Disclaimer: I own nothing below except the plot. All characters, locations, and concepts are owned under their respective copyrights.
Spoilers and Timeline: Buffy up Season 4 "Wild at Heart"
Author's note: As with all of my stories, suggestions about future plot developments are welcome and wanted, Reviews of any kind are neat as well.
Getting Through
Chapter 4
Decisions have consequences.
For instance, at an important point in time, Buffy decided to vent her frustration and anger on the commando guy who ran into her. This led to a sharp but one-sided fight. However, because of this delay, her best friend was almost killed by a werewolf.
That werewolf did the biting thing. Now Willow was cursed the same way. Buffy had become protective over her friend because of this. She was nearby when Oz made the pivotal decision to leave. Buffy had destroyed this plan quickly and harshly. She spared Willow the agony of having to endure watching the one she loved walk away from her.
These decisions had other effects, like ripples in a pond. Because Willow was a werewolf, and Oz had stayed, they both confronted Spike while he was looking for Buffy. Spike was able to harm both of them. Leading to a far different course of events for him.
Also, Riley Finn had a similar experience as he had been forced to mend the injuries Buffy had inflicted upon him, thus revealing his identity, and casting a pall over any future interactions between himself and the Slayer. Finally Willow and Oz's vulnerabilities forced the gang to seek new allies. This had led Buffy to call Angel, and ask for his help with the threat of Spike, and the delayed strain that Willow's new werewolf status would add to the group.
These ripples would continue. Buffy and Giles had discussed finding help, given that Faith was still in a coma, and Giles was apparently reticent about asking the souled vampire for aid. Buffy had made another decision, seemingly in spite of Giles. But not really, as Angel and the former watcher had come to an outward understanding. Angel knew what Angelus had done, and Giles knew they were in fact two different beings. The demon who had tortured him was not same as the vampire who had helped so greatly in the fight against the Mayor and his minions, and then in a moment of incredible sacrifice, had left Buffy behind, knowing that she deserved better.
To add to these changes, Angel was initially going to come to Sunnydale to deal with Doyle's vision in a covert way, so that he wouldn't hurt Buffy more by his presence. Now with her call and sanction, he and his group, balance demon Doyle and aspiring actress turned secretary/consultant Cordelia, could come in the open. The two groups, Scooby gang and Angel Investigations, could coordinate and plan. However, there were still events that were going to happen in Los Angeles regardless of whether Angel was there or not.
So when an assassin, in the form of a Mohra demon, came calling at Angel's office. It did not find its target. The Mohra wasn't one to give up. So it began the painstaking task of tracking Angel. It's target had moved, and he would be found.
Also, a rogue demon hunter, formerly of the watcher's council, was steadily making his way to the city. He was on the trail of a rather slippery demon. He would succeed in finding a de-horned demon, who died shortly after being discovered. However, the empathic demon he was actually trailing had avoided him and remained a danger for those unfortunate enough to come across his perceptive abilities.
Coming back around to Sunnydale. A convergence began when Xander had unintentionally released a vengeful Chumash spirit. Yet again decisions made had a marked impact. For Willow, if on that tragic day, Oz had left, Willow would have sought stability in her life. She had her friends, her studies, and magic. She would have leaned on each of those pillars. Willow could garner support from her friends easily, and give it out in turn.
She would also take her studies very seriously and become increasingly vehement with her opinions. This would lead to arguments among her and her friends regarding the Chumash tribe. These arguments could have led to a disjointed response. This might have ended tragically.
As it was Willow retained those things she wanted. Aside from her new wolfiness, which was a gift she would gladly return if she could. Her and Oz helped Giles with the research. With Xander laid up with various diseases, courtesy of the Chumash spirit, and Anya interested in tending to him. It was the two werewolves that went to warn the dean of the school while the rest of the gang holed up in what Willow had dubbed "Fort Giles."
They were not alone on their return trip.
Angel and his group had voted (Angel and Doyle for going to Sunnydale, and Cordelia for staying out of that crazy, messed up place) and they had temporarily established themselves in Angel's former mansion. After that Angel had sought out Buffy, to get the details Doyle hadn't seen in his vision. Such as who exactly was after her. Buffy had called Angel when the big attack came on Thanksgiving.
So it was that Willow and Oz were joined in the cavalry role by Angel Investigations. While the Chumash warriors had their attentions directed toward Buffy and the rest. Xander had been wounded trying to help Buffy defend her nearly complete dinner. The defense was ably holding out. Even worse for the Chumash, they had to turn their focus to the new group.
