(Untitled)

[soulbearing]

Characters: Angel
Rating: PG
Time Period: Modern
Location: Outside the castle
Relative Date: Present
Status: Open, incomplete

'Well, there's something I wasn't expecting,' Angel thought as he looked up at the large castle, the area around expanding further than he could really see, but it was pretty far. He guessed that he shouldn't have really

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[_fredless]

She hadn't expected to see him again.

Once Fred grew used to the idea that Angel was gone, no longer sharing the small cottage with her and Buffy, it became that much harder to picture him walking back through the door. It occurred to her that much as she had in Pylea, she was trying to work through the math of this place. To assign it properties and rules about timing and timelines.

No one can ever seem to be from exactly the same place.

There's boundaries no one can cross.

And that once you left, there wasn't any coming back.

Logically they were just theories, Fred knew that. There was no way to claim any of them knew anything real about this place they were all caught up in. It was just suspicion and supposition. Which was a pretty potent mix, if stirred up right.

She knew that first hand.

So when she heard an Angel? Well, she was pretty sure she was just hearing things. And when she saw an Angel? She was ready to wonder if Cordy's visions were catching. But the two suddenly merged into one very solid, very real -- friend

[soulbearing]

That scent, that scent was what made him freeze. As he turned around, his eyes widened in surprise at who he saw running towards him. Immediately, he wrapped his arms around her small frame, because this was Fred - he could tell. It didn't feel or smell like Illyria, and it definitely didn't look like Illyria.

He honestly couldn't keep the smile from his face, "Fred!" he exclaimed, embracing her tightly. She was alive! And she was here! That definitely saved a lot of questions and trouble. "You're alive, and don't have blue hair," he grinned, pulling back to get a good look at her.

[_fredless]

Fred buried her face into Angel's chest and just let her sit there for a minute, taking him in. And then taking just a little bit more. Before he'd been the only person that remembered her. And it seemed that he still did.

I shouldn't be all that important, really.

Only it was.

She looked up at him, confused.

"...blue?"

[soulbearing]

He smiled as Fred clung to him, he had come here finding a way to try and save this very girl, but now she was standing here with him, and she looked completely normal, as she used to. He felt very relieved, and amazed.

Angel looked down and nodded, "Illyria, looks like she left you," he said, looking at her and her features. Nope, no blue, not a single strand, and her eyes were back to their original color. For a brief moment, he wondered where Illyria had gone, but that thought was off of his mind as soon as he looked at his Fred again. Oh, Wesley's going to be ecstatic.

[_fredless]

"Illyria? Left me? Were we....going somewhere?" Working together? Was she someone that had joined the team, or was already there in the maze of hallways and they hadn't met yet. She pulled back just far enough to search his familiar face as she tried to sort of the problem that his words formed.

The most obvious of answers seemed the likeliest one as well."

"Angel, this place -- we're not always on the same timeline. We seem to get pulled from anywhere and everywhere. Spike didn't even know who I am."

She paused.

"He still doesn't. Not really."

[soulbearing]

He looked back at her, a little more than confused as well, but he listened. "Spike's here?" he almost rolled his eyes, of course he was here, Spike was always around, Angel couldn't get rid of him.

Then it slowly clicked inside of his mind, and he frowned a little. "You're from before.. Illyria never got to you," he said quietly, but then he started to smile. "That's great! Now... how do we get back? Wesley's going to be so happy to see you again," he looked around, as if trying to spot the strange helicopter again.

This place definitely didn't feel right, and Angel really wanted to get her out of here.

[_fredless]

"Illyria...got to me? Angel, what are you talking about?"

But Fred managed to shake off her confusion at his next round of questions. She looked back at the castle.

"There isn't any getting back, or getting out of here. Believe me it isn't as if we all haven't been trying. There's a room, with paintings. And they take you to all sorts of different times. But none of them are the way home. Everyone seems to have been tricked here, one way or the other. We are still trying to sort out why."