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Angel

Prologue

The Master is not pleased. Zachary did not return from his hunt the night before. The Slayer has killed him. The Slayer has been killing far too many of his followers lately. The Master asks the Anointed One—who has been amusing himself tossing stones into a pool of water—what he would do about it.

“I’d annihilate her!” says the Anointed One.

“Out of the mouths of babes…” says the Master. Darla instantly volunteers for the job, but the Master thinks she is taking a too personal interest in it. He will send the Three.

Three motorcycle gang members hang out outside a bar, smoking and talking. They see three strangers approaching from out of the shadows, and step out to confront them. The strangers come into the light and the gang members see that they aren’t men. They’re three especially tough looking vampires. They are wearing a combination of plate and chain mail armour. The gang members get out of their way.

The Bronze is having its annual Pre-Fumigation Party. Once a year it shuts down for a few days nuke the cockroaches. Anyone presenting a roach to the bartender gets a free drink.

Buffy and Willow are there, but Buffy isn’t in a party mood. She’s feeling a little down about her current lack of a boyfriend. It isn’t something that normally bothers her, but tonight it does.

“What about Angel?” asks Willow.

“Angel?” asks Buffy. “I’d like to see him in a relationship. ‘Hi, honey, you’re in grave danger. I’ll see you next month.’” He isn’t around enough for them to have a relationship. “When he is around…it’s like the lights dim everywhere else. You know, it’s like that with some guys?”

Willow understands. She is watching Xander make a fool of himself out on the dance floor. He tries dancing with Annie Vega, but quickly retreats when her boyfriend—who is twice Xander’s size—shows up.

Xander’s retreat runs him straight into Cordelia. “Ouch! Please get your extreme oafishness off my two hundred dollar shoes!”

“I’m sorry,” says Xander. “I was just—”

“Getting off the dance floor before Annie Vega’s boyfriend squashes you like a bug?” asks Cordy.

“Oh, so you noticed,” says Xander. “Thanks for being so understanding.”

“Sure.”

“Y’know, hey, I don’t know what everyone’s talking about. That outfit doesn’t make you look like a hooker!” Xander leaves Cordy to join Buffy and Willow. “Boy, that Cordelia is a regular breath of vile air. What are you vixens up to?”

“Just sitting here, watching our barren lives pass us by.” Willow spots something on the floor. “Oh look, a cockroach.” She squashes it under her shoe.

“Whoa, well, let’s stop this crazy whirligig of fun!” says Xander. “I’m dizzy!”

Buffy decides that it is time for her to go. Her bad mood is bringing all her friends down too. Xander and Willow both want her to stay, but she leaves anyway.

Willow holds her shoe up in front of Xander’s face. “Want a free drink?” Xander is a little disgusted by the sight of the squished roach.

Angel watches from the shadows as Buffy walks out of the Bronze. Buffy senses something and turns to look, but he has vanished.

Buffy walks home along a deserted city street. She again senses something watching her and turns to look. She still sees nothing. She keeps walking but the feeling persists. She stops. “It’s late, I’m tired, and I don’t want to play games. Show yourself.”

One of the Three drops down onto the sidewalk behind her and growls. Buffy whirls around with a stake in hand, but a second of the Three appears beside her and grabs her arm before she can strike. The third grabs her other arm and they drag her into the alley.

“Look, I really don’t want to have to fight all three of you,” says Buffy as the two vampires holding her push her up against a fence. “Unless I have to.” She kicks the vampire in front of her in the crotch and pulls loose from the other two long enough to give one of them an elbow to the head. She punches at number three, but it blocks her punch and knees her in the stomach. It knocks her back onto the fence. Two of the vampires grab her again, and the third closes in for the kill.

Act I

The vampire’s teeth are closing in on Buffy’s neck when Angel grabs it by the hair and pulls it away from her. “Good dogs don’t bite!” He punches it.

Buffy uses the vampire’s surprise to swing her legs up and kick the two holding her in their heads. One of them goes down but the second manages to regain its hold on her and push her back up against the fence.

Angel turns and gives the vampire Buffy knocked down a kick in the head as it’s getting back to its feet. The other vampire he had been fighting uses his distraction to pull a piece of wrought iron bar protecting a window loose to use as a weapon, and strikes Angel in the ribs with it.

