Warning: Rated T for now, but may change later to M for darker subject matter.

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel belong to their copyright holders, I own nothing.

Chapter 2: Angels and Nightmare

One week after the events of last chapter.

The new vampire Master (as many, many of his loyal vampire servants/minions had dubbed him; capital M and all) was nothing like the old Master. His face was not deformed, he was free to roam wherever he wanted in the nighttime of course, and he had better thought out plans—or so he believed. In fact, there was no connection between him and the old Master. What made this vampire stand out amongst all the rest though was just a fantastic mix of brute strength, brains, and severe dedication.

Actually, the more Vamp Master thought about it, he wished he was thought of more as a ruler than a master. Eh, Vamp Master wasn't something to complain about, though, so he'd leave it alone. He thought maybe they chose the name because it gave them a sense of familiarity of old times. That was good. Still, ruler would be better.

His goal, after all, was to be the ruler over the entire vampire species.

Okay, maybe it was a bit of a stretch, but after a bunch of years of hard work and determination, who was to say it wasn't possible? He already had hundreds of loyal vampires at his disposal here in England (and other places in the world) that he'd created or the vampires that he created had created. He already was stronger than most vampires over here, beating them in battles to prove he was better. He already outlasted many Slayer attacks (although he'd never personally killed one or ever really fought with one, he'd always just managed escaping). He was strong. He was better than most vampires, not just solely focused on the selfish need for blood. There wasn't one reason he could find that he couldn't be the ruler, be the Vamp Master, over all vampires in the world. Vampires now were even coming to him, asking to be a part of his reign. He was growing and becoming better and better. In a matter of time, he would become better than everyone else.

There might have been one problem, in his eyes. Vamp Master was a little old fashioned, despite being a generally new vampire. He wanted someone to share this with, a Queen of sorts. Recently he started looking through his followers for someone that would suit his evil needs. He found a few contesters, no doubt. In fact, he and one of the women were going to go out and get blood together in a little bit. Perhaps she could be the one he was searching for?

Oh, it didn't matter. He truly had more important things to worry about. His group needed to grow, that was more important. More people needed to be turned, and soon. More already existing vampires needed to join him. He had to make himself stand out more.

There were two; two vampires that he knew wouldn't join him no matter what. He knew their names, of course. Everyone knew who they were. Angel and Spike, the vampires with souls. They were also problems that would need to be dealt with at one point or another. The good news was that he was already thinking of a plan to deal with them.

Willow knew what was going to happen. She'd been having the same nightmare every night for the past couple of weeks now, so it was pretty obvious. It was becoming weirder to have these dreams now that she knew it was a dream but couldn't seem to stop it, no matter what she did. It was this dream that led Willow to call Buffy more often just to make sure everything was okay.

The nightmare always began the same way with her, Buffy, Xander, and Giles in the Sunnydale High School library. Plenty of books were spread out over the table, but none of them were even glancing at the books. Instead, they were just sitting around and talking and laughing and having fun. It always started out that way, like a great dream. Then, before she knew it, things turned dark and there was no escape from what was coming after them all. It was horrifying.

Vampires stormed into the library. Buffy, being the Slayer, of course, took ease in fighting them off and slaying all five of them with her stake. When she was done, nothing but piles of dust were left on the floor.

She turned back to them, gave a small smile, and then shrugged. Then she was gone. Just like that. No flash of light, no strange sound, suddenly Buffy just disappeared.

The scenery changed and Willow, Xander, and Giles were outside in the dead of night, stakes in hand, hunting vampires. They were patrolling, and Willow always had to wonder: Where's Buffy?

Just as she wondered where Buffy could possibly be, there she was, standing atop a great hill. The moonlight was shining down on her and only her, seeming to envelop her in powerful light that was haunting and yet beautiful. Buffy was holding a stake in her hand and facing the opposite direction.

"Buffy!" They'd all call. "Buffy, we're here!"

Then, as if magically, a vampire would appear in front of her and they'd fight. Willow, Xander, and Giles tried to run forward, but they just couldn't seem to get any closer to help out. Every time they fought, Buffy won. She kicked the vampire and then sent a stake into his chest. He'd turn to dust. Willow and Xander would stop running and start cheering Buffy on: Go Buffy; who's the best Slayer ever; slay those vampires; go Buffy! Ironically, Giles would just stand off to the side with his arms folded, closely watching Buffy.

Things would then take mysterious changes. The dust from the fallen vampire would swirl in the wind until it was flying at super high speeds and was coming towards Buffy. Buffy didn't even try to move, try and fight it. The dust hit her right in the chest. Buffy turned to dust, even though she wasn't a vampire and wasn't hit with a stake.

Willow always woke up after that. It was a dumb, crazy dream that probably didn't mean a thing. But it frightened her, and she had no idea why. It probably meant nothing. No; it certainly meant nothing. It was just a stupid recurring nightmare.

But why couldn't she get rid of it? What was it trying to tell her?

Shaking slightly, Willow got back under her covers. She needed to get some sleep. She was going to have a long day tomorrow.

