Angel watched, confused as Galendil appeared before him and began assembling various things that looked to him to be spell ingredients. He was instantly suspicious and frightened.
"Resorting to magic where brute force failed?" He taunted. "What are you going to do, turn her into something? It won't work. I can promise you, slayer or warthog, she will still kick your ass."
"Now I can see what she sees in you," Galendil sneered. "It's your romantic nature and way with words."
"What are you going to do to her?" Angel demanded, a little more forcefully this time.
"Ah, there's where you're mistaken." Galendil said somewhat cheerfully this time. "This spell is actually for you, and will be a major part of the third challenge. I can promise you that it will be quite painful, and that it's going to change you forever, whether she wins or loses."
"If you think you're petty threats are going to frighten me then you are sadly mistaken." Angel said defiantly. "Go ahead do whatever it is you're going to do."
"You'll be singing a different tune when this spell hits you. I didn't have to make it painful, there is way to do this without any pain whatsoever, but I have to admit the thought of making you suffer was simply too wonderful for me to pass up." Galendil smiled and then added one final ingredient to the spell. "You can curb your anticipation. I'm done."
"You gonna tell me what you're doing to me first?" Angel wondered. Galendil shook his head indicating the negative.
"Close your eyes vampire." He warned as he raised his hands in preparation for the spell casting. "Cause this is really going to hurt."
As the slayer waited in her cell, the sound of Angel's pained and tortured screams pierced her heart and caused a tear to roll down her cheek as she waited for the demon God to return and the third challenge to begin.
Galendil didn't even bother returning in person when the time had come for the third challenge to start. Buffy felt a strange, light headed sensation and suddenly she was in yet another arena, this time facing two small rooms that looked completely identical, except for different coloured doors on each room.
"What the hell is this?" She demanded, still slightly disoriented from what had obviously been some form of teleportation. Galendil appeared before her, smiling as if he had already won the challenge. "Thought I wasn't going to be fighting again."
"You aren't." Galendil assured her. "This arena is for another purpose altogether. Behind those two doors lies either your destiny or your destruction. This will actually be a fairly simple task."
"What are you talking about?" This time she didn't even attempt to hid the quiver of fear in her voice. "Where's Angel? I heard him screaming, what did you do to him?"
"Merely prepared him for the challenge my dear." Galendil said simply. "This is as much a test for you as it is for him and he is going to be positively instrumental in this."
"You wanna quit with the riddles and snide comments and just cut to the challenge please?" Buffy said, exasperation and anger replacing her earlier fear. "What do I have to do?"
"It's simple." Galendil told her. "Those screams you hear earlier were from a permanent spell I performed on your vampire. Basically I split him in two."
"You spl..." Buffy trailed off, feeling the air leave her. "Where is he?"
"Behind those doors." Galendil said with a grin. "But he isn't all there. I separated his two most dominant parts. In one room I have placed the vampire part of him...his most evil side....Angelus if you want to get completely technical. In the other, is Angel....his human self."
"That's how you separated him?" Buffy exclaimed, unable to comprehend what Galendil was telling her.
"Vampire and human." The demon God confirmed. "And here's where it gets tricky. You have to choose. You have to decide which on is Angel and which one is Angelus. Both of them know the details of this challenge, so don't expect Angelus to give himself away. All you have to do is visit each room and decide which one is Angel. If you choose correctly, the result will be instantaneous. You and he will automatically be transported back to your world all safe and sound and his vampire self will be trapped here for all eternity. If you choose incorrectly however, Angelus will be the one to return to your dimension while you and Angel will serve your sentence here and your soul will belong to me."
"So what, you want me to chat with both of them?" Buffy exclaimed incredulously. "Ask them questions? Interview them to see which one's which?"
"If that's how you want to go about it, then by all means." Galendil replied.
"There's more to this, I know there is." Buffy insisted. "You can pick whatever challenges you please, but you have to tell me everything there is to know about them."
"You are right my dear there is one more thing." Galendil told her. "And this will actually help you to decide which one is truly Angel and which one is truly Angelus. Before I brought you here, I asked both demon and human to choose a fantasy of theirs involving you that will help you make your decision. We both know that Angelus is going to choose something that Angel would choose in the hopes of confusing you. He and I had a long chat and he desperately wants to return to Earth. All you have to do is separate the fantasies and figure out which one is something your Angel truly wishes for, and which one Angelus thinks your heart longs for."
"How can I see these fantasies?" Buffy asked carefully. "Just ask them to show them to me?"
"Of course not." The demon God laughed. "I wouldn't want to make this too easy. The fantasies are stored away in their subconscious. Your job is to find the key to unlocking them and then decide which one is truly Angel. I warn you slayer, this will not be easy. That vampire is very tricky."
"I know Angelus better than you do." Buffy said darkly. "You've just lost."
"Have I ever told you how amusing I find your confidence?" Galendil taunted her. "However in this case I rather think you're stalling. You see there's more at stake here now than just you and the life of your Angel. There's the entire world, including all of your friends."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Buffy demanded angrily.
"Just what do you think the first thing Angelus is going to do if you choose wrongly and he returns to your dimension? I'm betting he kills all your friends." Galendil looked towards the two rooms in mock contemplation. "You're not gambling with just your life now, but the lives of your friends as well as many faceless innocents that will become victims of Angelus should you lose. Do you really want to play those odds slayer? You could always call it quits now and accept your own loss."
Wolfram and Hart! Buffy's mind was screaming at her, reminding her of a conversation that she and Wesley had had before she left, a conversation that had ended in a warning. Wesley was right! I may be the one to decide what side Angel plays for in the coming apocalypse! This is what Wolfram and Hart wanted all along! If I choose wrong...
"I can almost hear your fear slayer." Galendil whispered menacingly. "I can almost taste your indecision. You know it's wrong don't you? You know that if you decide to go through with this challenge you may be condemning not only yourself but an untold number of innocents to a horrible, painful death. Are you really that selfish slayer? You know how you can end this. You don't have to go through with it."
"You want me to give up." She said softly, not even staring at Galendil anymore. Her voice was a steady monotone, void of any discernable outward emotion. "You want me to just surrender my soul to you."
"It would cut down on my waiting time, yes." Galendil admitted. "However that choice is entirely up to you. Not even Angel can put his two cents in anymore I'm afraid."
"Angel..." She was talking to herself now, more than anything else. Her mind was screaming at her, searching for an answer. "Oh God Angel, what should I do?"
Don't give up, her mind answered her, yet again in Angel's voice rather than hers. Don't ever give up. Don't surrender.
"I don't have all day slayer." Galendil said impatiently. "Are you going to go through with this challenge or do I own you and him for all eternity? Make up your mind."
"You may end up owning my soul Galendil, but it won't be without a fight." The slayer finally said, meeting his eyes and not bothering to brush away the angry tears in them. "When you said I was being selfish if I chose to go through with the challenge you were only partly right. When you said deciding whether I should go through with it or not was entirely my choice, you were dead wrong. Whether he is here or not, Angel does have a say in what I do, and he would never let me quit. He would never let me just give my soul to you without a fight. He won't let me and neither will I. I'm going to fight and damn the cost."
"How touching." Galendil remarked dryly. "I asked for an answer slayer, not a monologue. If you're going to take the challenge then by all means step through those doors. I don't mind waiting."
"Hope you're a patient demon God," Buffy murmured as she stepped slowly towards the first room. "Because never is a really long time."