Buffy punches the vamp holding her away, and then kicks the vamp who is attacking Angel in the head. She helps him get back to his feet and tells him to run.

Buffy and Angel run through the streets of Sunnydale with the Three on their heels. They reach Buffy’s house, and she quickly unlocks the door, and opens it.

“Get in! Come on!” Buffy tells Angel as she enters the house, and he follows her. She slams the door shut on the arm of one of the Three. It pulls its arm back, and she shuts and bolts the door. She can see the Three outside, looking in through the windows.

“It’s all right,” says Angel. “A vampire can’t come in unless it’s invited.”

Buffy has heard that, but this is the first time she has actually had to test it. She turns around to look at Angel and notices the blood stains on his shirt. She tells him to take it off, and goes into the kitchen for the first aid kit.

Angel takes his jacket and shirt off as he follows Buffy into the kitchen. Buffy notices a tattoo on his shoulder—a sort of griffin standing on a letter ‘A.’¹

Buffy cleans and bandages Angel’s wound. “It was lucky you came along. How did you happen to come along?”

Angel tells Buffy that he was just out for a walk. He lives nearby.

Buffy isn’t sure she believes him. She had a feeling he had been following her.

“Why would I do that?”

“You tell me,” says Buffy. “You’re the mystery guy that appears out of nowhere. I’m not saying I’m not happy about it tonight, but if you are hanging around I’d like to know why.”

“Maybe I like you.”

“Maybe—” Buffy is interrupted by the sound of the front door unlocking. She rushes to it, opens it, and quickly pulls her mother inside. She takes a quick look around outside. There’s no sign of the Three.

Joyce is a little puzzled by Buffy’s behaviour, but Buffy tells her mother that it’s just because there are a lot of weird people out. Joyce starts toward the kitchen, but Buffy tries to redirect her mother upstairs, telling her that she should take a bath after her long day, and she offers to fix her a cup of tea.

“That’s sweet!” says Joyce. “What’d you do?”

“Can’t a daughter just be concerned about her mother?” asks Buffy.

Joyce is looking over Buffy’s head at Angel though. He has just come out of the kitchen. He has his shirt back on, and his jacket covers the blood stains. They say “Hi” to each other.

Buffy introduces Angel to her mother as a college student who has been helping her with history that she ran into on the way home. Joyce thinks that it is a little late for tutoring. She is going to get ready for bed.

Buffy takes the hint. “I’ll say good night and do the same!”

Joyce starts up the stairs. “It was nice to meet you,” she tells Angel.

“Goodnight!” calls out Buffy through the open door. “We’ll hook up soon and do that study thing!” She closes the door. Angel is still inside the house. They quietly go up the stairs to Buffy’s room together.

Angel isn’t sure that this is a good idea, but Buffy doesn’t want him going outside alone. The vampires could still be lurking.

Buffy has a brief moment of anxiety about the sleeping arrangements. She offers Angel the bed, since he’s wounded, but Angel declines. He tells her he has slept in a lot worse places than on her floor. Buffy accepts that, and tells him to take a look out through the windows to see if the Three are still out there, while she changes.

While she is changing Buffy asks Angel why he has involved himself with fighting vampires.

“Somebody has to,” says Angel.

“Well, what does your family think of your career choice?”

Angel pauses for a bit before answering. “They’re dead.”

Buffy has finished getting changed into her night clothes. She walks over to him. “Was it vampires?”

“It was,” says Angel.

“I’m sorry.”

“It was a long while ago.”

“So, this is a vengeance gig for you,” says Buffy.

Angel wants to change the subject. “You even look pretty when you go to sleep.”

“Well, when I wake up it’s an entirely different story.” Buffy goes over to her bed and gives him one her pillows and a blanket from it before getting in. He lies down with them on the floor beside her bed. “Angel?” she asks, “Do you snore?”

“I don’t know. It’s been a long time since anybody’s been in a position to let me know.”

Buffy meets with Xander, Willow, and Giles the next morning in the library. She fills them in on the events of the previous night. Xander is not pleased to learn that Angel spent the night in her room.

Willow thinks it’s romantic. “Did you, uh? I mean, did he, uh?”

“Perfect gentleman,” says Buffy.

Xander still isn’t happy about it. “Buffy, come on, wake up and smell the seduction. It’s the oldest trick in the book.”

“What?” asks Buffy. “Saving my life? Getting slashed in the ribs?”

