It's come to my attention that this story was a bit incomplete given the recent events that affected the BSV server. I'd like to thank my good friend LadyYashka for pointing this out to me, by the way, because otherwise, I would never have known. The new chapters are with her, being prepped and read and readied for posting, so give me a little bit more time and things should be ready, k? Anyway, I figured the best way to fix this would be to take down the original chapter that no longer existed and repost it. Thank you to everyone for your support. I hope you can re-enjoy this chapter while waiting for the next two. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Love, A.J.

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The Girl With Kaleidoscope Eyes

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four

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Trust the ex love of her life to come storming into town, thinking he's the hero of the picture.

With the reject from the Liz Taylor Collection, even.

It's all Buffy can do to stop Spike from tearing Angel's throat out, particularly when the rat barges unannounced into their interrogation with a demon and kills the First's little Minion of Doom just as he was about to speak.

She may have kept Spike from getting a shot in, but as soon as Angel opens his mouth and starts smack-talking her mate, Buffy flies off the handle and clubs him in the head and groin.

Angel actually looks pretty funny when he's holding his crotch in pain.

Spike thinks so, at least. He couldn't stop laughing for five minutes straight, and Buffy was hard pressed to keep from bursting into contagious giggles as well.

Anya's spells prove their worth, as Angel (when he's recovered) does not even notice that something is amiss with Buffy. Like the fact that her heart doesn't actually beat anymore. Buffy pulls Anya into the kitchen and hugs her in thanks for this later on. The vengeance demon skips out of the room, pleased with herself and cursing Xander for ever telling her that her knowledge of demons and spells couldn't be useful in the here and now. What did that idiot know, anyway? He was normal.

Buffy still ponders her reaction to Angel's sudden, unwanted reentry into her life with amazement. Recalling years past, she shakes her head when she remembers how excited and happy and awestruck she was whenever he was around... barring the fact that he usually returned at times in her life when the shit was well and truly about to hit the fan. Now that she's Spike's childe, and she and Spike are in love and mated, any blinders that she may have still had in regards to her one-time lover (one time being literal here) have been torn off and burned into non-existence. She can see Angel clearly now for the first time in years.

He's kind of a dickhead.

Insanely manipulative, too. As a matter of fact, when his hysterical laughter to the idea of Buffy and Spike being together is met with blank stares all around, he begins to hyperventilate, despite his severe aversion to doing anything human-like, especially his lack of need for air. Following that is denial. And then comes the angry hissy-fitting like a whiny bitch.

Buffy's eyes are shutting from boredom by the time he finally makes it around to sad puppy dog eyes. "But Buffy, I thought we were going to be together! I was waiting for the right time to tell you... but I'm going to be human again one day. I'll be human, and then I can be with you again! Don't you want that?"

Maybe it's cruel to reply the way she does, but the minute he stops talking, she starts laughing and sputters out, "Not really!"

But he isn't getting the picture. His head is a lot harder than she remembers it being.

She and Spike confer in the kitchen and decide that enough is absolutely enough. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and they need to take action to make this big, lumbersome dickhead get the message and back the hell off.

Serious action.

"Oh, god. Fuck...fuck... ungh, fuck! Oh, god, yes, Spike!" she shrieks. Spike gives a dark chuckle and his head falls backwards as he voraciously pumps his hard cock into her. His hands are everywhere, alternating between raking through her wild, loose hair, pressing her face down against the stone of the sarcophagus that she is wantonly bent over, rubbing them over her ass and cupping and fondling her breasts.

It hadn't taken much for them to decide what would truly piss Angel off enough that he would finally get the picture and leave them the hell alone. Earlier at Revello Drive, Buffy had told Anya loudly that she and Spike would be patrolling in Restfield, then had given her friend and confidante an evil grin and a wink when Angel's giant forehead had poked through the doorway. The vengeance demon had laughed and waved the blonde duo off, encouraging them to do anything and everything that she would do.

Buffy managed to convince Spike to do a real patrol before they went ahead with their plan. Surprisingly, he agreed with it, but Buffy realizes later that it's because Spike has planned to hold her hostage for a short time and fuck her completely mindless in the remnants of his old crypt.

Until now, they've been running circles around Sunnydale and retracing their steps over and over again to confuse Angel. And Buffy senses the exact moment that he finally catches up to them, when the dumbass finally sees what his grandchilde is doing to Buffy's very willing body, and what everyone has been trying to tell him for the past hour of his unwanted visit.