Angel led the charge, which in hindsight was slightly foolish given the weapons the enemy preferred (bows and arrows) but his speed and reflexes were able offset much of the danger. Doyle helped out with his slight demonic strength, Cordelia, Willow, and Oz grabbed shovels. Unfortunately for the warriors that had to fight this group, the werewolves were aggressive, and protective over each other, a few were rendered combat ineffective, decapitation by spade couldn't kill them, but it could slow them down.
The only real moment of kinda levity was when Angel and Buffy ganged up on the first Chumash spirit warrior, the one who started everything. Buffy had gotten slightly wounded, and Angel had overreacted, and savagely broke the warrior's neck. It didn't kill him, but Buffy was able to dispatch him shortly after. This brought back uncomfortable associations for the whole group except for Anya and Doyle.
The ensuing Thanksgiving meal was a culinary success, with a very slight tension, that was only noticed by those who knew Buffy and Angel's history. Giles was initially wary of their relationship, Angel losing his soul didn't help, but he had gotten past that. Giles was trained to face various horrors.
What Giles had against Angel went more to the heart of his own relationship with Buffy. Angel could influence and guide Buffy in ways Giles had a hard time countering. Their proximity during the meal hadn't helped matters.
When the group had dispersed after the turkey induced sleepiness, Doyle had seemingly been hit with another vision. Giles had been interested in this new-found source of intelligence. Doyle had noticed the watcher's discomfort during dinner. So he had faked a vision.
"So, what is it with you and my boss?" Doyle had asked when Giles had kept mumbling about 'willful girls' and finishing off what was left of the wine.
Giles had looked up sharply, he had forgotten about the presence of the (though he didn't know it) half-demon "How do you mean?"
"Well, whenever you looked at him, you got this frown." Doyle said simply, thinking through the dinner.
Giles scoffed "It's complicated, I take it from your visions that you are familiar with Angel's history."
"Did you have some experience with his evil side?" Doyle was wondering about this, Angel made brief references to his time in Sunnydale, and while Doyle knew the outline of the story, he wasn't briefed on the details by the Powers.
Giles actually laughed at this "That's an understatement, but that's not why I don't like having him around. He's potentially dangerous, yes, but he is also unsettling for Buffy."
It was at this point that Doyle actually did get a vision. It was brief flashes of Angel's stint as Angelus, his humiliation and tormenting of Buffy and her mother, his attacks on Willow and Xander, and his unfortunate focus on Giles. After the vision ended, Doyle let go of his head and looked at the older man "You're something else, how can you do it, you sat here all night, making small talk and having a good time, with Angel acting like nothing needed to be said."
For Giles, seeing Doyle undergo the vision made him feel sympathy for his guest "What was that? That was one those visions you told us about. I don't know, with Angel, what the hell should I be doing. Acting irrationally, be frightened out of my senses. None of that would make any difference. Everything you talked about is in the past, and aside from using some very dangerous magic, it should remain there."
Doyle hated those kinds of visions, the ones about future events were better, at least there was the possibility that they could be stopped. These other visions, the ones about the past, seemed like they were mostly useless. "Yeah, vision of Angel's grand old evil time, wow, and I thought I knew what I was getting into. I mean vampire, I knew that going in. But that tosser, what's with the eccentric stuff?"
Giles actually smirked, maybe it was the turkey and stuffing, but he could look back on that time, with all of its nuances, and analyze it with some objectivity. "I never thought about it like that, why did any of us survive, honestly, I couldn't give you a reason." Giles thought 'we hardly escaped unscathed'
Doyle brought up that subject next "Who was the woman that he killed? The teacher?"
Giles' look hardened like stone, any hint of mirth gone. His friendly chat with Doyle had ended "Frankly, that's none of your business, now if you'll kindly leave."
Doyle said a quick "Sorry I asked." before leaving. While thinking 'I hit a nerve, there's more to it than the Powers showed me. I'll have ask someone else.'
That someone turned out to be Angel, who gave Doyle such a glare. If looks could kill, Doyle would be heavily wounded at least. Angel didn't like to be reminded of his evil side. It was bad enough that he had to remember it first hand, he never wanted to talk about the people he killed. Doyle got the information in passing from Cordelia, who had overheard the question. She wasn't trying to make Angel feel worse than he did. It just turned out that way.
Now Doyle understood Giles' abrupt change in demeanor, and his tension with Angel, despite the watcher's protests to the contrary.
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After Thanksgiving, nothing much happened. And then everything seemed to happen all at once.
First, the big day was approaching. Willow would become a wolf for the first time. Buffy, as the protector of her friend, had mobilized the group to look at the cage and make suggestions on how to expand and reinforce it. Xander had proven to be a great help with that part.