“Duh!” says Xander. “I mean, guys’ll do anything to impress a girl. I once drank an entire gallon of Gatorade without taking a breath.”

“It was pretty impressive,” says Willow. “Although later there was an ick factor.”

Giles wants to get back to business. He has just come out of the stacks with a book. He shows Buffy an illustration from it, asking if they were the vampires she met. Buffy confirms it. Giles tells her that the Three are powerful warrior vampires. She must be hurting the Master badly for him to send them after her. It is time to step up her weapons training.

Xander has another idea. “Buffy, you should stay at my house until these Samurai guys are history.”

“What?” asks Buffy.

“Ah-ah, don’t worry about Angel,” says Xander. “Willow can run to your house and tell him to get out of town fast.”

Buffy looks away from Xander and smiles. She knows what Xander is thinking.

“Angel and Buffy are not in any immediate jeopardy,” says Giles. “Eventually the Master will send someone else, but in the mean time the Three, having failed, will offer their own lives in penance.”

The Three kneel before the Master with their head bowed. Their leader is holding a wooden spear. “We failed in our duty, and now our lives belong to you.”

The Master takes the spear and hands it off to Darla. She walks around behind the Three. “Pay attention, child,” the Master tells the Anointed. “You are the Anointed, and there is much you must learn. With power comes responsibility. True, they did fail, but also true, we who walk at night share a common bond. The taking of a life—I’m not talking about humans, of course—is a serious matter.”

One of the Three looks up, hopeful that he might survive.

“So you would spare them?” asks the Anointed.

“I am weary, and their deaths will bring me little joy.” The Master turns away. Darla plunges the wooden spear into the heart of the vampire who had started to think it might live through this. “Of course, sometimes a little is enough.” The Master looks back as Darla kills the second of the Three.

Giles sets a sign outside the library doors saying that the library is closed for filing, and dons his pads. Buffy examines the contents of his weapons cabinet. One item catches her eye instantly. “Cool! Crossbow!” She pulls the crossbow out of the locker, along with a bolt for it. “Goodbye stakes! Hello flying fatality! What can I shoot?”

Giles takes the crossbow away from her. He doesn’t think she’s ready for it. She must first become proficient with the basic tools of combat. He pulls out a couple of quarterstaffs and hands her one. He anticipates countless hours of vigorous training for her to learn how to use it properly.

Buffy gives her quarterstaff a dubious look. “Giles, twentieth century! I’m not going to be fighting Friar Tuck.”

“You never know with whom or what you’ll be fighting.” Giles puts on his helmet. “Now, you show me good, steady progress with the quarterstaff, and in due course we’ll discuss the crossbow. Put on your pads.”

“I’m not going to need pads to fight you,” says Buffy.

“Well, we’ll see about that.” Giles salutes her with his staff. “En guard!”

Giles starts with a couple of gentle swings of his staff at Buffy, which she blocks easily so he picks up the pace a bit. She continues to block and parry his attacks. Then she switches to the offensive. Giles manages to block her first couple of blows, but she uses her staff to force his down against the floor, and gives him a quick elbow to the head followed by a couple of quick blows on his pads with her staff. She finishes up by using the staff to sweep his legs out from underneath him. Giles lands on his back on the floor with the wind knocked out of him.

“Good,” says Giles, once he can breath again. “Let’s move on to the crossbow.”

Buffy brings Angel a meal in a plastic bag that evening in her room. Leftovers from her own diner. She asks him how he spent his time and he says that he did some thinking, and read a bit.

Buffy notices that her diary isn’t where she left it. “My diary? You read my diary?” She picks it up from on top of her dresser and puts it into a drawer. “That is not okay! A diary is like a person’s most private place! I— You don’t even know what I was writing about! ‘Hunk’ can mean a lot of things, bad things. And, and when it says that your eyes are ‘penetrating,’ I meant to write ‘bulgy.’” Angel tries to get a word in edgewise, but she won’t let him. “And ‘A’ doesn’t stand for ‘Angel’ for that matter, It stands for ‘Achmed,’ a charming foreign exchange student, so that whole fantasy part has nothing to even do with you at all—”

“Your mother moved you diary when she came in to straighten up.” Angel finally manages to get in. “I watched from the closet. I didn’t read it, I swear.”

“Oh!” Buffy is greatly relieved, but then she realizes what she just said. “Oh.”