Spike is enjoying this probably a lot more than he should, not that it really matters to her. She hears Angel's theatrical gasp of horror, and even the enraged grinding of his teeth, but the kicker is when she tilts her neck against Spike's lips, and his fangs sink fluidly into her skin. And as she laughs and moans with delirious joy in her release -- and in Spike's too, since he subsequently follows -- she hears Angel's roar of despair and thinks that maybe, just maybe, she has finally gotten through to the lunkhead.

Sadly, it seems that Angel really is as dumb as he looks. When she and Spike return to Revello Drive, the entire house is up in arms because of the big, brooding, jealous maniac. He's screaming his version of events at anyone who will look at him twice (and stands still long enough), and Dawn is screaming bloody murder right back at him. Xander is in the corner, doubled over in hysterical laughter, and Willow (who seems to have come back to the planet Earth sometime after the Let's Make a Buffy, Spike and Faith flambé! debacle) looks unsure, frightened and eager all at once -- almost like how she used to look when Buffy had actually first been interested in Angel.

Well, whatever. At least she isn't glued up Kennedy's ass anymore, as revolting as the thought of Kennedy is in general.

Giles and Anya, along with Faith, all have looks on their faces that point very tellingly towards the idea that they have only let Angel flap his jaw as long as he has so that they can watch the resulting fireworks upon Buffy and Spike's arrival. By the lack of complete and utter chaos in the house, it seems that they've also confined the mini Slayers to other, out of the way places for this confrontation. The absence of Rona and Molly making a head-long charge at Angel with stakes are dead giveaways.

Angel rushes for them the minute he sees her, and isn't this just typical of him? He'd rather confront them about their relationship in front of Buffy's loved ones and look like the wounded party rather than speaking like a mature, pragmatic adult in private. And all for the chance to hopefully humiliate and enrage her mate and regain some sort of modicum of respect in the Scoobies' eyes.

What exactly did he think she was going to do? Fall into his arms and dismiss her Sire and love as a non-entity?

Moron.

"It's a spell, Buffy, he's got some sort of spell on you! You have to listen to me!" he blathers on, and on, and blah, blah, blah, and it's all stuff that she's heard before, often times things that she herself may have said. At least until her hand somehow finds its way from around Spike's waist to around Angel's throat. Everything and everyone in the room comes to a standstill as Buffy slowly lifts Angel clear off of his feet, solely by the grip on his neck, before slamming him into the wall and exhibiting more of her strength than she's shown anyone besides Spike, and all of this with a pleasant smile on her face. It widens at Faith's softly spoken, "Holy shit..." and the effect that this smile has on Angel evidently makes him terrified if the way his eyes widen is anything to go by.

Just wait until he finds out what she's become.

"Listen, Angel," she begins, in her best Don't Cross Me voice, which coincidentally sounded a lot like her Homicidal Valley Girl voice. The grin never leaves her face, and Spike never leaves his place next to her, an identical smirk crossing his lips. "I'm going to say this only once. I really don't care to repeat myself, and I get pretty cranky when I have to, so make sure to take that cotton stuffing out of your ears, 'kay?"

Since her hand is essentially crushing his voice box, the most he can do is give a pathetic nod and gurgled consent.

"Spike is my mate. I am in love with him. Try to hurt him, and I will very violently hurt you. And if you don't believe that I can, ask Faith what I did to the last guy that tried to hurt Spike."

Lifting a hand from her tightly crossed arms, Faith raised her pointer finger and cheerfully says, "She sliced him into quarters with a shiny axe thingy."

"Right," Buffy confirms. "I love Spike, and I will do anything for him, just like he's proven that he'll do anything for me. Don't think for one single second that just because I loved you once, I'll go easy on you if you touch my mate. I loved you four years ago, and I still stabbed a sword through your increasingly flabby belly and sent you to hell. Or did you forget about that?"

The look on his face says that he has. Buffy's smirk, if possible, gets even bigger. "Think about this for a second, Angel. If I could do that when I DID love you... what do you think I'll do to you now that I don't?"

Clearly, this statement is all it takes for Angel to finally -- finally -- back off.

The entire room breathes a sigh of relief when Buffy lets Angel down. He sends her one last sad, puppy-dog eyed stare, and when she remains unmoved, he backs away toward the door, folding his arms across his chest and seemingly folding in on himself.

