Note: Angel will be referred to as 'Will' by people who didn't know who he was.

Prophesy After the Fact

Part Four

By Marie Nomad

Buffy could not believe her eyes. Standing there in front of her was Spike, alive (for a vampire) and well. She studied him and then slapped him. "Ow." The vampire pouted as he rubbed his cheek. "I take that as a no?"

Buffy looked at Angel and said, "Will, Spike and I have to talk. Alone. I'll be right back." She grabbed Spike by the ear and dragged him outside to the alley.

"Spike… Buffy…" Angel muttered as he rubbed his head.

"This is getting insane." Shanshu appeared in front of him in a bright whirlwind. "I saw what happened. This is not supposed to happen."

"I thought you're a goddess or a prophecy. Can't you control this?" Angel pleaded. "I… I don't know how Spike and Buffy just show up like that in this place?"

"My power is not that grand. I can manipulate events to a degree to make things happen but something is trying to counteract my power, your destiny." Shanshu muttered, "I don't see how Spike could have shown up unless… that little bitch."

"Huh? What is it? Is it an evil goddess?" Angel asked as he cringed at the idea of dealing with another super demon while he's human.

"Not really. I have to go and talk to her. You just go on what you are doing and avoid your old friends as much as possible. They're smart; they will notice you if you give them enough clues and once they find out, your one chance for a normal life will go bye-bye." Shanshu got up and focused outward. "Be careful, William." She vanished in a whirlwind.

Meanwhile, a pair of old lovers stood in the alley. "What's the deal, Buffy?" Spike asked innocently, "Afraid to bring up our past in front of your new boyfriend?"

"He's not my boyfriend! He is a brother of a friend of mine who is a slayer. I was making sure he wasn't possessed by an evil entity or he was a pod person or anything like that. I know that he's normal, at least he doesn't know a thing about vampires except what goes on in the movies!" Buffy snapped, "And what took you so long in telling me that you're alive! Or at least dead but not ashes dead!"

"Oh… various things. The first few months, I was a ghost tied to Wolfram and Hart so I couldn't go outside of LA. After I became corporeal, I tried to get back but… I don't know. I just… wanted to see what I am without you." Spike confessed as he shook his head. "I'm sorry I didn't let you know I was alive, Slayer. I… really missed you but I… okay, I was a coward. I didn't think you would let me back into your life after I saw you with the Immortal."

"Morty? I was with him for only a couple of months. He was training me." Buffy insisted. "I don't believe this. How did you find me?"

Spike grinned mysteriously. "Would you believe I'm now psychic?"

"Seriously? Never mind. Why didn't Angel tell me that you're alive? Was it part of his evil plans?"

"Evil? Don't tell me you didn't know?"

Buffy crossed her arms and shook her head. "About what?"

Spike paused. He could just lie and tell the slayer that Angel had gone pure evil and had been killed fighting what's left of the Angel team but he couldn't. "Damn soul. It was an act." Spike admitted.

"What?" Buffy's eyes widened.

"An act. The pounce pretended to dove into the dark side just so he could kill off some secret society that was the major link to the Senior Partners. He nearly fooled me and I knew him way before you were born." Spike confessed as he took her hand. "He… he disappeared after that. Me and Charlie thought he died but I… I got some information that Peaches could be alive in this town. That's why we're here."

Buffy nearly collapsed in disbelief. "Oh my god. I… I ignored him. No!" Spike held her in his arms as she put her head on his shoulder. Tears ran down her face as she clutched on. "How can I be such an idiot? I should've come. I should have meet him personally and really see what was going on."

"I don't blame you. Evil, not evil, evil again, the old man can't make up his bloody mind. We'll find him and stop crying. I don't figure you to be a weeper."

Buffy laughed hoarsely as she wiped away her tears. "I'm not. I haven't really cried in a long time. I'll help look for Angel, someone like him, can't be too hard to find, right?"

"Who knows." Spike shrugged and then winced as he held his head. "Damn it, not now."

"What's wrong?" Buffy asked concerned as she stepped back. "Do you have another chip installed?"

"Nothing like that. But, I gotta go." Spike looked at her for a moment. "We'll talk later, I promise. Here's my cell phone number." He handed the woman a card and walked off.

"Wait." Buffy reached into her pocket and got out a business card. "Here's my number and… thanks for saving the world twice."

"I would do it again." Spike accepted the card. "Good luck with the boyfriend." He ran off and jumped into a beat up truck.

