A/N – This is my first side-story from my primary fan-fic project, entitled "The Mouth Of Hell Has Two Forks." In this story, I am attempting to explain the reasoning behind having three slayers in my main story. However, I found a story there, one screaming to be told.

This story takes place in the second season, starting from Innocence. I apologise if I've fumbled any of the quotes, my internet being down while I was writing this didn't help matters at all.

Black Magic Woman

Prologue

Angelus POV (APOV)

The best thing about losing your soul is gaining that little bit of perspective. Fuck I was weak. I had tortured myself day in and day out, my conscience getting the better of me over and over again.

My true self was trapped inside, yearning for a way to come back. It drove me insane sharing a mind with that soul, seeing the good in it. I had worked hard, replacing that good with prejudice, bias, and the true killer, love. That was the key, love makes these people do realllly fucked up shit. It turned a slayer into a leech-logger for one.

Coming back into this world was a real eye-opener. The good in mans heart is still lost over the evil that lurks beneath, yet the world is still a good place, there is beauty in nature, beauty I can't behold in the daylight, thanks to man, thanks to my body's weaknesses before I was Angelus the first time. If I wasn't weak and depressed, and caught up in Earthly desires, I could have lived out a good life and died with honour. I would have never been exposed to this.

Maybe this was the perspective I gained, maybe this world shouldn't be allowed to go on, my prejudices remained, but there was still someone who could punish, someone who could eradicate all the evil from this world, someone who could judge…..

Chapter 1: My Apocalypse

Buffy POV (BPOV)

The scene was dismal.

Suspended above the ground, I regained consciousness. After mere seconds of disorientation, Angelus's slick voice brought me back to speed.

"She awakens, finally. We thought we'd have to do it while you were asleep. This makes it a lot more amusing, you know."

I scanned the scene around me, searching for a blade or well, anything to grab. Instead I saw ash, small mountains of ash covering the linoleum floors of the mall. Angelus and Dru made short work of the innocents that the Judge didn't get to fry, their bodies stacked against the closest exit, making it near impossible to get in, or out.

"It's quite a mess, isn't it? Our boy here made most of the magic happen, but, well, I felt lazy, and we needed a barricade.

At this point, Kendra woke beside me.

"Where am I? Buffy, oh dear, what's going on? Why is the floor so grey and lifeless." She looked towards the door, then at the Judge and groaned. "Ohhhh no, we need to get out of here. They will kill us both!"

I turned to her and muttered under my breath "They will do no such thing, please compose yourself and help me find something to help cut us loose."

Angel continued, "You know Buffy, I've been thinking a lot since the night we made love. You really had me for a while there, I came all the way to this stinkin' town, just in the hopes that I could help you, save your life. Then I fall in love with you, fiiiinally sleep with you, and now all I want is to end your life, and the lives of those around you as painfully and slowly as possible. So without further ado….. Smurf? C'mon, do your thing!"

I put on a brave face as the Judge turned towards me.

"No, not her you great lug, the other one, I want her to watch."

Before I could object, I turned to Kendra and watched as she wittled to flames, her scream permanently etched in my brain.

"Alright, that should do it, let's get out of here." Angel remarked coldly.

"Your soddin' kiddin' me right, this is bollocks!" Spike yelled, wheeling himself over to Angelus. "We have her strung at the fuckin' ankles, and your giving her a free."

"Listen, wheels, we can go or you can stay, and I'll torch the joint as I leave."

"Fine, well if you're gonna be like that."

Just as they went to leave by the exit that wasn't blocked by corpses, they heard a screeching sound. They turned slowly to hear what the commotion was, and a heavily armoured military jeep crashed its way through the doors and the dead.

Willow and Xander jumped out, preparing the rocket launcher. Giles alighted from the jeep swinging a flaming torch towards Angelus and Dru, and retreating over to me, where he proceeded to cut at the ropes suspending me from the action. The Judge watched in feigned boredom as Xander and Willow handed me the rocket launcher.

"No weapon forged can harm me, little girl."

"Welcome to the 20th Century."

He looked on in curiosity as the rocket was fired out of its launcher. Angelus, Dru and Spike hurried out as the rocket met its mark and disassembled him violently.

I turned back to the site where Kendra had met her untimely fate. A smile pile of ash had collected just beneath the rope that had bound her while the Judge had absconded her purity and incinerated her in a mystical blaze.

I could still hear her scream, piercing my ears, the image scorching my retinas. I decided then that I could never befriend another slayer, another whose fate was so intertwined with mine. I closed my heart that night, to Angel and Kendra whom I had lost so selfishly, and to the rest of my friends, before I could hurt them and myself further.

A/N – I opted for a short first chapter to set the tone, however I like the length of this chapter and may very well keep to it for the rest of the story. This one's a fast burner, 5 chapters tops.