Angel tells Buffy that he did a lot of thinking while waiting for her to come back, and he has decided that he really can’t be spending time with her, because when he does, all he can think about is how badly he wants to kiss her.

“Kiss me?” asks Buffy.

“I’m older than you, and this can’t…I’d better go.”

“How much older?” asks Buffy.

“I should…”

“…go…” Buffy steps up to him. “You said…”

They start to kiss gently, and then Buffy puts her arm around Angel’s neck and pulls him in closer. The kiss becomes more passionate. Angel suddenly pulls away, and turns his back to Buffy.

“What?” asks Buffy. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

Angel turns back to her with a snarl, revealing the face of a vampire. Buffy screams.

Angel dives out Buffy’s window, slides across the roof and jumps down into the yard. Buffy watches him run away across the lawn, not wanting to believe what she has just seen.

Joyce comes running into Buffy’s room to find out what’s wrong.

“Nothing,” says Buffy. “I saw a shadow.”

Act II

Buffy meets with her friends in front of the school next morning and tells them what happened. She still can’t really believe it. “Can a vampire ever be a good person?” she asks Giles. “Couldn’t it happen?”

“A vampire isn’t a person at all,” says Giles. “It may have the movements, the memories, even the personality of the person that it took over, but it’s still a demon at the core, there is no half-way.”

“So that’d be a ‘no,’ huh?” asks Willow.

“Well, then what was he doing?” asks Buffy. “Why was he good to me? Was it all some part of the Master’s plan? It doesn’t make sense!”

Whatever Angel was doing, Xander thinks that Buffy’s problem is simple: Angel’s a vampire. Buffy’s the Slayer. It’s obvious what she has to do. He looks to Giles for support.

“It is a Slayer’s duty,” says Giles.

“I know you have feelings for this guy,” says Xander, “but it’s not like you’re in love with him, right?” Buffy looks away from him. “You’re in love with a vampire? What, are you out of your mind?”

Cordelia stops beside the group. “What?”

Xander quickly tries to cover. “Not vampire… How could you love an umpire? Everyone hates ’em!”

Cordelia isn’t paying any attention to Xander. Her attention is locked on another girl who is wearing the exact same dress as she is. “Where did you get that dress? This is a one-of-a-kind Todd Oldham. Do you know how much this dress cost? Is this a knockoff?” She grabs the collar of the girl’s dress to check its label. “This is a knockoff, isn’t it? Some cheesy knockoff! This is exactly what happens when you sign these free trade agreements!”

Buffy and her friends watch Cordelia and the girl disappear into the school. “Think we have problems,” says Buffy.

Angel arrives at his home, a basement apartment full of books and works of art. He turns on a light. He senses that he is not alone. “Who’s there?”

“A friend.” Darla steps out of the shadows.

Angel is surprised to see her there. It has been a long time since they last met. A lifetime or two. She has changed her look. Last time he saw her she was wearing kimonos. Now she seems to be favouring the Catholic school girl look.

Darla thinks he should like the outfit. He seems to be favouring high school girls himself these days.

Darla takes a quick tour around the apartment. “Nice! You’re living above ground, like one of them. You and your new friend are attacking us, like one of them. But guess what, precious? You’re not one of them.” She opens the blinds of the window high on the wall, letting in a shaft of sunlight. Angel quickly stumbles back to avoid the light. “Are you?”

“No,” says Angel, “But I’m not exactly one of you either.”

“Is that what you tell yourself these days?” Darla walks over to his fridge. She opens the door and reveals several bags of blood. “You’re not exactly living off of quiche.”

Darla knows what Angel hungers for. What he craves. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s who we are. It’s what makes eternal life worth living. You can only suppress your real nature for so long. You can feel it brewing inside of you. I hope I’m around when it explodes.”

“Maybe you don’t want to be,” says Angel.

“I’m not afraid of you,” says Darla. “I bet she is, though. Or maybe I’m underestimating her. Talk to her. Tell her about the curse. Maybe she’ll come around. And if she still doesn’t trust you, you know where I’ll be.” She opens the door, and leaves.

Buffy and her friends research in the library. Giles finally finds what they’re looking for. A two hundred year old account of an Irish vampire named Angelus. “The one with the Angelic face.”

“Well they got that right,” says Buffy.