"He's not my boyfriend!" Buffy yelled knowing the vampire heard her. She rubbed her head as she gazed into the dark sky. Angel was alive and he wasn't evil. What happened to him? Why didn't he try to find her? What if he had amnesia or that he was captured by some evil group?

"Are you okay?" Buffy felt a hand on her shoulder and she grabbed the arm and pinned the attacker to the ground. She looked down to see she was pinning down Angel. "Ooops. Sorry, Will." She got off and pulled him up. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Angel said as he rubbed his shoulder. "I was… getting worried so I came out looking for you. You're strong."

Buffy turned bright red as she looked at her friend. She was so used to dealing with watchers and slayers that she nearly forgot what it was like to deal with a normal guy who doesn't know what a slayer was. "I work out. A lot." Buffy said as she flexed her arm.

"Oh." Angel nodded as he crossed his arms. "I'm glad you're all right. Who was this Spike? Is he your boyfriend?" He tensed as he prayed that it wasn't true.

"No! No, he's not. He was just a friend who helped me through some hard times." Buffy denied as she and Will walked through the door and sat down at the booth. "You shouldn't be jealous."

"I'm not jealous!" Angel lied. "Okay… maybe a little but that's because the two of you have a history together while I don't have a history."

Buffy had to smile at the look William gave Spike. There was something oddly familiar about the way he was jealous about the vampire. "What Spike and I have was complicated. I mean mega soap opera with a twist of horror movie complicated. All of my relationships are like that. Most of the men I dated are way older than me."

At that remark, Angel had to ask, "How much older?"

"Oh… years. No biggie. They look really great for their age." Buffy smiled at him and then shook her head. "Let's not talk about my past. Tell me about you."

Angel looked at her confused. "What is there to talk about? I don't even remember anything before a month ago. All I know was what Leia told me, which wasn't that specific. Meeting people who know you but I don't know them back. It's insane."

"Are you sure you don't remember anything?" Buffy asked as she hinted. "Maybe, a sound or a smell or anything like that."

"No!" Angel slammed his fist onto the table. "Why do you guys keep on bugging me about it! I don't know anything! I am so sick and tired of people thinking that I lost my mind every time they realize that I love Barry Manilow's music or when I am tidy or even when I am looking for a job!" Tears came down his face as he slumped in his seat. He hated acting like he didn't know anything even though he remembered many things in the past 250 years.

"I'm sorry." Buffy said as she put her hand onto Will's head. "I really do like you, Will. I have an instinct about what kind of people I can trust. You may have changed because of this but you're not bad. I had dealt with mysterious men who may or may not be evil before. You're definitely not evil."

"Thanks. I think." Angel fiddled with a napkin. "Maybe, we should talk more about you."

"I'm not that interesting. I did travel around in Europe for a year."

"Oh, how was it?" Angel asked genuinely interested as he leaned on the table.

"Oh, Europy. Seriously, it was so cool. I lived in Italy for six months and it was so… Italian. I had this great guide who knew all about Italy's past and have so many connections." Buffy rambled.

"What kind of connections?"

"That's… complicated." Buffy replied as she thought of the Immortal. She paused as she tried to think of what to talk about. She couldn't keep on talking about her ex-boyfriends since most of them are dead already and she couldn't talk about her Slayer lifestyle. "I don't know what to talk about."

"Well… we can talk about other things that are not related to our lives like movies, reality shows, or the weather." Angel suggested as he took her hand. Her hand was colder to his now human touch but it still felt so warm.

"Hey!" Josh exclaimed as he strolled in. "Will, Mrs. S called. She needs you to come over. She has a major surprise for you."

"Of course." Angel sighed as he looked up. "Okay, I'll go back. Sorry, Buffy, I have to go."

"Huh?" Buffy jerked her hand away. "Sure. Maybe, we can catch a movie some time. I'll call."

"That would be great." Angel watched Buffy walked off and he sighed. "Buffy…"

"Whoa… you got a thing for Buffy? Sweet." Josh said as he patted Angel on the shoulder. "Kinda small but tough. Sorry about interrupting things. I don't know what got into me."

"Fate." Angel got up. "Let's go home."

XXX

Buffy gazed out of the window as she drove up to the hotel where she and Giles were staying. Her 'date' with Will went strange. Not only did Spike, who she thought was dead, was alive and here in Sunnydale but Angel wasn't evil and maybe alive in Sunnydale.

