Disappointed.

Betrayed.

Hatred.

That's the emotions I feel as I look into the window that revealed the one nightmare I never would've imagined.

HIM

He's back... and she kept him a secret.

Anger courses through my body as I think about the night I last saw him. How my best friends face was tainted by the monster version of him.

And standing here right now, all I want to do is drive a stake through his chest.

Through his heart.

Like he did with mine.

And if I have to go through Buffy Summers, I will.

...

~ Days Before ~

3rd Person's POV

"We need to recheck every possible exit avenue."

Xander sighs shaking his head at Giles, "I'm telling you, it's a waste of time. I was here all night."

They notice Willow and Oz coming into the library with Cordelia and Laney not too far behind but Laney in her own world as she texts speedily on her phone with a grin.

"Right," Giles smiles stiffly at Oz, "It's good to see you. Um, no need to panic."

"Just a thought: Poker... not your game." Oz replies.

Willow frowns worried, "What's the deal, Giles?"

Giles starts to pace.

"Now, uh, bear in mind, uh, most likely, there, there, there is no deal," he stops and looks at Xander then Laney who sits on the table and puts her phone away staring curiously, "but um, if, if, if there was a deal, then it, um, would concern murder... last night. A male student was, was found i-i-in the woods."

Laney grimaces, "Which student?"

"Jeff Orkin."

Laney frowns, "Who the hell is that? Ouch..." She pouts as she holds her arm that Giles had pinched seeing Oz's face drop. Cordelia giggles lowly as she sits beside Laney.

"Jeff? He was... I knew him." He looks over at Xander. Xander looks down at the floor.

"I'm afraid he was, he was, um, terribly mauled. Now, uh, much as I hate to think it, i-i-it could be the handiwork of, of..."

Oz scoffs, "Me."

Laney shrugs looking at her nails, "Most likely... ouch! Okay I'll shut up."

Willow frowns very concerned, "Wolf you, not you you."

"But it's not. Not wolf you, not you you. The room was secured, the gate was locked," Xander heads into the cage, "and the window unbreakable, and..." he freezes and looks up at the window, "open!"

He points up at it as he comes back out of the cage.

Willow stares ahead upset, "Oh, God."

Giles and Oz both go over to check the window, too.

"Not to freak. I rested my eyes now and then. That's all."

Willow gives him a betrayed look as Laney scoffs and chuckles into her hand then clears her throat as everyone looks over at her.

"Sorry I was chokin- uhh never mind I'll be quiet again."

Giles looks down from the window rubbing his temple, "How long... exactly did you... rest your eyes for?"

Oz just stares into space, turning the implications over in his mind.

"A little now, uh, a little then. But I never heard Oz leave, and he was here in the morning when I, um..." Xander searches for words, "when I..."

Giles glares at him angrily, "WOKE UP!"

Xander shrugs with a light nod, "You could put it that way if you want to, Mr. Technical."

Oz walks over to Willow, looking at her sadly.

"Oh, God." Willow takes his hand to comfort him. Oz looks at Giles imploringly.

Buffy comes in and finds Giles pacing and everyone else sitting on the steps and looking gloomy. She sets her bag on the table.

Buffy crosses her arms, "I'm afraid to ask."

"Oz ate someone last night." Cordelia and Laney say at the same time.

Willow glares, "He did not!"

Xander groans annoyed, "Oz does not eat people."

Cordelia rolls her eyes as Laney agrees and makes a raspberry sound.

"It's more werewolf play." Xander replies as Buffy looks at Giles inquiringly, "You know, I bat you around a little bit, like a cat toy. I have harmless, wolf fun. Is it Oz's fault that," Oz lowers his head, "you know, side effect, people get cut to ribbons, and maybe then he'll take a little nibble and..." Willow gives him a hurt look, "I'm not helping, am I?"

Laney laughs, "Not at all..." she leans over to Cordelia, "Your boyfriend's an idiot."

Cordelia sighs rolling her eyes once more, "I know..."

"Hey!"

"Oz may have got out of his cage last night." Giles states.

"Or maybe there's a, another werewolf roaming the woods." Oz replies in hope.

"Perhaps. Perhaps it's something else entirely."

Buffy nods, "It's okay. We'll work together, and we'll figure this out."

Laney raises an eyebrow about to say something catty until Giles clears his throat making her sigh annoyed and look back down at her nails.

