killing me. It had her really upset last night." Angel noticed the subtle change in Riley's demeanor. "What?"
"Alcatha."
"Is that supposed to mean something?" Angel barely had a chance to blink before Riley was on his feet and running for the door. "Hey, where are you going?"
He nearly ran Buffy over on his way out. She gave his retreating backside an annoyed look. "What was that about?"
"I wish I knew."
-----
"This is it." Spike pointed to where the door to the vault was hidden. "I'll just finished chipping away the concrete, and..."
"What's wrong?" Angel asked.
"Concrete. Were there many ancient Roman Native Americans?" Spike lit a cigarette, the realization a dark one.
"I doubt it. Why?"
"Because this vault is supposedly thousands of years old, and concrete didn't come into use in America until they built the Erie Canal. This was something recent."
They opened the door to an empty vault. Angel knelt in one corner. "Exactly what did the legend say?"
"The ring would be with what humanity built, but demon dwelt, in the Valley of the Sun. I guessed right that it was the sewers, this was the only chamber not on the plans." Spike looked to see what had Angel so interested. "Bloody Hell." A construction watermark.
"The Mayor must have had this place set up as a storage vault. This stuff must not be moved here until he gets elected to office." Angel slammed his fist in frustration. "Time to switch to plan two."
-----
"Angel." Jenny nearly jumped out of her skin. "Do you have to be so quiet?"
Angel didn't answer, just sat down across from her. "Tell me everything you know about my curse."
"What makes you think I know anything?" Jenny evaded.
"I know who you are, Jana. I know why you're here."
Angel eyes were cold and empty, more like the monster he hunted than himself, and Jenny suddenly felt nervous. "How did you find out?"
"I take it Rupert hasn't told you yet." Angel muttered. "Listen, you're making me very uncomfortable, so I'm gonna leave, but you're going to go talk to your uncle, and figure out how to get rid of the rider on my curse."
"Rider?" Jenny asked, confused, to his retreating back. She found Rupert in the library. "How did you find out?"
"Find what out? We haven't cracked the code yet." He smiled, and pulled out a chair for her. "The young man I have working on it for me is working on it right now, driving his roommates insane."
'He doesn't know. Whatever Angel found out, he didn't tell Rupert.' Jenny mentally thanked him. "I ran into Angel. He's acting odd."
"That wasn't Angel then." Giles took of his glasses, and rubbed his temples. "Jenny, three years from now, just after her twentieth birthday, Buffy is going to die."
"That's horrible, but you said you hadn't deciphered the prophecy yet."
"The dreams Buffy are having are vision of a possible future. The man you met was quite likely the Angel from that time period. He and two other men have come back to prevent a chain of events that will eventually lead to Buffy dying before her time. Destiny came to them the night of her funeral, and asked them to change history."
Jenny looked at him as if he were insane, and then realized in light of the Hellmouth they were sitting on, it sounded perfectly logical. "Angel and who else? Did you get to meet your future self?"
"That's the same thought I'd had, but Angel's companions are.... rather unsuspected. A young man who is part of a military unit that hunts demons, Riley Finn, the one with me last night." Giles had to see the look on her face. "He also brought Spike."
"Spike, as in William the Bloody, the vampire Buffy dropped a church organ on?"
"That would be him. Sometime in the next few months, he'll.... I don't think I can even say it." Giles held back his laughter. "Let us say he'll undergo a life altering change that will lead him into Buffy's service."
Jenny didn't bother holding back hers. "All joking aside, we have two vampires and a commando here to stop some cataclysmic event. Do you know what is it?"
"They won't tell me." Giles looked annoyed.
But as Jenny suddenly realized, she already knew. If the future Angel felt so uncomfortable around her, there could only be one reason. At some point in the future, his curse had broken, and even after it had been recast, he still didn't trust her. Especially if after three years she hadn't been able to fix it. "Rupert, there's something you should know."
-----
"Watcher."
Giles almost knocked over his chair. "Spike! What are you doing here?" He reached for a cross.
"Relax, Watcher, I'm not gonna hurt you. Got a birthday gift for the Slayer." Spike produced a pale blue envelope.
"What is it?"
"It's an arm in a box. What does it look like? It's a card. Just don't tell her where it came from." Spike threw the card onto the table.
"They were telling the truth. You really are in love with her."
"Don't spread it around." Spike left, and Giles sat down. It hadn't been the best of weeks. Not at all.
-----
Buffy peered into the package Cordelia had given her, and looked wide-eyed at the other girl. "Cordelia!"
"What? Don't tell me you can't think of uses for some of that." The brunette was enjoying Buffy's embarrassment.
"What did she give you?" Willow asked the bright red slayer. Upon answer, she turned the color of her hair.
There was a single card still sitting on the table, and Buffy opened it. "Who wrote this? Come on, I'm serious, who wrote this?" She passed it around the table.
She is light, she is love,
She is redemption, she is the sun,
She is the only light in three skies
All now denied her shine
For the one with her heart,
Was forced to flee
To the city of angels
Before the demon was freed
For the one who picked up the pieces,
Has left this shore,
For the love in his heart
Has brought only scorn
And the one who stayed,
He too is alone,
For the light does not want him
And darkness will not take him back
Angel looked at it for a long moment before passing it to Oz, the newest addition to their group. Later, as everyone left for home, Angel stayed. "Giles, I need to talk to you."
"Is something wrong?"
"I know who wrote the poem." Angel started pacing. "I can't believe I hadn't noticed, but it makes sense why we haven't heard much from him lately. Giles, that's Spike's handwriting."
This was something the Watcher hadn't expected. "How could you know that?"
"He was a poet before Drusilla turned him. Something odd is going on. Take my coat. I left it here overnight, and odd things happened to it."
"Like what?" Giles saw a flash of the other Angel throwing his duster on the table next to the one of this time. They had been switched, and nothing good could come of it.
"For one thing, I don't own a Batman wallet." Angel drew it from his pocket, "And the money inside is all issued over the next few years."
"That is rather odd," Giles stalled, but Angel continued.
"There's also several pictures." Angel flipped open the wallet. "Cordelia Chase, and two men I don't know. My own handwriting on the back identifies them as Wesley and Gunn, and the caption reads 'The Hyperion Lives Again'. It's a hotel in Los Angeles where I spent part of 1959. Another one, featuring a man presumably named Doyle arguing with Cordelia, called 'History Repeating Itself'. One of myself and Buffy, at her Senior Prom, 'Wild Horses' scrawled on the back in her writing." Angel noticed Giles wasn't looking at him. "There's more, but I take it you already know how this happened."
"Yes, but do go on."
"A business card for Angel Investigations, with the address of the aforementioned hotel on it, my name as the PI. Moving on from the wallet to my pockets, my coat has decided it's time for me to start smoking again." Angel threw a pack of cigarettes and a lighter onto the table. "Haven't touched them in thirty years. Now tell me what's going on before I bring up the sketches of Darla and Drusilla."
"I can assure you that this isn't a ploy to make you doubt your sanity, it was a mistake." Giles was unsure how to continue. "This probably isn't the best time to tell you, but we've determined the source of Buffy's dreams."
"Don't get off subject, Giles."
"I'm not. The question I have to ask is, do you really want to know your own future?"