Spike pulled up as close to the old factory as he could get without being spotted and stepped out of the car. Buffy and Wesley followed and then watched as Spike once again sniffed the air scenting for Angel. Nodding that he'd caught the scent, they followed as he led them around to the rear of the crumbling building. He opened a door being careful not to make any unnecessary noise and entered. Casting about, he made his way swiftly and silently through the factory. Buffy and Wesley followed as quietly as they could and when Wesley stumbled over some of the debris littering the floor he received glares from his two companions.

They had passed through the large open manufacturing area and were approaching the office area when Spike stopped suddenly. Turning to Buffy he said softly, "He's here all right. I can smell him. And I smell blood."

"Blood?" Buffy asked worriedly. "His or human?"

"His. Smell the vampire Willow too. She's been here. Don't know if she still is though"

Buffy pulled her stake from the waistband of her jeans as Spike shifted into game face. They weren't sure what they were going to encounter inside, but they wanted to be prepared for anything. Wesley followed their lead and held the tranquilizer gun at the ready. Moving forward once more they warily opened the door in front of them. "Dear God," Wesley whispered as he looked into the room.

Buffy gasped in alarm when she saw Angel hanging limply from chains attached to the wall, his torso a bloody mess. She hurried forward, while Spike and Wesley scanned the room for any sign of the young vampire. Once they were certain the Willow wasn't around, the two men joined Buffy.

"He's unconscious and I can't get these damned chains off," Buffy said anxiously. Wesley looked around and spotting the table full of odds and ends went to it and searched for a key. "There's nothing here. It looks as if you'll have to pull the chains from the wall. We'll worry about removing them once we get him out of here."

As Buffy reached up to grab the links, Spike put a stalling hand on her arm. "Hold off, love. Let me check something first."

Turning away, he left the room. Buffy looked around for something with which to clean the blood from Angel, but there was nothing except his shirt. Grabbing it up, she began to gently mop up the blood that was still sluggishly seeping from a few of the deeper cuts. With a groan, Angel began to regain consciousness. "Buffy?"

"God, Angel, I'm so sorry this happened to you," she told him gently. I promise you, that bitch is dust just as soon as I catch up with her."

Spike returned to this tender scene and a wave of jealously and anger flashed through him that he quickly suppressed. Of course Buffy would be concerned for Angel. It was a fact of life that Spike would have to accept as long as he wanted to be with Buffy. Buffy loved Spike, he had no doubts at all about that, but she would always care for Angel. He had no doubts about that either.

Getting himself under control, he came forward and began to unlock the manacles at Angel's
wrists. "Where'd you get the key?" Buffy asked.

"Had spares hidden away," Spike answered. "Angelus loves his chains and shackles. I learned a long
time ago to keep copies of keys to his toys."

"Angelus put these chains up?" Buffy asked, looking disturbed. She glanced at Angel and saw a grimace of discomfort on his face that she didn't think was entirely due to his wounds.

"Yeah," was all Spike said. When Angel had lost his soul, he had been even more vicious than before, making up for all the years the soul had held him in check. Spike wanted to tell Buffy how Angel had chained Dru up, whipped her, fucked her and humiliated her. How he would bring human victims in, rape them, male or female, children or adult--it didn't matter--and torture them for hours and days on end just for the pleasure of hearing them scream, often not even bothering to feed from them. But he knew that he could never tell Buffy about this side of Angel. The fact was that although he himself wasn't into torture, not without good reason, it had never really bothered him what Angel did to the humans. And Dru had enjoyed it.

So he kept it to himself. Just as he kept his own past deeds to himself. Buffy would never allow herself to be with him if she knew the full truth about him. Pettily informing Buffy about Angelus' actions during that period would probably end up hurting him more than Angel. If he wanted Buffy, he knew he had to act like a man not a vengeful monster. And he wanted Buffy.

Once Angel was freed, Spike and Buffy supported him as Wesley began to lead the way back out of the factory. Angel had managed only a couple steps before crying out in pain and nearly collapsing. "Angel?" Buffy said in concern. It was while looking down at his legs that she noticed the bloodstain on his trousers. "Oh my god, Angel, what did she do?"

