Chapter Text
“So, you have…what? Come to this time to take me back to yours?”
She did not know whether his pallor was borne of horror or intrigue…and sensed that he was uncertain of this, as well. This Wesley was not the one she would seek, through time and space immeasurable if she must. Where there would be steady hands and an inscrutable gaze, now there was the trembling of too-human insecurity; a softness in eyes Illyria had once seen burn in fury and hatred and passion.
And would again.
This Wesley did not move her as his future self had done.
No. She would leave him here, in his time. To grow from this pale shade of the man he would become, into the Guide that had lit her path before death had stolen him into darkness.
Once her newly recaptured powers had stabilized, Illyria would continue her search. This time her aim would be true. She would shift into a dimension that would contain her Wesley. None other.
“No. I will only rest here for a time.”
She said nothing else.
She settled onto the pale Wesley’s couch, arranging her awkward limbs as comfortably as possible. It amused her when the Wesley’s eyes traced her movements. To him, this inept form appeared graceful and desirable. She could feel his body warm. Arousal wafted from him, more fragrant than that which had come from her Wesley - whose sorrow and pain had overwhelmed everything else about him, including his scent.
Illyria was tempted to think again. This Wesley had its merits. He was rightfully meek and fearful in the face of her power. When she had appeared in his world, he had shied away. He had not attacked with ax and word and wild eyes as her Wesley had done when she had been reborn. This Wesley would not look upon her as if she were less than she was - at times, as if she were less than himself. Here was a human who would know his place, if she deemed to be so forgiving as to provide one for him.
But. No. Illyria had not come here in need of a new pet. She had the half-br… She had Spike, at home in their own time. To look after and to amuse herself with.
She needed her Guide.
She would not find him here.
‘And yet…’
Pale Wesley hovered in the distance.
“Yes…well. Good to know. Just…make yourself at home. I suppose.”
In Illyria’s mind, new thoughts began to form. Illyria would find her Wesley… There was no question of that. Now that her powers were hers once more, the cosmos could not hide him from her indefinitely. So there was no hurry to race through the dimensions in search of him. And it was intriguing to her… How different this Wesley was from hers, even though she had the shell’s memories to tell her when and why the change had occurred. Remembering the world as it was before the half-breed’s child, Connor, and seeing that world for herself…
It was not disinteresting.
Illyria wished to explore it further.
She hesitated only a moment…and then smiled. The sight was so terrible as to cause Pale Wesley to tremble.
“I will do so,” Illyria said, her words a declaration.
Wesley dropped the book in his hands on his foot, and hopped around on one foot.
Illyria nodded, and pondered how to extract more such noises from him without causing his extremeties pain.