Xander coughs. Everyone looks at him. “I’m not saying anything, I have got nothing to say.”

Giles asks if Angel has a tattoo on his shoulder, and Buffy tells him that he has some sort of bird or something.

“Now I’m saying something. You saw him naked?” asks Xander. Everyone ignores him.

“So, Angel’s been around for a while,” says Willow.

“Not long for a vampire,” says Giles. “Two hundred and forty years or so.”

“Huh! Two hundred and forty,” says Buffy, “Well, he said he was older.”

Giles reads the account of Angelus from his book. He left Ireland and wrought havoc throughout Europe for several decades. Then eighty years ago he left Europe and came to America, at which point he dropped out of sight. There is no record of him hunting since.

“So Angel is a good vampire!” says Willow. “I mean, on a scale of one to ten, ten being someone who’s killing and maiming every night, and one being someone who’s…not.”

Giles points out that there is no record of it, but vampires hunt and kill. It’s what they do.

“Fish got to swim, birds got to fly,” says Xander.

Buffy is unconvinced. “He could have fed on me, but he didn’t.”

Xander has a question: “A hundred years or so before he came to our shores, what was he like then?”

“Like all of them,” says Giles. “A vicious, violent, animal.”

Darla has returned to the Master’s lair. “Don’t think I’m not grateful, you letting me kill the Three, but you’ve got to let me take care of the Slayer.”

“Oh!” says the Master. “You’re giving me orders now!”

Darla starts to walk away from him. “Okay, then, we’ll just do nothing while she takes us out one by one.”

“Do I sense a plan, Darla? Share…”

Darla turns back to the Master. “Angel kills her and comes back to the fold.”

“Angel,” says the Master. “He was the most vicious creature I ever met. I miss him.”

“So do I,” says Darla.

The Master is not sure Darla’s plan will work. “Why would he kill her if he feels for her?”

“To keep her from killing him,” says Darla.

The Master likes that idea. “You see how we all work together for the common good?” he tells the Anointed. “That’s how a family is supposed to function!”

Buffy and Willow stay late in the library. Willow is helping Buffy study the Civil War for history. Buffy’s mind isn’t on her homework though. Her mind keeps wandering back to Angel.

After a little while Willow gives up on the history tutoring, and switches to talking about boys. “Sometimes I have this fantasy that Xander’s just going to grab me and kiss me right on the lips.”

“You want Xander, you’ve got to speak up, girl!” says Buffy.

“No, no, no, no,” says Willow. “No speaking up. That way leads to madness and sweaty palms.”

Neither of the girls notices that Darla is watching them from the stacks.

Willow wants to know what it was like kissing Angel…before he turned into a vampire.

“Unbelievable!” says Buffy.

“Wow!” says Willow. “And it is kind of novel how he’ll stay young and handsome forever, although you’ll still get wrinkly and die, and… Oh, and what about the children?” Buffy gives her a look. “I’ll be quiet now.”

“No, it’s okay,” says Buffy. “I need to hear this. I need to get over him so I can…”

“So that you can…” Willow makes a staking gesture with her pencil.

Buffy still can’t bring herself to say it. Angel has never done anything to hurt her. She decides she needs stop thinking about it, and get back to the Civil War. “Let’s give it another half an hour and maybe something will sink in. And then I’m going home for some major moping.”

Darla smiles and fades back into the stacks.

Joyce pours herself a cup of coffee while she works on her taxes at the kitchen counter. She hears a noise outside, and gets up to investigate. She looks out the back door but doesn’t see anything. She turns away and goes back into the house. Darla—in vampire face—looks in through the window at her.

Joyce walks through the house. There is a knock on the front door. She goes and answers it. It’s Darla. She’s wearing her human face and school girl outfit. She introduces herself as a friend Buffy invited over for a study session. She tells Joyce that she was supposed to meet Buffy here after Buffy finished up with Willow at the library. Joyce invites her in.

Joyce had been just about to fix herself a snack. She asks Darla if she would like something to eat.

“Yes, I would.” Darla follows her into the kitchen.

Joyce starts looking in cupboards. “Do you feel like something little or something big?”

“Something big!” says Darla from behind her, showing her vampire face.

Angel walks up to Buffy’s front door, and almost knocks, but he turns and walks away. He hears Joyce scream. He runs around to the kitchen door and bursts in. Darla pulls her mouth away from Joyce’s neck.

