Buffy was not prepared for the sight of Angel huddled in the corner of the prison Galendil had fashioned for him. His clothing was tattered, almost gone all together, his skin was covered in painful looking burns and various cuts, both deep and shallow. His face was barely visible under layers of dirt, grime and blood and his hair was matted and unkempt. He was shaking, terrified of everything around him. Buffy's heart broke to see him so frightened and alone. She silently vowed to herself to pass those trials, if only to erase this place from Angel's mind all together.

"Angel?" She whispered tentatively. She stepped carefully toward him and stopped short when he buried his face in his hands and began giggling uncontrollably. His giggles were high pitched, barely sounding like him at all and Buffy knew he was bordering on hysteria. "Angel it's OK, it's me."

"Buffy!" He managed through gulping heaps of laughter. "No, not Buffy. Never Buffy. A trick....I see you, but not you...never you. Not Buffy. Such a pretty trick. Not Buffy...."

"Angel...." She said again, willing herself to stay strong, to convince him that it was her and bring him out of whatever dark place he was in right now, if only for a moment. "God what did he do to you? Angel it's me, I promise. I'm not a vision OK? Look at me."

"No!" He cried out, hiding his face even further. "It speaks, it sounds like you, it sounds like her...stop, please, stop! I can't....stop! So much like her!"

"Angel!" She said sharply. "Damn it Angel look at me! I'm real, please you have to believe me. I'm here." She stepped closer to him and knelt down in front of him, touching his hands as gently as possible and moving them slowly away from his face. "I'm here Angel. It's me."

Shaken visibly not only by the gentleness in her voice but by the touch of her hands as well, Angel's eyes widened in belief, and terror as coherence returned to him and he realized that she wasn't a vision.

"Buffy," he whispered in shock. She smiled and traced her finger gently over a cut that adorned his face.

"That looks painful," she murmured.

"NO!" He burst out angrily. His eyes had suddenly narrowed into fury-filled slits and his entire body became taut. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! You can't be here! You can't....What the hell are you doing here? Why would you come here?"

"It's OK," she said, attempting to soothe him. "I'm going to get you out."

"Are you insane?" He yelled, shoving her hands roughly away from him. "Get out! Get out now! Don't you see? If you're here than it was for nothing! GO!"

"Angel you're not thinking clearly," she pleaded, trying to get him to listen to her. "I'm going to help you get out, but you have to listen to me."

"Didn't you hear me?!" He bellowed, grabbing her roughly by the shoulders as he leapt to his feet and shoving her backwards so hard she had to grab onto the wall in order to keep from falling. "I said get out! Find a way back! Get the hell away from me, I don't want you hear can't you see that? You're not supposed to be here, that's not how it was supposed to go!"

"There is no just going back and you know it!" She shot back. "Did you really expect me to just leave you here?"

"Yes!" He cried furiously. "I jumped in front of you Buffy, I got sucked into this place so that you wouldn't be! How could you do this? Why would you do this?"

"Why do you think?" She burst out, "because I love you! I'm so sick of you playing the martyr Angel! I'm so sick of losing you, so sick of....I'm getting us out of here and you have to trust that."

"It was all for nothing then." He whispered softly, his shoulders slumping and falling back against the wall for support. He was too injured to remain physically upright on his own power for too long. "You're not getting out Buffy, and neither am I. We're stuck here. Both of us. I don't even want to look at you."

"Angel you can't mean that..." she took a step towards him once more, attempting to touch him, to get through to him. Before she could react, his hands had roughly seized her wrists and she was flipped around and slammed into the cement wall. Her head connected painfully and she felt dizzy for a moment. Looking up, she saw Angel's eyes were blazing which unleashed anger, his teeth clenched tightly together, barely able to conceal his rage. When he spoke, his voice was suffused with pain, and loathing, for herself or for him, she wasn't sure.

"Look at me! I'm barely recognizable! LOOK AT ME! Is this what you wanted? Does this make you happy? Look what you've done....take a good look because this will be you soon. This blood will be yours! This is your future now Buffy and damn you for it!"

"Let go of me!" She pleaded, actually frightened by the murderous anger in his eyes. "You're hurting me!"

