Angel closed his eyes, expecting the arrow to fly through his heart at any second and stunned when he heard someone else cry out in alarm. His eyes flashed open, and he saw one of the men who had entered the room with Buffy doubled over in pain, arrow protruding from his side.

For a long moment the room was still as everyone tried to determine what was going on, before Buffy chirped, "Oh, I'm sorry. Did I forget to mention that I don't kill innocent things?"

Angel flinched, unable to form a coherent thought as she tossed him the longbow she was holding, talking advantage of everyone's continued uncertainty to elbow the two men next to her sharply, disarming them and tossing the crossbows they were carrying to the two vampires nearest to her. "Try not to kill them if you don't have to- they're human," she shouted to the demons and vampires huddled in the room, and, though Angel still didn't understand what was going on, they seemed to, springing into action with speed Angel wouldn't have guessed that they still possessed. As the first punches were thrown and arrows flew past him he wondered what exactly Buffy was doing even as she somehow managed to render two men unconscious with a single punch. An arrow grazed his shoulder, disrupting his musings, and he decided to save thinking for later as he launched into the fray with a growl, seeing Buffy throw swords to an unarmed demon before being knocked down by a vicious punch. Without thinking Angel sent an arrow flying through the chest of the man who did it, pausing only to make sure Buffy had regained her footing before viciously lashing out at the man nearest to him.

Buffy groaned as she was kicked to the floor yet again before rolling out of the way and leaping up, unsurprised to find herself next to Angel in the midst of the mayhem. For half a second she flashed back to a simpler time, a time when fighting next to him had seemed as natural as breathing and if you had dumped her in the middle of Times Square on New Years Eve she could have pinpointed his location, exactly, in less than sixty seconds-

"What are you playing at?" he growled, snapping her out of her thoughts and she bit back a comment about how ironic it was that he actually wanted to have a real conversation NOW of all times before snapping back,

"I'm sorry. There was no other way."

"No other way for WHAT?" he demanded, deflecting a punch and sending a man flying, and despite herself Buffy cringed as she heard bones cracking.

"I had a dream earlier," she bit out shortly. "I didn't really get it- it was crazy. I mean, what could 'the flowers don't make it real' possibly mean, right?"

For the first time he allowed himself to entertain the possibility that she had honestly lost her mind, forced to admit, if only to himself, that he couldn't very well blame her if she had, not after everything she'd gone through- and he cringed as he realized sharply, for the first time, how much of that must be due to himself and his unsuccessful efforts to protect her by leaving her even when every fiber of his being had been screaming at him to just grab onto her and never let her go.

"Buffy, what are you talking about?" he asked sharply, forcing himself to focus on reality and not long-forgotten dreams as she sent a man flying with a sharp roundhouse kick before grabbing the crossbow he dropped and using it to send an arrow flying into another man's back.

"Okay," she started babbling quickly as she deftly dodged a kick, and even as he tried to focus on her words he was fascinated by the casual grace with which she fought, her unflinching agility. "Do you remember what I was saying about the prophesy earlier?"

Angel blinked in confusion, trying to recall what she was talking about , finding it harder than it should have been to remember amidst all the confusion. "The one about Giles," he said abruptly, glad to remember even as he had to deal with the realization that she was only doing this for her dead husband. "You were supposed to marry Giles so that-"

"No," she said, and her voice sounded odd to him, brimming with emotion and yet at the same time, eerily calm, totally detached. "Not about Giles. About you and me."

Angel was totally stunned for a moment, and the man nearest to him took advantage of his momentary distraction to send him slamming into the floor. Unable to move, Angel was grateful as Buffy sprung into action, slamming a piece of debris over the man's head before shooting Angel a warning look as he scrambled to his feet.

"I didn't get it at first, either," she continued, still in that same unnatural tone before she snorted sarcastically. "Meaning for about four years, but when it hit me earlier, I couldn't believe how obvious it was."