“Let her go!” says Angel.

Darla holds Joyce’s unconscious body. “I just had a little, there’s plenty more. Aren’t you hungry for something warm after all this time? Come on, Angel. Just say ‘Yes!’”

Darla shoves Joyce at Angel and he catches her. He looks down and sees Joyce’s bloody neck. He tries to look away, but the temptation is too strong. He transforms into his vampire face.

“Welcome home!” Darla walks out the door, leaving Angel holding Joyce and struggling with himself.

Buffy walks in the front door. “Hey! I’m home!” She reaches the kitchen and sees Angel holding her mother, fangs bared, and her mother’s bloody neck.

Act III

Buffy throws Angel out of the house through a window. He gets to his feet and looks back into the house at her.

“You’re not welcome here,” says Buffy. “You come near us and I’ll kill you.”

Angel doesn’t say anything. He turns and walks away.

Buffy rushes to the phone and calls for an ambulance for her mother. While she’s on the phone Willow and Xander arrive.

Xander sees Buffy kneeling by her unconscious mother. “Oh, my God!”

“What happened?” asks Willow.

“Angel!” says Buffy.

Joyce lies in a hospital bed, with a bandage on her neck and tells Buffy that she doesn’t remember what happened. Just that her friend had come over, and that she was going to fix a snack when she passed out. She must have slipped and cut her neck on something. “The doctor said it looked like a barbecue fork. We don’t have a barbecue fork.” She sees Giles come into her room, and asks if he’s another doctor. Buffy introduces Giles to her. Joyce wonders what the school librarian is doing there.

“I just came to pay my respects, wish you a speedy recovery,” says Giles.

“Boy, the teachers really do care in this town,” says Joyce.

Buffy tells her mother to get some rest. She and Giles join Willow and Xander in the hallway to talk about what happened. Giles tells Buffy she was lucky to get to Joyce as quickly as she did.

“Lucky?” asks Buffy. “Stupid. I invited him into my home. Even after I knew who he was, what he was, and I didn’t do anything about it ’cause I had feelings for him, because I cared about him.”

“If you care about somebody you care about them,” says Willow. “You can’t change that by—”

“Killing them?” asks Buffy. “Maybe not. But I think it’s a start.” She starts to go. Xander tells her that they will keep an eye on her mother.

Giles follows Buffy, and tries to stop her. Buffy has no intention of being stopped. She knows that Angel lives somewhere near the Bronze. That’s where she’s going to start hunting him.

“This is no ordinary vampire, if there is such a thing,” says Giles. “He knows you, he’s faced the Three! I think this is going to take more than a simple stake.”

“So do I,” says Buffy.

Buffy goes to the library and arms herself with the crossbow. She takes a practice shot at a “Smoking Sucks” poster. She hits the guy on the poster squarely in the heart.

Darla finds Angel in his apartment. “She wants to kill you. What did you think? Did you think she would understand? That she would look at your face—your true face—and give you a kiss? For a hundred years you’ve not had a moment’s peace because you will not accept who you are. That’s all you have to do. Accept it. Don’t let her hunt you down. Don’t whimper and mule like a mangy human. Kill! Feed! Live!”

Angel pushes Darla up against the wall. “What do you want?” she asks.

“I want it finished!” says Angel.

“That’s good,” says Darla. “You’re hurting me.” She smiles. “That’s good, too.”

Buffy passes by the Bronze, which is still closed for its fumigation. She hears the sound of something breaking coming from inside. She jumps ten feet up to a fire escape ladder, and climbs it to a second floor window to get inside.

Giles sits with Joyce in her room. She tells him that Buffy talks about him all the time. She thinks its good that Buffy has a teacher who is making such an impression on her. She asks Giles about Buffy’s problems in history. “Is it too difficult for her or is she not applying herself?”

“She lives very much in the now,” says Giles. “And history, of course is very much about the, uh, then. But there’s no reason—”

“She’s studying with Willow, she’s studying with Darla,” says Joyce. “I mean, she is trying.”

Giles is a little confused by that. “Darla? I don’t believe I know, uh…”

“Her friend,” says Joyce. “The one who came over tonight.”

“Darla came to your house tonight?” asks Giles. “She’s the friend that you mentioned earlier?”