"Now. Was there a reason you came back to my town, or did you just come here to attack us and insult my intelligence?" she asks, rewrapping her arm around Spike's waist and tapping her foot.

If she cared more, she'd feel guilty at the sad, kicked animal look on his face, but the fact of the matter is that he has manipulated her like this too much and too often -- she isn't fucking falling for it again, and she glares harder until he he glances down and away.

"I know what you're facing here. I know about the First Evil, and the Potentials, and everything, and I have something here that could end it all in your favor." He's pulling the ugly, sparkly amulet out of his jacket pocket as he stops talking, and raises his hand toward her so she can take it.

And take it she does. Good God Almighty, this thing is ugly. Like, really ugly.

Where do these things come from, seriously?

"And... what exactly does it do? Besides clash with every single thing I own?" she asks, looking between the amulet and Angel skeptically. The look he gets on his face is almost eager and triumphant, and Buffy does her best not to look at Spike because she just knows he's getting ready to laugh his ass off.

"I'm not exactly sure what it does, but it's going to help you win. It's meant to be worn by a champion." He looks at her meaningfully, as if what he says next will make her jump into his arms. "Someone with a soul, but someone who is more than human."

"So... me?" she asks again, willing the moron to get to his point.

Angel smiles. "No, Buffy. Me. The amulet is meant for me to wear. I'm meant to be your champion." He levels a haughty glance at Spike.

The two blondes glance at each other and burst out laughing in amusement. Is he for real?

Buffy looks at him when she finally stops laughing, then frowns at the serious look on the Broody One's face. Fuck, he is serious. She shakes her head.

"Angel, go ahead and wear the amulet, but let's get one thing straight here. You are the Powers' champion. They picked you, not me. You are and always did base everything you did around me, and you can't do that anymore. I'm not yours. I don't belong to anyone but Spike. So if you stay and help out, then I appreciate your help with the apocalypse, but don't do it because you think I'll come back to you. You're not my champion, and you never were. Spike is. That's final, and the sooner you understand that, the easier this will be for everyone." She narrows her eyes. "Besides. What happened to that 'possibly, maybe, relationship-like thing' you had with Cordelia?"

His lip actually trembles at the mention of Queen C. "She's in a coma."

"Good God, she put herself into a semi-permanent sleep to get away from you?" Xander cries out. Looking around at the group, he lets out a cackle. "And you guys called me dumb for dating her!"

There's the sound of a snort from her mate, and suddenly she loses it, giggling helplessly. Angel looks at her reproachfully, but it just makes him look constipated, and she laughs even more.

The dark-haired vampire looks as if he's about to flap his arms like a flustered chick, and he abruptly turns and starts for Spike, because in typical Angel-Logic, Buffy never would have started laughing if Spike hadn't set her off. Her laughter brusquely stops and she moves in front of Spike, her lips curled back in a snarl. "Just. Try it," she growls, her green eyes glinting with the hint of violet given to her by her demon. The impression effectively startles Angel enough to stop him clear in his tracks and he stumbles back. Since her back is to everyone else, the appearance makes it seem like Angel has remembered what sort of strength she actually possesses. Spike steps closer to her and adds to the tableau with the gold glint from his own eyes.

"Now. If you plan to wear the sparkly thing and help us with the apocalypse, I suggest you go and find an empty house to stay in, since Sunnydale's been abandoned by everyone but us. And if you're going to be a whiny bitch about my relationship with Spike, then here's another suggestion -- get the fuck out of my town and don't let the damn door hit your ass on the way out. Get over it and grow the hell up," she snaps.

She clutches Spike's hand and looks at her sister and her vengeance demon friend. "Dawn, Anya, it's time to go home. Let's move."

Wisely, Dawn doesn't say a word, and instead goes to the basement door in the kitchen and calls down a farewell to the Potentials who have quickly become her friends. Buffy moves toward Giles and gives him a quick hug, then waves a farewell to everyone else. She blatantly ignores the shell-shocked brunet vampire in the corner as she tilts her head up to receive Spike's lips before her little four-person family turn to leave the house.

Spike leans into her as they walk away, murmuring his pride and love for her into her hair and kissing the shell of her ear, and she smiles warmly, nuzzling her cheek against his shoulder. She wraps her free arm around Dawn's shoulders, delighting in the sound of her little sister's laughter as Dawn trades jokes and anecdotes with Anya.

She never thinks twice about Angel, whose eyes are boring into her back. What's more.. she couldn't care less.

And she really couldn't be happier.



End Part Four...