A/N: I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who reviewed! I wasn't expecting so many wonderful reviews from just the first chapter. Thanks so much and I hope you all continue to enjoy the story! This one is kind of like another introductory chapter but don't worry things start to get really interesting in the next chapter…and at the end of this one.

Chapter 1 – The Portal

Angel franticly put his paper's he was working on away and grabbed for his coat. He was so irritated. Of course something like this would happen when Buffy was visiting. Of course he would have to go off and investigate a weird portal in an abandoned warehouse. It was just so typical.

Just as Angel was about to walk into his personal elevator, Buffy walked into his office. "Morning," she said starting out cheery and then moving to confused. "Did I catch you at a bad time?"

"Buffy…no…I just got a call about something strange downtown that I need to check out," Angel responded. "I'm really sorry I know we were supposed to do stuff today but hopefully this won't take long."

"Why don't I just come with you?" Buffy suggested. "I'm no stranger to strangeness."

"I don't want you to have to do that," Angel responded insistently. "I mean in a way this is kind of like…a vacation for you and I don't want you to have to do any work on your vacation."

Buffy looked at him disbelievingly. "Are you kidding? I've been on vacation ever since we defeated The First. I could use a little action."

Angel looked down at the ground as he tried not to think about the different ways that last statement could be taken. Buffy's mouth hung open as she realized how that came out.

"What I mean is…I could be your back up. Back up Buffy…I'm on top of you." Her face dropped once again as she realized the mistake she had made as more awkwardness fallowed every word she spoke. "It!" she quickly tried to recover, "I'm on top of…it."

"Right…so we should go then," Angel said quickly before the situation got anymore uncomfortable.

"Good idea," Buffy agreed as she fallowed him to the elevator.

"So what kind of strangeness are we going to be up against?" Buffy asked.

Angel pushed the button in the elevator for the first floor. "Possibly a portal of some kind. My informant just told me the address of an abandoned warehouse. He said that someone heard unnatural sounds and saw streaks of light almost as if there was a storm inside the warehouse."

"Sounds like a portal alright."

"Hopefully it'll be easy to close."

"Yeah who knows what might come out of it…or has already come out of it," Buffy added with a bit of worry on her face.

"Good point," Angel agreed. "We should probably patrol the area a little after checking out the portal if you're up for it?"

"I'm up if your up," Buffy responded just as she realized that, once again, what she had said could be taken in the wrong way. "I'm just going to stop talking all together."

Angel smiled and laughed a little. She smiled back at him, feeling slightly embarrassed, as they walked to his car.

XXXXXX

"Alright Spike just calm down," Spike told himself as he prepared to walk into the lobby where everyone was supposed to be meeting this morning. "Sure she was a little pissed at you but she mourned for you I mean that's gotta mean something right?"

He took a deep, pointless breath, shook off the tension and calmly and coolly walked into the lobby where everyone except for Angel and Buffy were assembled. Spike's calm and cool look changed to confusion when he noticed that Buffy wasn't there.

"Hey there nibblet, where's big sis?" he asked Dawn as he walked towards her.

Dawn smiled as Spike approached the group. She was happy to see him. She missed him a lot after what happened. He had always been there for her even before he had a soul.

"She just called actually. She went to Angel's office to get him and then about five minutes later she called and said for us to go about our plans without her because she was checking something out with Angel."

"Oh bloody brilliant," Spike practically yelled with a roll of his eyes in annoyance. "Did she say where they were going?"

"She just said there was some kind of disturbance in an abandoned warehouse downtown," Dawn answered. "She said something about a portal or something like that."

"A portal?" Fred interrupted after overhearing their conversation. A look of extreme worry took over her features.

Knowing that portals were a touchy subject Gunn stepped in. "It's probably nothing. Otherwise Angel would have told us about it."

Fred nodded her head uncomfortably. "You're probably right," she lied. Ever since she got sent to a different dimension she had always been a little on edge whenever mention of a portal came up.

"So what's on the agenda for today Wesley?" she asked trying to change the subject.

"Well last night we gave you all a short tour of our facilities but I thought we might show you things in more detail this afternoon," Wesley answered with a bright smile on his face. He just loved playing tour guide. "We'll show you the lab in more detail and we can show you our library of recourses. Then I thought we might go out and catch up on old times."

"Sounds like a great plan to me," Willow said with a bright smile on her face. She loved stuff like this. She hadn't stopped talking about the lab since they had their tour the night before. She also couldn't wait to catch up on things with her old friends. She could tell that something was going on between Wesley and Fred and she couldn't wait to get the details from them.