"Buffy, PLEASE," Angel implored, hating the pleading note his voice had taken on even as he continued to fight. "What are you saying?"

She met his eyes briefly before taking a shaky breath, seeming to steel herself before saying slowly, "I dated some guy my senior year of high school for a little while." She paused and grunted, dodging a punch before she added, "I don't remember his name."

"Scott," Angel supplied softly, stunned that she would actually forget something that had caused him so many hours of silent agony years ago.

Buffy shoot him a small smile, looking surprised. "Scott," she nodded slowly. "Nice enough guy. Bought me a claddagh ring. I freaked out. Obvious reasons," she added briefly as her fist solidly connected with a man's jaw. "I talked to Willow about it at the time, and she looked the rings up online so she could see what they looked like. She found out they used to be wedding rings." Buffy shrugged. "Wasn't really interested. I sort of filed it away into the 'things I just can't think about because they cause me too much agony category' and forgot about it."

"Buffy, the POINT!" Angel exclaimed in frustration as he was knocked to the floor by two unnaturally strong men and she looked at him in concern before blurting quickly,

"The prophesy wasn't very specific about a lot of things. I had to get married, I had to be younger than twenty-five, we had to fight in a final battle together, and he had to defy death." She smirked wryly. "I'd say death has been defied."

"Buffy, we weren't-" he began, but she cut him off sharply, almost frantically.

"In my dream- I think Willow was trying to tell me it's about the INTENT. The ceremony with Rupert wasn't what made our marriage real. It's the intent. Angel- you and I pledged ourselves to one another and we consummated the bond. I think we were married. I think the prophesy is about us," she blurted. "And so there needed to be a final battle and we both needed to be in it and so I brought it to you."

Angel often chose not to speak, but rarely did he have no idea what to say, but now he was truly speechless. He settled for looking at Buffy as though she were crazy for a long moment before inquiring,

"What about the part where the person you married needed to be human?"

"Haven't quite figured that one out yet," she admitted gingerly as she dived to the floor to avoid an arrow.

"If you're wrong?" he demanded shortly.

There was an excruciating pause before she responded emotionlessly, "I guess we die."

"So now what?" he demanded sharply, angered when she shrugged, looking ambivalent.

"Well, either I'm right," she grunted as she jumped over a lifeless body, "In which case no worries, we can't lose- oh!" she cried as a man sent her sprawling to the floor and she rolled out of the way before chirping sarcastically, "Or I'm wrong, in which case, look on the bright side- it will be over soon!"

Over an hour later Buffy was beginning to rue her words as the battle showed no sign of easing. She let out a sharp cry of pain as she was thrown against the wall before springing back with difficulty, energy suddenly renewed as she caught sight of Ethan. Locking eyes with her as she rushed toward him he started to chant softly in Latin, and Angel cringed as he surveyed the scene, wondering what Ethan could possibly be planning now. His alarm heightened, however, as Buffy's eyes suddenly flashed yellow and she began chanting in Latin herself.

"Buffy!" he screamed, fearing she was possessed, jumping toward her and tackling her to the ground, confused when her eyes became hazel again and she looked at him in annoyance.

"What are you doing?" she demanded.

"He was making you-" Angel began, looking over to Ethan, confused to see the older man seemed breathless.

"He wasn't making me," Buffy said, looking at him like he'd lost his mind. "I was counteracting his spell."

Angel looked at her incredulously. "You can't do magic. You told me earlier you can only do level two spells-"

She shot him a withering glance that spoke louder than any words possibly could before quipping, "Yeah, about that. I lied." She looked briefly sympathetic before shoving him off of her, rolling to her feet. "Sorry. If it makes you feel any better not even Rupert knew- I couldn't let anyone think I was a bigger threat than I already was."

Her gaze grew panicked as she realized Ethan was chanting once more and she locked eyes with Angel, her own eyes clearly conveying her fear before her face suddenly cleared. "Do you know anything about spells?" she inquired abruptly, and he could only shake his head.

