A/N: This story is a BEAAAST! If I do say so myself, that is.
Betareader: The ever-talented and super awesome sugarless5 is my betareading buddy, and she did, in fact, inspire me to write this with her talk of an Angelus story, which will be a project of hers in the near future. And it's gonna be pretty dang awesome, so when I post a chapter of this with an A/N that says, "Okay! sugarless5's new story is up! Go read it!", you WILL go read it, yes? Good. Anyway, thank you to sugarless5 for being awesome.
Canon Changes: Fred doesn't suck as much.
The DownfallChapter One: And So It Began
It was one of those rare rainy, drizzly, overall yucky day in Sunnydale, California, where it was normally, as the name proclaimed, a beautiful, warm place where the sun peeked out from every corner of the town.
It was because of this that Buffy Summers glanced frequently out of her living room window. Days like this, the ones that had no sun, were perfect for an ubervamp attack.
In the middle of one of these glances, she got so involved in staring out the window at the falling droplets of water that she jumped when the phone rang.
Xander rolled his eyes at his friend and picked up the phone, seeing as Buffy was probably too startled to be coherent when speaking over the line. "Hello? Yes, it is. Hang on a second; I'll just put her on... " he held the phone out to Buffy. "It's for you.
She took the cordless phone from Xander (A/N: Not sure if they actually have a cordless phone. I'll need to do a Fact Check so that I can make the setting as accurate as possible.) and answered, "Hello?"
"Oh, hi! Are you Buffy? Oh, it's so great to meet you!" a Southern voice twanged out.
"Um... hello." She awkwardly waited a moment, waiting for the girl on the other end to say anything. When she didn't, Buffy continued, "Sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but... well, who are you?"
The girl laughed. "I'm so sorry. My name's Fred. I'm a friend of Angel's. It's just that Angel and Cordy and Wesley've always talked so much about you, I feel like I know you already."
She was a friend of Angel's. Buffy felt the nervousness from that day's weather quickly drain away, replaced by the warm, comfortable feeling she always got when Angel contacted her - it was kind of like when you were in seventh grade and you got in a fight with your best friend and your mom gave you a hug and let you sit on her lap while you watched reruns of old TV shows from the eighties.
"Well, in that case," Buffy replied, much more warmly, "it's great to meet you too." Then she remembered the circumstances under which she normally got to talk to Angel. But then again, she wasn't really talking to Angel - he'd had one of his lackeys call her. So maybe... "What's up? Is something wrong?"
When Fred replied, she sounded like her spirits were a little dampened, but she was still cheerful. "Have you seen the reports on the news about what's going on over here?"
"About the sun? Sure."
"Yeah. Well, see, here's the thing. Angel might have met the Beast, the thing that's doin' all this, but he doesn't remember. So we were thinking that maybe, if we brought Angelus back, we might be able to nab our monster."
"Wait. I don't understand. What... what are you saying?"
"We're going to bring back Angelus."
Buffy's world stopped. The warm feeling she'd felt stopped, leaving just as quickly as it had come. In its place came pure ice cold, filling her from the top of her head to the tips of her fingers to her toes. All of her major organs froze over, particularly her heart, and she felt as though she might throw up. Buffy stopped breathing, until she remembered that there might be a vampire attack at any moment. She had to stay strong for the girls, if nothing else, at this terrible news.
"No. No. No, no, no, no, NO!" Buffy screamed into the phone.
"Buffy - "
"Who decided this?" Buffy demanded. "It was you, wasn't it? You and Wesley, I bet. Angel would never be this stupid. Neither would Cordelia. She was here. She knew what it was like. Do you have any idea what you're doing? I could barely handle Angelus, and I'm a Slayer, for God's sake. You're just some dumb little girl trying to play detective. Do you have any idea what it's like to know that at any moment, he could be killing or torturing your friends and there's nothing you can do to stop him? Or have you ever experienced having the guy you love more than anything taken over to the Dark Side, for lack of better words? Do you know what it's like to have to go through it alone, because it's your fault and you know it and everyone who's in on what's going on knows it? And even though they say they understand and they can help, they can't. You know what? I've been there. Twice. And once you go through it, then knock yourself out. You can bring back Angelus to tell you about the Thing or whatever it's called whenever you want to."
Buffy fell back on the couch, tears about to start brimming in her eyes. Xander had the good taste to have left by the time she started yelling "No!" a minute ago, either because he was giving her some privacy or he didn't want to be around for one of her rants.
"I know that," Fred said. I know we can't handle Angelus alone. That's why we all decided to call you. We want your help." She paused. "I'm really sorry, though. We should have thought about how it would make you feel. But we really do want you to help."
"No." Buffy said immediately. "I have my own apocalypse going on here, lady. I have the future of the world to protect, here, both literally and Slayer-ifically. You'll have to bust out Faith."
"Believe me, we discussed that. But we decided that you would be the best choice to come and help us. Faith's never battled Angelus before, let alone won, unlike you. Buffy, you're our best shot. Please."
Hearing her criticize Faith, or at least say Buffy was better at this than her, did make her feel a little better. She paused before responding, "I'll think about it and call you back later, okay?"
"That would be great." Fred replied. "Okay, I'll talk to you soon, then! Bye!"
Buffy clicked off the phone.
Guess I'm taking a trip back home.