“Poor thing,” says Joyce. “I must’ve frightened her half to death when I fainted. Someone should really check and make sure she’s alright.”

“Yes,” Giles gets out of his chair. “Someone should, right away. I’ll do it.” He grabs his coat and leaves.

“That school is amazing!” says Joyce.

Giles meets Willow and Xander in the hospital hallway. “We have a problem.”

Buffy slowly comes down the stairs to the Bronze’s main floor. Angel is hiding in the shadows.

“I know you’re there,” says Buffy. “And I know what you are.”

“Do you?” asks Angel. “I’m just an animal, right?”

“You’re not an animal.” Buffy turns toward where the sound of his voice is coming from. “Animals I like.”

“Let’s get it done!” Angel steps out of the darkness in his vampire face.

Buffy aims the crossbow at Angel, and he starts to move, faster than she can track him. She fires a shot, but misses. Angel disappears while she reloads, jumping up to the balcony. Buffy trains her crossbow upward, looking for him.

Angel swings down, and kicks Buffy in the back. He knocks her sprawling onto one of the pool tables, and the crossbow from her hands. She quickly rolls over and gives Angel a kicks Angel back against a pillar. She dives from the table and recovers the crossbow. She rolls onto her back and aims at him. This time Angel doesn’t move. He stands still while she takes aim at his heart.

Act IV

Angel doesn’t move as Buffy aims at him. He transforms back into his human face. “Come on! Don’t go soft on me now!”

Buffy moves the crossbow a little to the side, and fires the arrow into the wall beside him.

Angel looks at it. “A little wide.”

Buffy gets back to her feet. “Why? Why didn’t you just attack me when you had the chance? Was it a joke? To make me feel for you and then— I’ve killed a lot of vampires. I’ve never hated one before.”

“Feels good, doesn’t it?” asks Angel. “Feels simple.”

“I invited you into my home and then you attacked my family!”

“Why not?” asks Angel. “I killed mine. I killed their friends, and their friend’s children. For a hundred years I offered ugly death to everyone I met, and I did it with a song in my heart.”

“What changed?” asks Buffy.

“Fed on a girl about your age,” says Angel. “Beautiful—dumb as a post—but a favourite among her clan.”

“Clan?”

“Romani,” says Angel, but Buffy still doesn’t understand. “Gypsies. The elders conjured the perfect punishment for me. They restored my soul.”

“What, they were all out of boils and blinding torment?”

“When you become a vampire the demon takes your body, but it doesn’t get your soul,” says Angel. “That’s gone! No conscience, no remorse. It’s an easy way to live. You have no idea what it’s like to have done the things I’ve done, and care. I haven’t fed on a living human being since that day.”

“So you started with my mom?” asks Buffy.

“I didn’t bite her!” says Angel.

“Then why didn’t you say something?”

“But I wanted to,” says Angel. “I can walk like a man, but I’m not one. I wanted to kill you tonight.”

Buffy sets the crossbow down on the floor and steps toward Angel. She turns her head, exposing her neck. “Go ahead.”

Angel doesn’t move.

“It’s not as easy as it looks,” says Buffy.

“Sure it is!” Darla steps out of the shadows on the stage with her hands behind her back.

Giles, Willow and Xander approach the Bronze. Xander wonders what the heck they are going to do about it if they find Buffy fighting Angel and some of his friends. No one has an answer for him.

“Do you know what the saddest thing in the world is?” asks Darla, still holding her hands behind her back. “To love someone who used to love you.”

Buffy looks back and forth between Darla and Angel. “You guys were involved?”

“For several generations,” says Darla.

Buffy doesn’t seem to be concerned about that. If you’ve been around for a few centuries you are bound to have a few exes. “You’re older than him, right?” she asks Darla. “Just between us girls, you are looking a little worn around the eyes.”

“I made him.” Darla smile. “There was a time when we shared everything, wasn’t there Angelus? You had a chance to come home, to rule with me in the Master’s court for a thousand years, but you threw that away because of her. You love someone who hates us.” Buffy shoots Angel a surprised look. “You’re sick! And you’ll always be sick. And you’ll always remember what it was like to watch her die. You don’t think I came alone, do you?”

“I know I didn’t.” Buffy kicks the crossbow up into her hands.

