Love and let die?

"Leave her alone," said future Amy. "She's not yours to touch."

"Wait a minute," said Kennedy. "You just hinted that I was your enemy a short while ago. Why the sudden change of heart?"

"I -- I don't know why," said future Amy. "But I don't want her touching you."

"For a person who once said she loved me, you have a strange way of showing it, Amy," said Kennedy.

"Of course you'd say that," said future Amy.

"But do you mean 'of course you'd say that'?" asked Kennedy.

"I -- I don't know what you mean," said future Amy.

She turned away from Kennedy. Kennedy looked at Halfrek for answers but she just tugged at her necklace and started making the same gestures as before.

"Amy, what's wrong?" asked Kennedy. "You won. You should be happy now. Instead you insult your best friend and insinuate that she's your enemy."

"You are not her best friend, Kennedy," said Vengeance Angel Amy. "Willow is her best friend and she leaves her in a cage for almost three years."

"But that's a different Amy," said Kennedy. "And that was not intentional. And anyway --"

"And anyway, Willow knew about the trouble she was having with her mom -- at least some of it," said Vengeance Angel Amy. "And if she had pushed more, she could have helped. Instead it was not till the Slayer arrived -- a relative stranger -- that anything happened to change that! If Amy had depended on Willow and not Buffy, she would still be at the mercy of her mother."

"That's not fair," said Kennedy. "Willow wasn't much older than Amy. She had no reason to suspect things were so bad and I'm sure she would have helped --"

"You're sure!" cried Vengeance Angel Amy. "You're sure! It's a good thing for you that you're naked right now, Kennedy, because I could very well strip you all over again just for saying that."

"Yes, you could," said Kennedy. "But what about you? You can teleport. You can travel through time. Why didn't you do something to rescue young Amy?"

Vengeance Angel Amy blinked.

Then she hung her head. "Don't you think I tried?"

She pointed to future Amy and said, "Don't you think that she thought about doing that too? Don't you believe that that would have been the first thing that went through her mind when she discovered that she had the ability to travel through time? But she couldn't do it, Kennedy."

"So she settled for helping Buffy instead," said Kennedy. "It was Buffy who had rescued her from that situation and she wanted to return the favor. Now I understand."

"Yes," said Vengeance Angel Amy. "Now you understand."

"So what about her?" asked Kennedy, pointing to Dark Buffy.

"Yes, what about me?" asked Dark Buffy as she slowly rose from the ground. "Everyone here has been so intent on debating the merits of killing me that it only seems right that I return the favor. So what reason can you possibly give me for sparing your lives?"

Here we go again, thought Kennedy.