Title: Revenant, Ch. 9

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"Hello Angelus. Spike. Slayer. Liam. William. Buffy. And.. whoever you seven are."

Buffy looked around in confusion. The First Slayer stood next to her, all dread-locks and body-paint, snarling and growling at the others in the mausoleum they stood bewildered in. Angelus stood off to her left, dressed up in leather pants and a velvet jacket, trying to throttle a confused Liam O'Connor, who wore the knee-length britches and coat he had worn in the 1700's. Willow gawked at the things that mimicked her movements, one thing of chaotic ink, runes and letters and symbols swirling in a girl-shaped form, the other of blue-green power. Behind her, a frightened dark-haired boy tried not to cringe as an older man in military fatigues wrested with a dark-furred hyena. Giles stood there, watching. Except Giles was wearing a pair of torn jeans, a leather motorcycle jacket, and biker boots, smoking a cigarette. To Buffy's right, Spike stood. Or William. One moment it was Spike, in all his punk-rock glory, then it became William, brown curls, glasses, and tweed, before morphing again, Spike on the right half, William on the left, switching, a hypnotic twirl of leather and tweed. For one brief, eye-wrenching moment, the two images were super-imposed over the other, then Buffy looked away, to the two who had addressed them.

They looked.. vaguely familiar.

"Er, haven't I killed you two, before?"

"Hey, Angelus, stop molesting the poofter, and check it out! It's a bloody family reunion!" Spike/William called.

"Well, well, Penn and Luke. Looks like Liam here was right, you two are back. Too bad Darla killed herself, and that Dru isn't here, it'd be like old times." Angelus said, dropping the choking form of Liam.

"Hmm, I thought you two looked familiar. I DID kill you." Buffy shrugged. "Well, looks like I get to, again." She reached for a stake, only to realize she was wearing her Sunnydale High graduation gown. "..the hell?"

"Buffy, either I've had something slipped into my drink before bed, or I suspect we're having a shared dream. A Slayer dream, possibly, although why we're all in this, I have no idea." Biker-Giles said.

"Is that why we're all.. split-up? Except for you and Spike?"

"All us!" The First Slayer growled in her ear, her breath musky and wet. "Broken glass, cutting and bleeding in the Dreamtime!" For a brief moment, the First Slayer's image flickered, something Buffy couldn't name stood in her place, some thing that made the three vampires step back in instinctive fear from. The thing that empowered a Slayer, that which hunted the Turak-Han as prey. Then the First Slayer was back.

"I would imagine so, Buffy." Giles, no, Ripper said. "We're perceiving the various facets of our psyches here in this.. place."

"Be happy, Pet, that you aren't wearing a soddin' cheerleader's outfit, or that outfit from the Doublemeat Palace." Spike/William added. Spike's clothes, William's hair and glasses. Weird.

"Penn, remind me to kill that Witch when we awaken. We were only supposed to be able to spy on them, not confront them in the Dreamtime."

"Only if you reach him first, Luke." Penn replied. "Be afraid, Slayer. We have returned from Hell, and we shall hunt you down. You, your Watcher, your friends, and your harem of traitors."

"I NEVER betrayed the Order, Penn! Not willingly! It was all HIS accursed doing!" Angelus snarled, pointing at Liam. "His literally cursed soul, imprisoning me and refusing to let me kill as I should! If there is a traitor to Aurelius and the Master, it is William, over there!"

"Sod off, you git." Spike said, giving Angelus the two-fingered salute. "You were about to wipe out our only food supply, you daft oaf. You're right about that, though, I would've helped fight the Master, for the same reason. I didn't love Buffy back then, but you-"

"SILENCE!" Angelus roared. "Or I will rip you to bloody shreds, William!"

"He's right, Angelus." Liam said.

"You said it, mate, 'to kill this girl, you've got to love her.' You hate her so much because she makes you feel like old Liam here, because she makes you feel love." Spike said. "And YOU, Liam, slimy git that you are, lied to Buffy and the others about that, about US, in order to ingratiate yourself with them. Tosser."

Buffy felt like someone had just kicked her in the gut. Angelus hated her because.. he loved her?

Xander watched the interplay with a sick fascination, switching back and forth between the vampire soap opera on one side, and watching Army-Guy fighting the Primal Hyena Spirit. Suddenly Ripper grabbed Xander's shoulders.

"Pull yourself together, Xander! You haven't been a little boy for a long, long time! Stop fighting yourself, and try to help Willow!"

With that, the image of little Xander meted away, and Xander stood up. "Enough, you two!" he yelled, shoving the two other parts of him away from each other, and going over to Willows side. "Wills? Willow? Hey there, you look a little shook."

"Xander, they keeps doing what I do. Make them stop?" Willow asked.

"How? I think that they're.. you. Or, at least, your magic."

"HUH?"

"Your black magic, and the earth magic that you learned in England. I think that's what they are."

"TRUE." The First slayer said, stalking between them, as it circled the group. It tried to pounce on Luke, but slipped through the vampire as if he or she were ghosts.

"Bout time you two decided to join the conversation." Spike added as Xander, Willow, and Ripper-Giles strode over to stand behind Buffy. "Nice threads, Red." Willow looked down at herself, to find that she was now wearing the outfit of Evil Vampire Willow. "Yeah, I love Buffy. And when we all run into each other in the real world, I'll be fighting by her side, as we all will. Whether you want to or not, Angelus. You lot bloody well worship the Master, but old man Nest was a idiot of a git, and Aurelius isn't my pack anymore. THESE blokes are. Even smelly-cat, over there." He said, poking his thumb at the First Slayer. "Hell, I'm not even a vampire anymore, turns out I'm a new breed of Slayer, so when we next meet, mates? We'll be hunting you."

Suddenly, Buffy and Spike woke up in their bed, drenched in sweat. Elsewhere in the hotel, so did Xander and Willow, and Giles, and in Angel's apartment, so did he.

Deep inside Angel's soul, the demon Angelus howled in frustration.

T.B.C.