"Yes. Um..." he thinks for a moment, "Buffy. Uh, you, uh, you patrol the woods. Uh, the others, um, check out the morgue."

"Ew... I've had enough of dead bodies to last a lifetime." Laney pouts.

Willow stands straight hopeful, "Right! We can see if it's a werewolf kill or not." She glances at Oz next to her, "But what about Oz?"

Giles sighs, "Um... Well, I have some research materials at home I need to look up. Uh... W-w-we could ask Faith to watch over him."

Laney makes a sound of disagreement, "Hey! I'm right here. I could watch Oz."

Giles raises a brow, "You are certain? What if he gets rowdy?"

Laney waves a hand nonchalantly, "Oz I love you dude but you get rowdy and it's nap time."

Oz looks at her and then Giles, "Faith may be a better candidate."

Laney gasps in disbelief, "I am offended. I thought we were cool."

Oz nods, "We are... but I don't trust you with a tranquilizer gun."

Laney nods laughing evilly, "Yeah you shouldn't."

"Alright so Faith and Laney can watc-"

Oz looks up at Giles.

"What, you're having two Slayers watch me? Oh, good, we're not overreacting."

Laney wanted to thank him for including her in the slayer title but she also felt kinda bad for the little guy.

He gets up to leave, not willing to listen to any more of this. Willow gives Buffy a concerned look and gets up to go after him. She reaches out and touches him on the shoulder. He stops and turns to face her. She tries to give him a reassuring smile.

"Okay. Uh, you know that thing where you bail in the middle of an upsetting conversation?" Oz inhales then exhales, "I have to do that. It's kinda dramatic, I know, but... sometimes, it's a necessary guy thing."

Willow grimaces, "And I want you to... do the guy thing, but..."

She glances and gestures at the clock on the wall and sighs. Oz looks over at it, too. 5:34pm. Almost sunset. He looks back at her and the others, realizing this isn't the time to do the guy thing, and lets out a heavy sigh. He looks over at the cage, and reluctantly goes to lock himself up. Willow follows him. The door squeaks when he pulls it open and again as he pulls it closed. It locks shut with a clang.

...

In the woods later that night, Buffy patrols through them by herself, looking around and listening carefully. Behind some branches, a figure quickly and silently slips behind her. Buffy thinks she heard something and raises her stake.

Again a figure dashes by, and this time Buffy sees it. She runs after it through the bushes. Suddenly she stops in her tracks when she sees it come straight for her. She stares in disbelief as the man rushes her and knocks her down as he runs by. Buffy steadies herself on the ground and looks up as he goes. He stops and looks back at her.

Angel.

He growls and snarls at her. There's blood around his mouth, but he has on his human face, not his vampire's. She can only stare at him in complete surprise.

Angel continues to growl at Buffy. He charges her as she gets up. She grabs him and throws him to the ground, but also falls under his weight. Angel rolls to a stop and crawls quickly back to her before she can get back up. He lunges at her, and she uses his momentum to flip him over herself and onto his back. She rises to one knee and punches him as he tries to regain his footing. He takes the blow in the head, but just spins around and delivers a solid backhand punch to her face, making her fall onto her back.

Angel jumps on her again, but she uses her leverage to send him onto his back once again. He twists his body, reaches over and punches her in the gut. She quickly rolls away and gets to a standing position. She does a full spinning low hook kick, hitting him in the head as he tries to stand. He slumps down on all fours, and as he looks up at her she punches him solidly in the face, making him slump to the ground, badly beaten. After a few breaths he loses consciousness, and his body relaxes. Buffy breathes hard as she looks down at him, still not believing what she sees.

...

Back at the library, Werewolf Oz growls in his cage. Faith is oblivious as she moves around to the sounds of Mark Ferrari on her portable CD player. Buffy comes in behind her and taps her on the shoulder.

Instinctively, Faith spins around and lands a swinging backhand punch to Buffy's face.

"Oh!" Buffy stumbles backward and steadies herself against the portable card catalog.

"Damn." Laney whistles as she walks from behind a stack of books.

Faith yelps in surprise, "Oh! Uh, Buffy! Are you okay? What are you doing here?"

Buffy holds her jaw, "Uh, bleeding internally, but I'll live."

"God, I'm sorry." Faith shrugs with the CD player, "I guess I didn't hear you."

"Figured as much. Ow. Again." She takes a breath and arches her back, "Uh... Actually, I-I-I came to give you two the rest of the night off."

"Get out of jail free, huh? How come?"