Xander examined the victim's neck. Two puncture wounds the size of teeth. Definitely the same murderer they were searching for, who always left his victims with two puncture wounds on their necks.

He almost laughed. He sounded so professional it was ridiculous. Who would have ever thought Xander the Detective? Definitely not himself.

The thing about doing this work, though, was that it was necessary. Someone in this line of duty of dead bodies needed to alert the Slayers when there were crazy vamps or other wacky demons on the loose. Sure, it wasn't Xander's first choice of work, but he didn't mind it too much. It could be a lot worse. Plus, he was helping the world rid of demons, and he loved doing that.

They were dealing with a really bad vampire who just couldn't seem to be found anywhere and was killing people left and right, leaving behind a bunch of bodies. Constantly it seemed that plenty of Slayers were going patrolling for him, waiting to catch him.

There were rumors of him being involved with that new Vamp Master, or whatever. How and why, Xander didn't know, but hopefully he and the Slayers could figure out if that was actually true.

Lately, a lot of things seemed to be connected to this new Vamp Master. Xander hoped that Buffy would find him soon and put an end to all this nonsense. Then maybe, just maybe, things could get back to normal. Or, as normal as things got for them, anyway.

Angel was in his office at Wolfram & Hart, staring at his phone. Thinking about Fred. Thinking about Illyria. Thinking about Buffy. She'd been selfish. She'd refused to help, and because of Spike, of all people—or vampires.

Fred was gone, and so soon after they truly lost Cordelia. Now, they had Illyria, an Old one who didn't understand the world and was desperate for Wesley to teach her things about it. That was probably better than having an Old One prepared to destroy the world, but there were a million things Wesley would rather do than help Illyria when every time he looked at her he saw and thought of Fred.

It wasn't entirely Buffy's fault. Angel understood the fact that things could get awkward or weird between two old…lovers. Angel was disgusted by the thought of her and Spike and that word. But anyway, Buffy wouldn't have even had to speak to Spike to help them out. All they were asking for was a little research just in case what Wolfram & Hart had wasn't enough and there was a way to save Fred.

What hurt Angel the most was the fact that he thought Buffy would always be there if he ever needed help with anything, just like he would always be there for her if she needed anything. Apparently, through her eyes, that wasn't the case.

He wanted to call Buffy. Tell her how he felt. Ask her how, how could she do this, just let someone that she never met die? Ask for an explanation and a damn good one too, not just because of Spike.

He picked up the phone. Maybe he shouldn't be doing this at all. But he couldn't get this problem off his mind.

Buffy was in her room, laying in bed and looking through a book. More and more research, that seemed to be all she did lately. When things got bad, though, this was the job she had to do. She forced others to do it with her, though. Dawn was in an opposing room researching, and Buffy was sure Giles was in his office looking through some books as well.

So far, nothing. This Vamp Master or whatever was too new to be in any of these books, Buffy thought. The only way to actually find out about him would be to go out and talk to some vampires around and patrol. She started looking around for her stake.

Just then, the phone started ringing.

Luckily for her, Dawn wasn't near a phone and Giles was in no condition to answer. So she picked it up and pressed the answer button.

"Hello?"

"Buffy." Angel's voice was low and came out in almost a whisper. At the sound of his voice, Buffy lost her breath. Angel? Why was Angel calling? She wasn't sure whether she should be excited or worried.

"Angel. Wow. It's-it's really nice to hear from you."

"Save it, Buffy," Angel said rather rudely. He wanted to cut to the chase, not dance around the reason he was calling.

Buffy was hurt. "Excuse me?"

"Look, I don't know if Giles told you, but he told us why you wouldn't help Fred. That's low, and it hurt not only me, but Spike as well." He chuckled. "I might be an idiot for calling and ranting, but I cared about Fred, we all did, and the thought that you'd refuse never crossed our minds."

She was at a loss for words. She never remembered ever hearing him this angry before. "Spike? Angel, what are you talking about? He's dead. And what's wrong with Fred? I've never even met her."

"Please, Buffy, don't play dumb. I wish I could say sorry for being so rude, but I guess that makes us even now."

"Angel, what are you talking about?" Buffy repeated, tears forming in her eyes.

"She died, Buffy. I hope you know that. Fred died." He paused. "Maybe there was nothing that could've been done to help her anyway. But I thought you'd be there for me and everyone else. Now I know how you really feel."

"You're way out of line," Buffy argued, a tear falling. "I didn't do anything, you have to believe me."

"I would've helped you. No matter what. You let a fantastic woman die and be taken over by an ancient demon. I hope that sticks in your conscious."

The phone went dead. He hung up.

Buffy let a few more tears fall before wiping them away. The way he was talking to her she could've sworn that he wasn't Angel, but a somewhat lesser evil version of Angelus. He must've been really touched by Fred's death and what happened, although she had no idea what he was talking about. And why did he mention Spike?

One thing he said stuck out. "Look, I don't know if Giles told you, but he told us why you wouldn't help Fred."

Giles. What did he have to do with this?

Buffy stormed out of her room, tears wiped away, ready to go confront Giles in his office.