Chapter Three

Buffy and Dawn ran into Xander's bedroom, where Spike was lying on the bed, screaming bloody murder. Buffy leaned over Spike's body and helped him into a sitting position, Dawn on his other side.

"What is it?" Dawn asked, eyes wide with concern and fear. Buffy's face wore the same expression.

Spike shook his head. "Dreams are a wish your heart makes." he muttered, talking downwards. He looked up at Buffy's confused expression, and smiled weakly. "Sorry for worrying you, I had a nightmare."

"Well, you're awake now, so no nightmare problems to be had, right?" Dawn said nervously. Spike looked over at her, seeing her for the first time.

"Why are you here?"

Buffy was taken aback, she would have thought Spike would be glad to see her, but Dawn smiled at Spike.

"Don't worry, no one forced me to come. Own free will." She said. Spike glowered at her.

"Go. Home." He said, menacingly. Dawn frowned slightly.

"Look, I understand that you-"

"NO! You don't understand!" Spike yelled. "I want you to go back home, in a nice, metal car, with Xander or Willow protecting you, where you can be safe. Not here. Not-" He stopped as Buffy's cool hand touched his bare shoulder.

"Spike, it's alright. She's going to help Willow with the anti-vampire spell."

Spike looked up at Buffy forlornly. "I don't want her to be here."

"Dawn." Dawn looked at her sister's face, and nodded.

"I'll go help Willow with her spell, then I'll leave."

Dawn left the room peeved, annoyed at Spike' apparent thoughts that she was a child. But she understood, in a small way.

Once Dawn had left the room and closed the door, Buffy turned back to Spike.

"How did this happen?"

Spike shivered. "He came to the back door. I opened it, and he told me that there was something he wanted to talk about…" Spike paused for a breath, and then continued. "He seemed so… like Angel. He didn't even smell like Angelus."

"What does Angelus smell like?" Buffy asked, interrupting.

"Sex and blood." Spike immediately responded, and then shuddered nervously. "Always did."

Buffy shuddered inwardly as well. She knew exactly what Spike was talking about.

"So, you invited him in?"

Spike nodded. "It was stupid of me, I-"

Buffy grabbed Spike's chin and forced him to look her in the eye. "It was not your fault. Any one of us would have done the same. You didn't know, had no way of knowing." she released Spike's chin.

"Anyway. I invited him to sit down. I was getting blood from the fridge anyway, so I thought I'd might as well heat both of us a cuppa. When I turned around- well-" Spike pointed to a large bruise swelling on his face. "you get the idea."

Buffy grimaced. She waited a minute to let Spike continue, but he did not utter a word, and when she coughed expectantly, he would not meet her eye.

"Spike… what happened?"

"Got tortured." was the blank response.

Buffy made a disgusted noise, and then got up from the bed. "There's something you're not telling me."

"What, you want to know exactly how he tortured me? Want to know where he learned all the tactics?" Spike spat angrily. Buffy narrowed her eyes.

"There's something you're not saying. Not telling me. Something Angelus told you, something he did."

Spike continued to stare at her, blank expression fixed on his features.

"And if I have to find out the hard way, I will." she said, and then turned around to go back out into the main room.

"Tell me later, if it helps. But you will tell me."

***

"Well, the news from the south side isn't all that peachy." Xander said as Buffy came into the room, closing the bedroom door behind her. His expression wasn't all that cheerful, and from the curious expressions on everyone else's faces, he had just gotten off the phone and not had time to tell anyone what he had heard.

"So, what's the word?" Anya asked, impatiently. She was sitting on the couch, arms crossed.

"Well… a lot of stuff's been happening in L.A. that we never knew- or even wanted to know."

"What is it Xander." Buffy said, not as a question, arms folded across her chest and expression hard.

Xander scratched the back of his neck nervously. "Well, you know that Darla came back… well, some mystical crap happened, and apparently, she became pregnant with Angel's kid." everyone looked like they were about to speak at once, but Xander raised a defensive hand.

"No one knows how it happened. But it also appears that Cordelia became part demon, a gift from the Powers That Be, and that Angel's son grew up to a remarkably ripe age of 18 in about 3 months. Again, limited phone conversation didn't get the details. But there was a demon that came to L.A., out for blood. It blocked the sun. Yes, blocked the sun," Xander said, from the shocked expressions all were wearing. "Soon the lack of sun should hit Sunny-d. But from what Cordy says, it all was planned. With Angelus. But wear Angelus knew, Angel didn't, and so they figured that the only way to get information on how to defeat this demon and to bring back the sun was to lock up Angel and perform a ritual to bring back his soul."

"Idiots!" Buffy said, unable to contain herself.

"So Cordelia agrees. She was against it from the beginning, and tried to convince Angel and the others that there could be some other way, but Angel seemed to be mad at her and so ignored her advice. They did the ritual. Everything was going semi-alright- as close to all right as bring Angelus back goes- until they found that the jar they put Angel's soul in- went missing. They tried a different soul-returning ritual, and it seemed to work fine. They thought Angel was back."

"But he was just playing them." Buffy said. Xander nodded grimly.

"They found out after they found Cordelia lying in the cage they put Angelus in, knocked unconscious."

"So I guess for some reason, he came back here." Willow said. "Makes sense. A lot of his Soul-life took place here."

Xander nodded, but before he could say anything more, Buffy spoke. "But why didn't he try to head us on at the Bronze or go to my house where Dawnie or Giles would have let him in. Why did he come here?"

Xander shrugged. "You're asking the wrong guy to look in the head of a soulless vampire."

"Willow? Any thoughts?" Anya asked from the sofa. Everyone stared at her. Anya shrugged. "Well, she did try to destroy the world."

Willow and Xander both scowled at Anya, but Buffy ignored them, in deep in thought.

"Willow, Dawn? Do that spell. Now. Xander?"

"Right here."

"Try to get something out of Spike." Buffy started to move towards the door.

"Hey, wait! I thought you were little miss interegator?"

Buffy turned around to send Xander a look. "He's hiding something from me. I know he is. Something Angelus said or did to him that he's not telling me. I don't know why."

"So you think I may just be the one to get something out of him?" Xander asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes. You Spike doesn't know quite as well as me or Anya, and Willow and Dawn are doing the spell. Dawn could go and interrigate him while you and Willow do the spell, but Spike doesn't exactly seem keen on letting Dawn near him- I think that's connected to the Angelus thing as well."

Xander nodded, and Buffy turned back to the door, opening it. Halfway through it, Anya spoke up.

"Where are you going?"

Buffy turned back to look at their expectant faces.

"To find Angelus."

Author's Note:

Terribly sorry about the slow update. I've been doing a lot of schoolwork and after school activities keep me there until about 10pm, so I've not had a chance to stop and smell the ink of fanfiction in awhile, but this is my slight break-day, so I used it to catch up on this story. Hopefully it'll be either finished or well on it's way by the new ANGEL episode.

Also, I'm writing as if the buffy-verse is slightly different after Spike was rescued, and that the scary cliffhanger at the end of the last Angel episode never happened, because if I write about what happens next on the canon, I want all the facts right. Am I making any sense? Well, tell me that in your review!!