At this he only squeezed her wrists harder, his fingernails drawing her blood as they sank into her flesh. She winced at the pain and struggled to break free, but not even her slayer strength could overcome the emotional surge running through him at the moment.

"Angel stop it!" She cried out, "I'm trying to help you!"

"There's no help," he hissed. "only pain and suffering! Want a taste?"

Letting go of one wrist, he lashed out, hitting her as hard as he could in the face before yanking her roughly toward him and crushing his lips to hers in a violent kiss that combined the rage he felt at her for her foolish gesture as well as the overwhelming love in his heart that reminded him she was willing to suffer this pain for him...with him for all eternity.

His fist slamming into her face caught her so off-guard that she was unable to stop him from kissing her. It was rough, violent and frighteningly beautiful all at once. She whimpered into him, wanting him to stop, but at the same time feeling everything inside her respond, even if it was a painful response.

Jumping back, he gazed at her in horror, unable to believe what he had just done.

"Oh God!" His voice cracked and he began to shake all over. "Oh God what did I do? Buffy....please, it's not me it's this place....I can't...you can't....I'm so sorry! I wanted to spare you, I didn't want you do hurt this way! Please, I didn't want you to hurt, I'm so sorry!"

Sinking to his knees, he buried his face in his hands and let the tears overtake him. This place was turning him into a monster and he was powerless to stop it.

"Angel," her voice was a soft whisper in his ear, causing him to freeze entirely, anxiously. Once again, she removed his hands gently from his face and stared into his eyes, her own full of love and forgiveness. "It's OK."

"Why couldn't you just leave me here?" He whispered brokenly. "Why?"

"Because I couldn't leave you," she rasped, feeling his despair full force and letting it overtake her. "If it were me Angel...if I had jumped in front of the portal meant for you, what would you have done? Would you have come after me? Would you have come here?"

"Yes." He murmured simply. In that moment he saw her actions clear as day. He had jumped in front of that portal instinctively. He hadn't given the idea of self sacrifice a second thought. All that he knew was that he had to spare Buffy the pain and consequently all she had known was that she had to get him out. She had to save him. They were doomed to suffer hear for eternity, because neither one of them was able to let the other suffer alone.

Reaching out to her, he touched the spot where he had hit her, this time gently, reverently, unable to believe that he was even worth the amount of love she harboured for him.

"Don't think about it," she whispered softly. "It's not completely hopeless. We might still get out. I've made a deal with Galendil."

"What kind of deal?" He asked, her words echoing in his ears like some terrible nightmare.

"He's going to set up three trials for me. If I pass all three, we're free to leave...both of us." He smiled through the tears in her eyes and ran her hand tenderly from his cheek down to his collar bone. "Do you hear me? If I pass we can leave."

"And if you fail?" He was almost unable to voice the words, so terrified was he of the answer.

"If I fail..." she hesitated, not wanting Angel to know just what she had promised the demon God and yet knowing that she owed it to him to let him know just what she had done. "If I fail, I give him my soul."

"Buffy?" He echoed, unable to believe what she had just told him. "No! No you can't! Don't you understand? Without your soul..."

"I had to." She told him, shaking her head, "I need to try. I need you safe, and if I can't have you then I don't want my soul. Don't you see? I don't want it, if it means your suffering."

"You're so beautiful." He murmured, floored by the enormity of her sacrifice. "I wish...I wish I could show just how much I love you.....I wish I could......"

"I know." She insisted. "I know Angel, because I love you just as much. I feel you so strongly inside me every day, all of the time, whether you're there or not...don't you know that? You're inside me. Even in my soul, and even if I lose it, part of you will still be there....that's why I'm not afraid."

"So now what?" He asked her. "When do you go through these trials?"

"I don't know." She replied. She took a deep, shuddering breath. "I asked Galendil to send me here, so that....so that I could say goodbye before I got through the trials. I guess he'll come for me once we've said it."

"Then don't," he said urgently. "Don't say good bye. Just.....just let me hold you.....let me feel you, for as long as.....I need you."

"Angel..."

"Don't talk OK? Just be here....just let me hold you."

"OK," was all she said before the they came together, holding one another, gripping each other tightly, desperately, unable to get enough as they waited for the demon God to reappear and for Buffy to face the fight for her soul, as well as for Angel's future.