Spike's eyes tracked hers and he shuddered. "Christ, Angel, did that bitch castrate you?" He heard Wesley gasp at the question.

"No," Angel managed to gasp out. "She stabbed me. I'll be okay. Hurts like hell, though."

Suppressing another shudder, Spike lifted Angel a little higher taking the weight off the larger vampire's legs. Buffy helped as best she could, but the size difference made it awkward.

Angel had relapsed back into semi-consciousness and so he barely heard it when Buffy said, "We'll take him to my house. Xander should have dropped Mom and Cordelia off there by now."

"Xander," he gasped.

"Shush, Angel. It's okay. We'll have you home soon," Buffy told him in a concerned voice.

"No, Buffy, listen," Angel forced out though pain clenched teeth. "Xander's in danger. Willow is out to get him, wants to sire him."

"Fuck!" Spike snapped. "We've got to get going, pet. Let go of Angel."

"Spike," Buffy began only to draw in a surprised breath when Spike scooped Angel up in his arms like a baby and began to sprint out of the factory. The jarring run spread waves of pain throughout Angel's body, but he merely held in his cries. They had to get to Xander before the vampire did or the boy would be lost.

***

Willow parked the large black convertible several blocks away from her destination. Slipping through backyards, she made her way to the Harris house and disappeared into the shadows. She had realized where he was heading after dropping the last two women off and had sped through the streets to arrive ahead of him. She hoped he wouldn't take long getting home. She hated lying in wait. It was boring.

***

Xander watched until Joyce and Cordelia entered the house and closed the front door before pulling away. He had already dropped Willow and Tara off at the University and could hardly wait to reach his own home. It was still relatively early, but the few hours' sleep he'd caught in Giles' armchair had not really been conducive to rest. He heard the sweet siren song of his bed calling to him.

***

Buffy was terrified for Xander and kept urging Spike to drive faster. "That bitch is double dusted if she's hurt Xander," Buffy promised flatly.

"Don't dust her, Buffy," Angel warned. Buffy turned around in the front seat to look in surprise at Angel. "Why? Look what she did to you, and now she's after Xander. Why shouldn't I dust her?"

"I don't think she's just a lookalike caused by that spell," Angel explained, his voice weak and tired. "I think she's from a parallel dimension and if you dust her we don't know what kind of repercussions that may have here in this dimension."

"Huh?"

"Ah, I think I understand what Angel is suggesting," Wesley interjected. "There are many theories with regard to parallel dimensions. For instance, one posits that if your double dies in their dimension, then you would die here. However that theory obviously doesn't hold true here since our Willow did not die when the other Willow was originally killed. Another theory is that one's double is the exact opposite of oneself. Those who are good here are evil there and vice versa."

Spike looked into the rearview mirror at the Watcher and smirked, "Yeah, I saw that episode of Star Trek too. Dru thought Spock looked right cute in his beard."

Buffy ducked her head and turned back around in her seat before the look of outrage on Wesley's face caused her to burst out laughing. Spike had a real talent for deflating the biggest egos. God, she loved him.

"However," Wesley continued in an offended voice ignoring Spike, "I agree with Angel that since we don't know what connections there may be between the doubles, it would probably be best if we simply capture vampire Willow and attempt to return her to her own world."

"Well guess it's a good thing you brought the tranq gun then, huh?" Buffy said. Looking out the car window she added worriedly, "I just pray we get to Xander in time."

"We will, sweetheart," Spike reassured her, reaching over and entwining his fingers with hers, squeezing gently. Buffy smiled gratefully at her lover and leaning back in the seat tried to think of anything but the danger Xander was in. If anything happened to him...

***

Xander pulled up to the curb in front of his house and got out of his car. A shower, a shave, a Hungry Man dinner while watching a little TV and then bed. Sounded like a plan.

He had almost reached the front door when something moved in the deep shadows cast by the bushes that lined the front of the house. A human shaped body separated itself from the darkness and Xander felt his heart start to pound as he recognized who it was.

"Hello, Xander. Wanna play?"