Laney raises a brow and walks up to the two confused, "Yeah what gives."

Buffy shrugs taking her jacket off, "Couldn't sleep. Figured I'd, uh, cram for my French test."

Laney stares making Buffy look away uncomfortably. Frowning confused Laney sighs and picks up her books off the table then pursues after Faith.

"That's cool. I was going kinda crazy in here, but I can get in a few stakings before sunrise." Faith heads for the door, handing Buffy the keys to the cage on the way.

Buffy follows her with her gaze.

"Knock yourself out. Not literally, though."

"Yeah. Later." Faith replies as she holds the door open for Laney.

Laney glances back at Buffy once more seeing the blonde Slayer look down at the ground. Huffing in annoyance Laney continues out the library with Faith on her heels.

"What up with you? I know you got your cherry popped so why aren't you all sunshine and rainbows like earlier?"

Laney gasps and slaps Faith's arm, "Faith!"

"What? Cordy and I were talking this morning and it's so noticeable."

"How?"

"You have the morning after glow."

Laney giggles and shakes her head, "Whatever. Anyways... do you think something is up with her?"

Faith raises a brow and pauses in the hall, "Who B?"

"Duh... Faye she's totally off. More than usual. She hasn't done her daily sneer towards me. And what gives? Wanting to take our spot to sit and watch Oz? Wonder what happened during her stake out?"

Faith shrugs, "I don't know Lane. Maybe we should keep an eye on her."

"See if she's hiding anything?"

"Now you're speaking my language."

...

Sunlight pours in through the cage window and down on Oz lying there naked. Giles arrives with a cup of coffee in his hand. He looks down at Oz to make sure he's not a wolf, unlocks the door and pulls it slightly open. He takes a sip from his cup and heads over to where he sees Buffy in the stacks curled up and asleep in a chair with a book on her lap and a drawer from the card catalog next to her on a stepstool. Other books are lying on the floor around her. He quietly takes the steps to the upper level and reaches down for one of the books. As he does so Buffy stirs from her slumber and looks up at him.

"Hey."

"Hmm. Hello." Giles sips his coffee.

Buffy quickly realizes what it must look like, her surrounded by all these books, and tries to play it off.

"Oh. Boy." She stands up, "Faith and her nutty books."

Giles reads some book titles, "'Exploring Demon Dimensions' and 'Mystery of Acathla'."

"Yeah! And she still listens to heavy metal." She walks toward the stairs, "Freaky deaky."

"Buffy..."

She sighs deeply as realizes that he hasn't bought it and leans against the railing.

Laney walks through the hallway determined to find out what the heck was wrong with the blonde Slayer. They weren't friends anymore. No where near. Heck none of them were close anymore. She only spoke to Cordelia, Faith, Oz, and Giles outside the library walls. But she knew the girl. And she knew something was up. Maybe she knew what was doing the attacks. Maybe she was hiding something else. Either way, Laney would figure it out.

Giles gives Buffy his attention and slowly comes over to her as she speaks.

"Ugh fine. What if... I told you that... I had a dream about Angel... and, um... it brought up some questions?"

Giles sips his coffee still, "I'd say it was to be expected. Must have been some dream. I didn't think you knew what a card index was for."

"I dreamt that he came back."

Laney freezes as she slightly opens the library doors. She holds her breath then gulps as she looks through the glass window seeing Buffy sit on the stairs with Giles beside her.

"Of course... After Jenny was killed," He sets the cup aside, "I had dreams that she was s-still alive, that I saved her."

Buffy shakes her head, "This was vivid. Really vivid. Three-dimensional, sensurround, the hills are alive..." She stops when she realizes her use of Jenny's metaphor.

Giles takes off his glasses and considers for a moment, "Do you believe it was a prophecy?"

"No. I-I don't know. I..." The young girl inhales deeply, "I guess it just... it made me wonder."

Giles looks away in thought.

"Is there a chance even? Could it happen?"

Giles shrugs, "Well, there's no record of anyone returning from a demon dimension once the... gate was closed. I-I-I can't imagine how it could happen or-or why."

"Let's just pretend for a second that... Angel somehow found his way back to Sunnydale. What would he be like?"

Laney clenches her fists as she thinks about the possibility. Then she shakes her head and realizes there's no way. Sunnydale was the home of all things creepy and scary. Monsters and all. But a vampire coming back from a hell dimension. No likely.

