Black and Blue

I am so sorry about the delay. Sailor Twillight, who was complained who long it was between chapters? It's her fault. She was supposed to write an interlude. 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. Dru's plan is revealed, Spike and Buffy chat while Riley and Angel have it out.

Oh I will love you more than that
I won't say the words
Then take them back
Don't give loneliness a chance
Baby listen to me when I say
I will love you more than that

Black and Blue: More Than That
By Cobalite Ice

"Can I help you?" The boy at the door seemed vaugly familiar, but she couldn't place him.

Riley took in her appearance. A man's shirt with a black robe thrown over it. It really did hurt just to look at her. "I need to talk to Angel."

"No!"

"No?" Riley's voice got a little high. "It's an emergency."

"I don't care. Unless the world is on the brink of destruction, I'm not waking him up."

"The world is on the brink of destruction."

Buffy sighed. "I guess you can't change some things."

"Tell him it's Riley."

Buffy slipped back into the bedroom. She hated to wake him, she'd never seen him look so peaceful, so happy. "Angel, there's someone named Riley here to see you."

Angel's eyes drifted open. He hadn't really heard her, just reacted to her presence. So Angel did what came naturally. He kissed her. For a minute, Buffy forgot what she came in for. "What did you say?"

Buffy's brain was a muddled mess. All she wanted to do was crawl back into bed with him. "I can't remember."

Riley cleared his throat from the doorway. "Angel, I hate to bother you..."

"Oh yeah. Someone's here to see you." Buffy turned red.

"Why are you here?" Angel looked equally embarrassed.

"You've been kidnapped."

"He'd been what?" Buffy laughed, but then she noticed Angel hadn't joined in. "Angel?"

"Who took him?"

"Dru. She must have had a vision. She knows we're here, she must."

"I've seen you somewhere before." Then Buffy thought of memories not her own. "We've fought together."

Riley seemed surprised. "Not yet, but eventually."

"A time traveler. Sent back to prevent my death. You, Spike, and Angel. How close am I?"

Deja vu. "Dead on. I have good news, bad news, and worse news."

"Good news first." Buffy didn't know if she could take much more.

"We've translated the prophecy. The bad news is, if we die any other way than how it happened in the original time line, everything we've done is erased."

"That means Jenny would be dead, and you'd be evil." Buffy latched onto Angel. She couldn't lose him now.

"What could be worse?" Angel was afraid to ask.

"We don't think killing Angel is what she had in mind."
-----
"Dru, let me down." Liam hung chained to the wall.

"No." She sat quietly, brushing Miss Edith's hair. "I can't hurt you like I want to, Daddy, because the moon says things will get just terrible and everything will happen as foretold." She set her doll down, and ran her nails along his cheek. "We won't let that happen. To protect you, the Powers gave you life without reality. I can punish the other, and bring my Daddy back through you."

"Everytime we meet, it's the same thing. Kill me, steal my soul. Get a new song, Dru. My soul is bound, as is his."

"From happiness." She smiled again. "Soon, very soon, the caster will arrive, after she shops for her spell. What's an barbiturate?"

If it was just magic, he could have some hope of resisting. If it was just a drug, he might have been able to fight it off, but if whatever caster she'd hired knew to combine them... He had to keep her talking. "Where's Spike?"

"The bookish man took him to Nepal to see an old friend. I'll be back before he notices I'm gone." Dru smiled. "He still loves me, not like the other Spike. We'll keep the nasty slayer away from him this time."
-----
"No, I refuse to hunt with him." Buffy shot down Angel's suggestion. "He tried to kill me a few months ago."

"It was years ago for me, luv. Besides, with this chip, I can't harm anything human."

"Buffy, please. We have to start looking now, or sunrise will keep us in the sewers." Angel gave Buffy that meting look that always turned her protests into butter.

"For you." She conceded. "Alright, Fangless Wonder, lets go."

"You really hate me, don't you?" It had been a long time since taunting the Slayer had been this much fun.

"Yes, that's why I can't understand her."

"Slayer, what Buffy went through changed her. Maybe that's why they've sent you the dreams. To change you into her without making you go through all she did, to keep what happened from happening."

"Do you really think the Powers will regret saving me like this? Do you think they should have just arranged it so I didn't get hit?"

"No."

"Why?"

"You're not the only one who dreams, Slayer. I don't know about Riley, but Angel's been dreaming about our future in the other time line too."

"What happened that made you change your mind?"

"I made a fool of myself, and a god beat the crap out of me. And your mother.Slayer, you make sure Joyce takes care of herself."

"Okay." Buffy didn't know what he was talking about. Most of her memories related directly to the three men who had come to save her."

The factory was abandoned. "Where else would she go?"

"I'm thinking."
-----
"I don't like you."

Riley wondered in how many realities those words had been said by this vampire regarding him. "It's unanimous then. I don't like you, or him either. He and I were shoved into this to save Buffy, which I'm all for. But the Powers that Fuck Around are making me arrange it so you end up with the only woman I've ever loved. So tell me, almighty Angel, why the hell did I ever think bringing you along was a good idea?"

Angel stopped walking. "Because if he's still me, and Destiny came to the three of you that night and said Arrange things so she and Riley have happily ever after' we would have done it. Because all we want is for Buffy to be happy. I may not like you, but I respect you. If you'd sent me with Spike, he'd be dust in the wind. If I'd gone with Buffy, not much searching would have gotten done. Is that a good enough answer?"

"It'll do." They were standing in front of a partially demolished building. "Where the hell are we?"

"It used to be a church."
-----
Dru stared out the window. "She's early!" She unlocked the door, and let the robed woman in. "Promptness is a good thing in a sorceress."

"Thanks, I think." The woman had a typical response to Dru's strangeness. Liam took a moment to not her appearance. She wore gray robes indicating she held no allegiance to either dark or light. Like a Japanese ronin, she was a sorceress without a master, a soldier of fortune. Unfortunately, her hood hid her eyes. Seeing her expression would have given him some indication of her personality.

Dru wandered out, and the caster began her work. "Why are you doing this?"

"It's work."

"Do you really need the money that badly?" She'd driven up in a new car, she couldn't be that hard up for cash.

"It's not money I'm after. My price is something only the desperate will pay."

"What is your price?"

"That's not for you to know." She shook of her robes, reveling her face.

Liam swallowed hard. "What's your name?"

"Cynthia." She was feline in form, with yellow eyes.

"That's a human name."

"Yes, it is." She dissolved a few pills in some alcohol.

"How did this happen to you?"

"I was betrayed." She took in his chains. "As were you, I take it."

"Not betrayed. Just stupid. How did this happen to you." She didn't answer him. "You don't realize what will happen if you do what Dru's asked you to do."

She slit his wrist, and let it drain into the goblet with the pills. "You're just one demon. How much trouble can you cause?"