"This'll be interesting," she muttered sarcastically before making a visible effort to pull herself together. She took a deep breath, fighting for inner calm as she pulled Angel to a corner of the room, out of Ethan's sight before saying rapidly, "Okay. The ten second crash course. Spells aren't really about the words- they're about energy and intent." Her eyes flashed upward to meet his and he almost shivered at the intensity contained within them.

He looked at her, ten million questions in his head, at least as many doubts, but in the midst of it all, he felt quiet and complete certainty about one thing- despite all of it, the madness and the hurt and the pain, he still trusted her more than he trusted himself. "It's okay," he said quietly, meeting her eyes. "You don't have to explain. Just tell me what to do."

She looked at him for a long moment, gratitude clearly in her eyes before grabbing his hand and slowly twining her fingers through it. Despite himself Angel marveled at the fact that a moment that was one of the most stressful of his life could somehow also become one of the most sensual as a shiver went through him and he felt their power meshing incredibly before Buffy whispered, "Just clear your mind and try to direct your energy toward whatever it is you know to be true."

And as Buffy closed her eyes and began to chant in Latin once more Angel fought to center himself and do as she requested, relieved that the demons around him seemed to be unquestioningly dedicated to protecting him and Buffy as they just stood there, defenseless. He tried to do what she requested, alarmed as he realized there wasn't much he believed to be true anymore, much less knew to be.

And then suddenly, unbidden, her face was in front of him, not as it was now, but as it had been right after her eighteenth birthday, and he could see the scene in his mind as though he were living it again- fireplace burning brightly, light reflecting off her face and giving it a glow that made him want more than anything to kiss her as she gazed at him. Her face alert was but content as she arched an eyebrow in invitation before pouting slightly at his evident refusal to take her up on it, and then, suddenly, something in her expression shifted. She tilted her head, looking at him as though she could see right through him, and in that moment he knew her eyes met his, unquestioning, loving, accepting- and he knew, with certainty, that this moment between them was true.

Angel gasped as a white light suddenly flashed around he and Buffy and he found himself back in the present, the room around him shaking.

"Whatever you did," Buffy said breathlessly, "nice." He felt his gut twist as he looked at her, so similar and yet so different from the girl who had once comprised his truth.

"What's going on?" he questioned, pushing thoughts that he feared would only hurt him out of his mind, and she looked around her at Ethan's men, who were rapidly falling at the hands of demons and vampires.

"I did a spell to counteract any glamours that are in the room-"

He blinked at her in confusion. "Glamours?"

"Illusions," she clarified, sighing when he continued to look confused. "Those men were freakishly strong," she elaborated as though it were obvious, tossing her head slightly. "I figured Ethan had probably cast some spell to give them strength-"

As Angel looked around at the battle which their side was now obviously winning, he felt new admiration for her as he said, "You know, you jump to conclusions more than anyone I've ever known- but strangely, you're usually right."

He wasn't sure she'd heard him, though, as she went charging toward Ethan.

Ethan cringed as Buffy flew through the air to land in a crouching position in front of him, effectively blocking his exit. "You want out?" she asked breathlessly. "Over my dead body." She smiled sardonically. "Take that one as literally as you want."

Angel stumbled slightly as saw the last of the humans in the room rendered unconscious by a particularly vicious punch, trying not to think about the fact that he was feeling weaker by the second for reasons he couldn't understand. He looked toward Buffy, who seemed to be working out her issues on a vastly outclassed Ethan Rayne. Angel tried to take a step toward her and almost fell over, grabbing onto a chair that had remained intact during the fight to try to regain his balance, and was confused when, despite his best efforts, he fell to his knees.

"And this is for my children!" he heard Buffy scream as though from very far away as she plunged a sword through Ethan's stomach before kicking him to the floor with a sob, collapsing forward and being caught by a chaos demon as Angel let out a sharp cry of pain, feeling as though the world was exploding around him before everything went black.