DISCLAIMER: All characters belong to Joss …except Shae ….

NOTES: Well, it´s getting weird…but Buffy WILL turn up next chapter, I just had to get all this talk out of the way. SORRY!

FURY

Spike swallowed hard, staring at Shae in doubt.

"Buffy …..you can bring Buffy here?" The meaning of this fact had finally started to really sink in and there was a look of raw emotion on his face that was beyond anything Mal had ever seen.

"At what price? I will not sacrifice Alice for this…"

"That will not be necessary, but there has to be a sacrifice of some kind. Everything comes at a price, vampire and you know it."

"What does she mean?" Jayne whispered suspiciously, scanning the cave with narrowed eyes. Except for their passengers, there were only him, Mal and those ruttin´ big cats around. And from what the mercenary could gather ….when it came to a suitable sacrifice, the witch-queen wouldn't have a hard time choosin´ between them and their pussy-cats.

"Don't really think she'd be talking about us, Jayne!" Mal hissed at him, putting a hand on the other man's arm to make him lower the gun he had been raising unconsciously.

Shae shot him an appraising smile that managed to be tempting and reassuring at the same time. "Indeed, Captain …you two have nothing I might require …at this time." She said, turning her attention back to the vampires.

"What do you want?" Angel took a step forward, unclenching the hands he had balled to fists without even noticing.

"I call upon a primal force to do my bidding, it wants to be fed: I cannot break the rules, I bend them to my way. And you didn't even bring a vessel. There are only two possible ways to invoke magic powerful enough for what you wish me to do; sex and blood. Since I gather the first is not an option, the latter will have to suffice."

"What?"

"Will you start making sense woman?"

"You can rearrange the order of things, by changing the way things have come to pass……by telling her. For everything that passes through something else must be returned."

"Yes…we pretty much covered that, now what is it that you want?" Spike asked her impatiently.

Mal could not say how or where she got it from, but suddenly the witch queen was holding a golden chalice in her hand.

"I need something of the Slayer…your Slayer ….and something of the both of you."

"She wants blood, Spike." Angel said in a very controlled manner.

Shae cocked her head to the side, her eyes raking up and down the dark vampire's body and there was something in her eyes that was completely inhuman: Hunger. Not the hunger for food, but for something else, something more raw and primal; the lust for flesh and blood.

"You tasted her." Shae remarked, her voice dropping to a low, husky contralto. "No matter how long ago, a part of her is still running through your veins. Her blood….yours …his ….is a most potent mixture, powerful enough to throw open the gates of time." Angel watched Shae as she stepped back from him, holding out the goblet with a challenging smile.

When Angel made no attempt to move, but continued to try to stare Shae down, Alice stepped up, taking the gold chalice from the witch's hand.

"Angel …" she said softly." Is a little blood too much to ask, for your peace of mind …for mine?"

"Got us hook, line and sinker , pet, and she knows it too." Spike answered for him.

"Bloody wench knows that we'd both cut out our hearts with our own hands just to see Buffy again."

"That's not it…." Angel scoffed, shaking his head. His eyes followed the witch-queen as she walked over to the roaring fire. He looked at her as though he had never seen her before.

"Sisters……they were three once, she said it! How could we be so stupid!" he ground out, before walking over to her in determined strides.

"Which one are you? Murder, Jealousy?" he demanded to know.

"What the hell is he talking about now?" Alice yelled, the fed up look on her pretty face spoke volumes. Mal sympathized with the girl's frustration. Apparently the young slayer was just as much in the dark about some of the bizarre circumstances as him and Jayne.

"Aw …bloody hell, no! Here? " Spike cursed, "Not one of your transcending hussies, mate!"

Angel shook his head with an ironic smirk. "Oh no, this one is the real deal!"

"Talk to me now, or I'm starting to get violent!" Alice demanded, her hands propped up on her hips.

"She's a fury..." Angel growled, "Aren't you? You've been playing us all along!"

The witch- queen folded her hands in front of her body, meeting the vampire's angry gaze with a malicious smile. But when she spoke her voice was grave and her tone tinged with something close to sadness.

"Do not delude yourself, vampire, by thinking that this age or yours are more civilized than mine. The reason me and mine could never be reduced to a pawn in whoever fancied playing the game, is that we stood apart. We were not part of this battle when it began. We chose to get involved. We have always been there, since the dawn of time; in your dreams, your fears ….your guilt. The Greeks merely gave us substance. Their myth gave us form; a body, a face and a purpose."

"Vengeance…" Angel whispered.

"Justice, that is not the same thing!" she returned calmly.

"No it's not!" The tall vampire answered, his face torn between anger and impatience.

"But what you did ….some would rather call it vengeance…."

"You …would? We right the wrongs, thatis what we always did. That is what I am trying to do now. It has been my calling long before it ever became yours! We dealt out justice to those who would otherwise escape it. Call it what you want. My sisters are gone, as are those times. As time has changed so have we. It has been a long time since blood flowed from my eyes and I had wings to fly, vampire."

"If you were indeed so just …Allecto….why did you never come after me?"

"What makes you think we did not……. Angelus?"