Her head spun as she thought of Angel. She should've been worried sick about him but she didn't think much about where Angel was while he was with Will. Something about him, made her feel comfortable. She walked up to the room and saw Giles marking a whiteboard. Seeing him made her stomach turned. "Giles, Spike is alive."

Giles stopped and turned towards her. "What?"

"Spike, he's alive. He showed up while I was at my date with Will just out of nowhere." Buffy said as she held her head.

"Are you sure it's Spike?" Giles asked cautiously. "It could be a trick."

"No trick. I know it's Spike. He managed to end up in LA as a ghost of all things, then he became corporeal and working with Angel of all people, and after Wolfram and Hart went kaboom, Spike left and became a real champion and somehow Angel is still alive or undead and is in Sunnydale too." Buffy babbled.

Giles took a moment to interpret Buffy's explanation and then he slumped onto the couch. "The purpose of this trip was so we can relax and you didn't have to handle any vampire ex-boyfriends. This revelation could be part of the vast fluxes magic in this area. Why does it have to be those two?"

"So, me, Spike, and maybe Angel being in Sunnydale at the same time is not a coincidence."

"Nothing is ever a coincidence. You know that."

"More than anyone and just when I met a nice normal guy." Buffy sat down beside him. "I checked Will out. My Buffy instincts are telling me that he's not evil and that he was just confused."

"Your Buffy instincts, well, I'm happy that you finally meet someone who is…"

"Less than a hundred years old?"

"Normal." Giles said as he took a deep breath.

"That too. I don't know if this will be serious or not. Especially if Angel is alive out there somewhere and I have to set Spike straight." Buffy said as Giles got up and started to make some tea.

"There is the issue about William knowing about you being a slayer. The fact that his younger sister is a slayer would help that issue or it might hurt it." Giles said as he pondered.

Buffy rolled her eyes. "It was just one date. I don't even know if he's interested in seeing me again after meeting Spike." She paused. If those two find out about William, they would be jealous. Angel had kept his distance when she had boyfriends. He didn't hurt Riley that much when he came to Sunnydale after their fight. Spike is different. She didn't know what he will do to Will. "I better call him and make sure that he's okay and to tell Leia that Will passed the Buffy test."

XXX

Angel felt his hands tensed as he walked inside to see his family sitting around the living room. His heart pounded as Leia stared at him. "Is something wrong?"

Elizabeth took a deep breath and said, "No. Jacob and I nearly got killed by this hooligan who was wearing this strange mask. Thankfully, this group of travelers came by and chased them off. They need a place to stay so we offered to let them stay at our bomb shelter."

Angel's jaw dropped. He could guess that his new parents were attacked by some kind of demon or at least some psycho. "We have a bomb shelter?"

"It was back in the sixties." Jacob replied.

"I just want you to meet them so you won't be startled." Elizabeth gestured and three people came in.

Angel and Leia gawked at the sight. Standing there was Spike, Gunn, and Fred. Well, it looked like Fred except for her blue eyes which he was sure wasn't Fred's real eye color. Three people from his vampire past were standing there looking at him like he was a stranger.

"Spike, Gunn, Fred, these two are my children, Will and Leia. Will, Leia, this is Spike, Gunn, and Fred."

"Will Smith. I love your movies." Gunn joked as he took Angel's hand and shook it.

"Ha ha. I only heard that for a thousand times." Angel said as he smiled at him. Gunn was okay. He had managed to live despite the wound given to him.

"So, you're here too." Spike said as he walked up to 'Will'. The two locked eyes for an intense second.

"You know each other?" Gunn asked.

"Met just a couple of hours ago. Will eh? My real name is Will too." Spike said as he and 'Will' circled each other. The vampire could tell that the human didn't like him. That suited him just fine since he always rubbed others the wrong way, except for the ladies.

"He's Buffy's ex-boyfriend." Angel answered as he kept on staring at Spike. "She said that you are a mistake."

"Maybe, I am or maybe I am the best thing that ever happened to her." Spike taunted.

Leia looked between the two. Her slayer instincts were going overdrive. Gunn seemed normal but Spike and Fred were a different matter. "So, where are you from?"

"Chicago." Gunn answered as he smiled at her. "We're looking for a friend of ours. He calls himself Angel. He's tall, dark, broody, hates the sun… listens to Barry Manilow?" He held up a rough sketch of Angel with very spiky hair.