“Scary.” Darla pulls her hands from behind her back, revealing a couple of automatic pistols. “Scarier!” She fires a shot into Angel, making him stagger back. “Oh, don’t worry.” Darla jumps down off the stage. “Bullets can’t kill vampires. They can hurt the like hell, but…”

Buffy dives for cover behind the pool table. Darla takes a few shots at her, which miss.

Giles, Willow and Xander hear the gunshots from outside the Bronze.

Buffy quickly reloads her crossbow while hiding behind the pool table.

“So many body parts, so few bullets.” Darla advances toward where Buffy is hiding. “Let’s begin with the kneecaps. No fun dancing without them.”

Buffy pops up from behind the pool table. Darla fires a couple more shots as Buffy shoots the crossbow.

Darla bends over from the impact of the arrow into her chest, but she straightens up again. “Close, but no heart.” She pulls the arrow out and tosses it aside.

Giles, Willow and Xander look down from the Bronze’s balcony and see what is going on. Xander thinks that Buffy needs a distraction, fast.

Willow decides on the direct approach. “Buffy, it wasn’t Angel who attacked your mom! It was Darla!”

Darla spins around and fires a few shots their way. They duck under cover. Darla turns back toward Buffy. She jumps up onto the pool table Buffy is hiding behind and walks along it.

Buffy grabs the edge of the pool table and pulls on it, causing Darla to fall onto her back. Buffy gives the table a shove, sliding it away from her across the floor. Darla fires several shots at Buffy while lying on her back as Buffy dashes across the floor, and dives behind the bar.

Angel pulls himself back to his feet and pulls one of the arrows that Buffy had shot at him out of the wall.

Darla advances toward the bar, firing more shots. Giles activates the Bronze’s strobe lights, trying to make it harder for Darla to see what she’s shooting at.

“C’mon, Buffy. Take it like a man!” Darla fires off a few more shots. Angel appears behind her and plunges the arrow into her back. Darla spins around. “Angel!” She vanishes in an explosion of dust.

Buffy comes out from behind the bar. She and Angel look at each other for a few seconds. He turns and walks away.

The Master is enraged. He smashes whatever he can reach, and throws himself to the ground.

“Forget her,” says the Anointed One.

“How dare you?” asks the Master. “She was my favourite. For four hundred years.”

“She was weak,” says the Anointed. “You don’t need her. I’ll bring you the Slayer.”

“But to lose her to Angel! He was to have sat at my right hand, come the day. And now—”

“They’re all against you.” The Anointed One puts his hand on the Master’s shoulder. “But soon you shall rise. And when you do, we kill them all.”

The Master starts to smile again. The Anointed offers his hand to the Master, and helps him back to his feet.

Epilogue

Buffy, Willow and Xander attend the Post-Fumigation party at the Bronze. Buffy wonders what the difference is between this and the Pre-Fumigation Party.

“Much heartier cockroaches,” says Xander.

Willow asks if Buffy has heard anything from Angel.

Buffy hasn’t. “It’s weird, though. In this way I feel like he’s still watching me.”

“Well, in a way he sort of is.” Willow looks at something across the room from them. “In the way of that he’s right over there.”

Buffy turns and sees Angel. She leaves Willow and Xander to go to him.

Xander doesn’t want to watch. He takes a seat at a table with his back to Buffy and Angel. Willow takes the seat facing him where she can watch them.

Angel tells Buffy that he just wanted to check on how she and her mother were. Buffy tells him they are fine, and asks how he is.

“If I can go a little while without getting shot or stabbed I’ll be all right.”

Angel tells Buffy that this thing between them can never be. Buffy understands. Among other things he’s two hundred and twenty-four years older than her. They need to walk away from this. They stand facing each other, neither one of them moving.

“One of us has to go here,” says Buffy.

Neither of them moves. Angel leans in and kisses her.

Willow is still watching, smiling at them. “What’s going on?” asks Xander.

“Nothing,” says Willow.

“Well, as long as they’re not kissing.”

Willow says nothing, and keeps smiling.

Buffy pulls away from Angel. There are tears in his eyes. “You okay?” she asks.

“It’s just—”

“Painful,” says Buffy. “I know. See you around?”

Buffy turns to walk away from Angel. She doesn’t notice that her necklace has left a cross shaped burn on his chest.

Death Toll

Notes

1. The griffin design in Angel’s tattoo is taken from an illustration in The Book of Kells, a ninth century Irish illuminated manuscript of the four Gospels.