"I really can't say. From what is known about that dimension, i-it would suggest a world of... brutal torment. And time moves quite differently there, so..."

"I remember. So he would've been down there for hundreds of years."

"Yes." He looks up at her.

"Of torture..."

"It would take someone of extraordinary... will and character to survive that and, uh, retain any semblance of self." Giles swallows hard, "Most likely, he'd be, be a monster."

Buffy nods hopelessly, "A lost cause."

"Maybe. Maybe not. In my experience, there are... two types of monster. The first, uh, can be redeemed, or more importantly, wants to be redeemed."

"And the second type?"

Giles shrugs, "The second is void of humanity, cannot respond to reason... or love."

Laney takes this as her chance to make her announcement of presence. She didn't want to hear anything else about her ex best friend. She didn't want to hear his name. She didn't want to think about him. She wanted everything about him to disappear.

"Sup losers."

Giles rubs his temple with a small smile, "Not quite the nice good morning I hoped for from you, Laney."

"Eh it's nice enough. What are you two up to?"

Buffy glances at her then quickly hides the books behind her back and tries her best to not look into the girls eyes. She knew if she did, the hoax would be over. Laney would tell something was up. And Buffy had to figure this out on her own. She didn't need Laney's help. If anything Laney would hinder the newfound information Buffy had gathered.

"Nothing much."

Laney raises an eyebrow and watches the blonde girl while gritting her teeth.

'Oh she's definitely hiding something.'

Before Laney can speak, Willow shows up unexpectedly, bringing a box of donuts with her, "I thought Faith was on duty."

"Oh, hey. Change of plans." Buffy comes down to her moving swiftly past Laney.

Willow smiles, "Glazed or cake? It's fun to watch them make them. They use this spritzy thing, and they drop the batter into this..."

Buffy sighs, "Couldn't sleep, huh?"

Willow nods, "I've been at Mister Donut since the TV did that snowy thing."

Behind her Oz has dressed and comes out of the cage.

"How come you're the Wakey Girl? I mean, this time, it's not your boyfriend who's the cold-blooded..."

She notices Buffy look behind her with wide eyes. Oz slips on his outer shirt and comes up next to her.

"Jelly doughnut?" She offers the box.

Oz ignores the donuts, "Everything all right?"

"Yeah. Uh, what happened with the inspection of the body?" Buffy nods.

Willow smiles, avoiding the issue, "Anyone? They're yummy delicious!"

Laney rolls her eyes knocking the box of doughnuts out of the redheads hands, "Seriously Willow, come on. Was it Oz or not?"

Willow picks up the box from the floor and sets them down on the table. Her expression shows that she's not overly anxious to say.

"Was it a vampire?" Buffy questions.

Laney snaps her head to Buffy and frowns confused, "Huh?"

"I-it wasn't conclusive."

Laney snaps her head back to Willow, "Huh?"

"How could it not be conclusive? What did it look like? Was he bit?"

Giles steps forward, "Let her finish, Buffy."

Buffy looks back at him, "No, it's just..."

Laney crossed her arms over her chest, "Just what?"

Buffy freezes and realizes the sensitivity of the issue with Oz standing right there.

"Nothing. I'm sorry."

She sits down. Giles just calmly waits for Willow to finish her report.

•
•
•

This one is kind of short but hey y'all!!!! Yay an update!! I was so excited to get this one out to you guys! Writers block, work being hectic, school, moving, so much going on. But I cannot just not write. I love it so much. And I love you guys so obviously I have to keep putting chapters out.

Thank you all for being so freaking patient. Yall are the best ever!! Hope you enjoyed even though it was a little bit short.

How are we feeling so far?

Angel is back...
Dun
Dun
Dunnnnnn

Literally so great but so awful. Do you think the show would've been fine if he didn't come back? Do you think he shouldn't have come back in this story? Did yall miss him? Angelus can go burn but Angel... 🥺😔

Favorite character so far?

Least favorite?

Less Xander in this chapter as well... thank the lord lol I cannot stand him honestly. The show he's even worse. At least he's some what tolerable right now. But just give it two more episodes. Maybe even one.

No Colby this episode but they did have their romantic time!! Yay for them. Such cuties and sweethearts. I for the life of me could not figure out a way to write the smeggsy time so I just skipped because I have to continue on.

Laney is the smartest. Like how she knew immediately that something was up with Buffy. The girls intuition is stellar.

I'm excited to continue on! Any future predictions?

Special requests...

🤍