"I don't think so but I haven't been out for too long." Angel said as he shook his head. He was telling the truth. He hasn't seen himself in a very long time. Even if he had, he would not look like that sketch. He knew that he didn't look like that and did one of them have to draw fangs in?

"We will keep an eye out for him." Leia promised as she looked at the drawing. There was something oddly familiar about the drawing. She couldn't tell what but she was still relatively new at being a slayer.

"Great. We have to go and get everything before sunrise… we like to sleep during the day." Spike explained calmly as he looked out of the window.

"A group of regular vampires eh?" Angel said in a joking voice.

"We are not vampires." Illyria said firmly and then looked at Spike.

"I'm joking." Angel comforted, "There are no such things as vampires." He paused and decided to take Will's 'ignorance' for granted. "Besides, none of you look like a vampire."

Spike nearly fell over. He admitted there wasn't any vampire like him in the world but he was just insulted by the thing that he doesn't look like a vampire when he really was. Still, he bit his tongue so to speak. "I see. Well, we better get going." He looked at Illyria who was staring at Angel intensely. "Blue?"

"You were blessed." Illyria said curiously. "I sense forces that had worked in your favor."

"Oh, I've been lucky. I just got out of a long coma and except for some memory loss, I'm fine." Angel waved off as he looked to the side. Illyria had sensed Shanshu's work. He should have known that the ex-god would have some idea on what was going on. She had a strange sixth sense that he never understood.

"She's into new age stuff." Spike excused as he took Illyria's shoulders and guided her out of the door. "Cut it out, Blue." He whispered, "Bye!"

"Later." Gunn walked off as well.

The three walked out of the door and Angel took a deep breath. "Those three… are interesting. I'm going to bed. yawn Long night."

"Me too." Leia added and the two walked out of the hallway. "Oh, how was the date? Did you and Buffy have a good time?"

"Yeah, she's great. She's so cute and talkative. And she can vouch that I'm not evil."

"I didn't say that." Leia denied, "She is a counselor, I thought she would see if you need help."

Angel studied his sister. Leia must have thought that her brother was possessed by an evil demon or was a pod person. He paused as he thought. On the other hand, what she suspected was true. Leia have every right to be afraid of him, she was trained to live with the abnormal and to not take things at face value. "Thanks." He reached up and hugged her. "Be careful, Leia." He whispered as he let go and went into his room.

All of a sudden, Leia's cell phone rang. She sighed as she picked it up. "Hello?"

"Leia, this is Buffy. I'm checking to see if Will came back okay."

"Oh yeah. He's fine. Say, do you know a bleach blond man with a thick English accent named Spike? He mentioned you."

"You met already? Well, he's a vampire but he's a good vampire with a soul."

Leia's jaw dropped. "That vampire! You mean the vampire that nearly sent this world to Hell after he slept with you!"

"No, that's Angel. Spike's the one who went poof after Sunnydale went boom and apparently came back." Buffy replied, "He has changed and he won't hurt you or Will."

"Oh, God. I hope so. I don't know what to do about Will. The last time he knew about my life he…" Leia's eyes watered up as she thought about the accident.

"It's okay. I was a newbie slayer myself. We'll just work on one thing at a time. Will is a good guy, my Buffy senses told me so. Just let him be Will and hopefully history won't repeat itself." Buffy reassured her.

Leia nodded. Buffy had been in the business longer than any other Slayer alive. She needed her to help deal with her crisis. "Okay. I'll try."

XXX

Shanshu glared as Cordelia sat watching everything. "I know what you did." The Prophesy warned as she sat beside the former Seer.

"Did what?" Cordelia asked innocently.

"Oh please, I wasn't born last year! I know that you manipulated the events to make them come here!" Shanshu accused.

"So? That's what we Powers that Be do. We manipulate events. You did your fair share of manipulation." Cordelia snapped.

"I had eons of experience. You were born only a couple of decades ago. Be assured, that I will not let you interfere with destiny." Shanshu got up and her body glowed with power. She was a weak power compared to the other gods but no one messes with her. Her power made it possible for gods to be reborn and they need her all the time. Shanshu couldn't believe that this upstart had any right to interfere with her duty.

Cordelia's eyes glowed as she stood up as well. "You may have a few thousand years more experience than me but I was raised in the Hellmouth! I know what I'm doing!"

Sparks shot between them as they stared intensely at each other. "I will stop this insanity and get Angel on the right path." Shanshu vowed and vanished in a bright whirlwind.

"So will I." Cordelia vowed as well and vanished in a bright light.

To Be Continued…