This story takes place after Buffy'

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. We learn Cythia's story, and the prophecy is reveled.

I know sometimes you feel
Like you don't fit in
And this world doesn't know
What you have within
When I look at you
I see something rare
A rose can grow anywhere
And there is no one I know that can compare

Black and Blue: What Makes You Different?
By Cobalite Ice

"More trouble than you can imagine. Whatever Dru's giving you, could I double it?"

"I doubt it, and I couldn't use double anyway. What I need, I only need one." She smiled, showing her fangs. "For a man essentially about to die, you seem pretty calm."

"I don't think you'll really do it. You seem the type of woman who has some sense."

"I'm not a woman anymore than you are a man." She stroked her fun-y muzzle. "You wish to know how this happened?"

"Yes." Liarn stalled for time.

"My brother and I worked as a team. Our master was a woman named Andrea. She treated us as her own children. One day, she hired us out to a law firm. They wanted us spy on suspected murderer for them. We took the Master's cat and a Draken lizard, and cast a Seeing Eye spell. The cat because we always used the cat and no one notices a stray in a park, and the Draken because it's small, and can turn invisible. They sabotaged it. Their client was one of our enemies. They decided the only way to take out a grand master was to hurt her emotionally. The spell was intended to burden our life-force with an animal soul, draining our magic. But when the dust settled, I was part feline, Chandler was part lizard."

Liam remebered the man who'd pretended to steal his soul. A man with blue skin and yellow eyes. Just like a Draken lizard. "Your brother, I think we've met."

"You've seen Chandler?" She stopped her work and came towards him. "Is he well? Did he look alright? It's been years since I've seen him."

"He was working for the other side, I never saw his face. They hired him to do this, he refused." Liam gauged her reaction. "What's your price, Cynthia?"

"To free myself, I must take nine human souls. Poetic, isn't it When I take yours, I'll have my quota."

"He's mad. You'll unleash a monster bent on world destruction."

"My client has requested a lethe spell be cast upon you after your soul has been removed. Selective amnesia. He'll know what year it is and what cars are, but not know how he knows. He'll never know the suffering that drove him mad."

"Cynthia, please, don't do this."

"I have to. I can't live like this anymore."
-----
"What now?" Buffy whispered. She and Spike had made it to the church without killing each other, and reunited with Angel and Riley, who had also refrained from bloodshed.

"We have to find out what's going on in there." Riley peered in the window. "Angel's chained to the wall, and there's ... there's a giant cat guarding him."

"You're kidding." Spike took a look, and burst out laughing. "It's a bloody cat demon."

Buffy let out a giggle, then looked somber. "This is gonna get confusing. How do we tell the two of you apart?"

"When we met earlier, he said to call him Liam." Angel ignored Buffy's annoyed look.

"You knew about this and didn't tell me?"

"I tried, and you jumped me!"

"I keep forgetting she's only 17 now." Riley whispered. "She's so..."

"Annoying? It was Alcatha that changed her, mate. That's when I started falling for her." Spike watched them bicker for a second. "We are trying to sneak up on a psychic vampire and an unknown wearing high level caster robes."

They looked embarrassed. "Sorry. What the hell is going on in there?"
-----
There shall be three chosen, and their final sacrifice will prevent the light's defeat at Armageddon.

The first shall, his greatest fear realized, become what he has most reviled The second shall greet the morning light.

The third's life shall be ended by a love unrealized

Should any other fate befall the three, things shall revert to what was.

"Could it be any more cryptic?" Buffy asked, dismayed.

"At least we know the second one doesn't refer to me." Riley tried, and failed to break the tension.

Angel sighed. "We can assume that one refers to the other me. He won't want to stick around after this is over. it would be to difficult."

"Why?" Buffy asked.

"Because you're everything to me, to him. When we talked, he told me how much it hurt him to leave you. To see you with another man, even one that looked like himself, would just kill him."

They drifted into one of those patent Buffy/Angel moments no one dared interrupt. Except for Riley and Spike, who found it both sickening and disturbing. Riley cleared his throat for the second time that day. "So know we know what Fate's plan is. What's ours?"
-----
"Please don't do this." Liam was reduced to begging.

"We've been through this, twice. I am not staying like this for another year!" She grabbed his head, and forced open his jaw. She poured the liquid from earlier down his throat.

"Please tell me that wasn't Doximal."

"Among other things. I decided Bliss alone wouldn't be affective. I also included a dose of MDMA."

Liam was embarrassed. "I don't know what that is."

"Two years in LA and you don't know the club drugs. " She laughed. "It's Ecstasy. Surely you know that one."

Liam started to pray. Not to the god of his childhood who didn't listen to creatures like him, but the nameless powers that held his fate in their hands.
-----
Spike dropped down from peeping in the window. "She's gone and drugged the bloke."

"What's that gonna do? So we'll carry him out." Buffy wondered what the big deal was.

"She gave him X, Slayer. Bound soul or not, we're gonna end up with Angelus on our hands."
-----
He could feel the drug working it's way through his system. He could hear the demon yanking on his chains, whispering how easy it would be to let go.

"I'm sorry about how much this upsets you." Cynthia was watching him carefully. "Usually, this spell kills a human. If you want, I'll do the same for you."

"And violate your contract? What would Wolfram and Heart say if they could see their creation now?"

"You shut up." She smacked him. "You have no idea what they did to us. Chandler and I were lucky to escape with our lives."

"And I was lucky to escape with my soul, which you seem all to eager to take away from me." Liam was angry now. How dare she?

"I'm sorry, I didn't know. Will you accept my offer?"

"Yes. A stake to the heart, or severing of the head. What ever you do, make it quick."

"I like you, I really do, and I'm sorry about this. But I was sixteen when we were changed. I lost my youth to this spell, and my power. I was a white caster, dammit! I was supposed to be the next grand master. The accident corrupted my essence. I'll never be able to do high level magics like we did together back in New York. Cynthia and Chandler died that night, at least to our friends and family. I want my purpose back. Can you understand that?"

"Yes." Liam closed his eyes. "I lost my purpose in a car crash a few weeks ago. And I'd do anything to save her. Even die." His irony was lost on his captor.