"Sounds good to me too," Dawn agreed. She didn't really care much what they did. She was just excited to be there and to be included in everything. "What do you say Spike? Are you…?" She started to say but stopped when she realized he was gone.

"Don't take it personally," Gunn told the confused looking Dawn, "He does that a lot."

"Well then," Wesley said to get the attention back on him again, "Shall we start with the lab?"

XXXXXX

Buffy and Angel had just pulled up to the warehouse and gotten out of the car. The car ride there had pretty much been silent and uncomfortable. Neither one could really think of anything to say. Small questions were asked like, "So how have you been?" or "How about this weather huh?"

As they walked towards the warehouse entrance Angel finally thought of another question to ask. "So how come Giles couldn't make it?"

"He's actually a very busy guy now," Buffy answered. "He and a few others started up the watchers council again. They have a lot of slayers to watch out for now."

"Yeah, that's understandable."

They reached the entrance of the building and Angel pulled open the sliding door. Cautiously, he and Buffy walked in, eyes pealed and ready for anything that might jump out at them.

They walked around a little and everything was silent. Then Angel heard something. Something was behind him, he could feel it. He braced himself and then quickly turned around, ready for whatever he might see.

"Went on a mission without me ah partner?"

Angel exhaled with relief and also a little annoyance. "Spike. I am not your partner and what are you doing here?"

Spike smiled at Angel's obvious discomfort of his presence. "The little bit told me where you two were and I thought you could use a hand."

"Well we don't, we have it under control so you can go now," Angel said with aggravation in his voice.

"I think I'll just stay," Spike said with a smile. "Just incase either one of you needs me for anything," he added as he looked at Buffy suggestively. This just angered Angel even more and Spike knew it, but he thought it best to just keep his mouth shut.

Spike nodded his head toward Buffy in hello, "Buffy."

Buffy just stood there and giggled slightly at the two vampires. "Spike," she greeted back. "How the two of you actually work together…I'll never know. Now would you two girls like some alone time or can we get to this portal thingy?"

Spike just looked at Angel and shook his head with disappointment. "Seriously Angel…let's get on with it then," and then he walked toward Buffy. They both started walking farther into the warehouse leaving Angel looking dumb founded with his mouth wide open. He quickly shook it off and caught up to the other two.

The three of them walked farther into the warehouse side by side with Buffy in the middle. When they got to the center of the large building was when they finally saw it. About twenty feet above their heads was the portal.

It looked kind of like a tear in the fabric of reality. Small lightning like flashes emanated from the spot and a small electrical snapping sound could be heard faintly.

Angel couldn't help but notice how similar it looked to the portal that Connor had come through about a year and a half earlier.

"Right then…what do we do now?" Spike asked as he looked up at the portal in awe of it.

"Well I think it's safe to say it's definitely a portal," Buffy responded.

Angel pulled out his cell phone, still not taking his eyes off of the portal. "We should call Wesley. I think he needs to see this."

"Good idea," Buffy agreed, her eyes also still fixed on the portal.

Before Angel had the chance to dial Wesley's number something started to happen with the portal. The snapping sound grew louder and it appeared that the portal itself was getting bigger. The lights were getting brighter and four objects of even brighter light started to appear within the portal.

"Umm…what's going on mate?" Spike asked Angel nervously.

Angel's mouth was wide open in anticipation. "I'm not sure, but get ready. It looks like something's coming through and we have no idea what it's going to be."

Buffy, Angel and Spike readied themselves into fighting positions as they waited for the creature, or creatures, to come through the portal. They stepped back a few steps but they were ready for anything.

Suddenly the four lights got brighter and seemingly out of nowhere four female figures dropped down from the portal. All four landed on their feet skillfully.

Spike, Buffy and Angel shielded their eyes until the bright lights disappeared. When the light dimmed and they were able to see the four figures more closely they couldn't believe what they saw.

The girls were all wearing different clothing but they're facial features were almost exactly the same. They all had blond hair, green eyes and they were all exactly the same height. They landed exactly the same way and they even had the same exact expressions on their faces. They had the same exact expressions on their faces as Buffy had on her face.

Angel and Spike looked at each other, then at Buffy and then at the four girls in front of them. Buffy just stared at the girls, mouth wide open, in disbelief.

"This is impossible," Buffy finally said. "They're…me. They're all…me."