Second, the night before the big day, Buffy had a dream about something called 'the Gentleman'. So that on the very day when the big were-Willow coming out party would happen, the town was strangely quiet. Willow had woken up next to Oz, and tried to give her customary and cheery morning greeting to the young man who always seemed to wake up before her. But she had no voice, and neither did he.
Third, the Mohra demon had made it to Sunnydale. It would take him all day to find his target, none of the demons seemed to be able to say anything. So no information was forthcoming. Willie the bartender and habitual snitch would've gladly given up the location of Angel to the imposing demon warrior, but he hadn't gotten around to using pen and paper quite yet. He knew his customers and their orders, and it was still early in the day.
Willow and Oz had expanded the the cage to include nearly the entire crypt. With a small space and chair for the nightly wolf-sitter who had the requisite tranquilizer gun. They had toyed with the idea of having two separate cages. But Oz had made sure that Willow understood, what happened with Veruca when he killed her, could not happen with Willow when she became a wolf. Oz's human side had been angry with Veruca and that had transferred to the wolf.
Back in the library book return/weapon/wolf containment cage, for privacy sake, sheets and blankets had been put up so Oz could save his clothes from being shredded. Now with both him and his girlfriend, there was the same care taken with the crypt cage. They had discussed giving each other some privacy, but they had agreed, that pre-wolfy clothes saving was something they should do together. Who knew what could happen while they both were animals?
Willow had been fidgety and jumpy the entire day. She could feel the wolf inside gaining strength. Sharper senses, less patience, and a certain territorial nature. Woe to Buffy who accidentally sat on her dorm-mate's bed. Willow had smiled, grabbed her friend, and removed her roughly from the bed. Slayer though she was, Buffy got the message. Do not appear to cross Willow during her wolf days.
By the time the moon was about to rise, Willow was just about ready to scream, and she did, though there was no sound. She and Oz along with nearly everyone else had taken to writing messages in lieu of talking.
So they found themselves in the cage, with Giles standing the first night's watch, they had written most of what they wanted. Oz just needed to know that Willow was prepared for what was about to happen. They had minutes before the moon rose. And they were as ready as they could be. They hugged and kissed, possibly for the last time, and retreated to opposite sides of the cages. Willow laid down and curled up.
She thought that maybe she would get to feel some of the transformation. But it was not to be. She was thrust into unawareness. The next thing she remembered would be waking up the next morning.
Oz had a slightly different experience, parts of his consciousness remained. Not enough to be an intelligent wolf. But there were things he recognized. Certain smells, Willow especially, but the rest of those who watched over him. Where Willow radiated warmth and care, Buffy presented power and a threat, Xander and Giles had almost same smell. The only differences came from their circumstances. Giles had watched him after Buffy had disappeared for the summer after the fiasco with Angel and Acathla. Oz had smelled a nervous energy about the man, as if he expected the caged wolf to break out. And Xander, well, Oz never dwelt on him too much, suffice to say, he never smelled the same way twice.
The new Willow, well, she was something else again, her human smell was still present. But her wolf side brought out a lot of things that had been hidden until now. There was her jealousy over his attentions towards Veruca. There was her rage at finding the two of them together. There was her fear and resentment over being bitten and almost killed by Oz. These were all manifested in Willow springing across the cage and attacking her fellow werewolf.
Giles thought he would have to use the tranquilizer, but while Willow's attack was ferocious, it was without skill, and Oz was able to counter it, and prevent himself from getting killed. He had Willow pinned on the floor. He kept himself just out of reach of her jaws. It was then that Willow had spent her rage. The she-wolf looked up at it's opponent and realized, as much as she was capable, that this other wolf could be something other than a threat. She raised her head and sniffed at the other wolf. Oz smelled Willow again, only she was close enough to touch, it had only happened once before. Oz let the other wolf up. And Giles had the dubious honor of watching Willow and Oz reconcile and then then act on it.
The next morning, as Willow came out of sleep. At least, that's what it felt like, in reality her human side was simply reasserting control. She found herself entangled with Oz. The cage showed signs of a truly epic struggle. Both the fight and the mating could count as such.
Giles had been replaced during the night by Buffy. There was a dazed expression on Giles' face. He thought he had seen most everything, he was wrong. It would take a night's rest and a desperate fight against a vampire to purge the images he had seen.
Willow turned around to face Oz, who was doing the 'watching her sleep' thing, and was about to show him some well-deserved affection, when she tried to speak "Hey." then she seemed surprised.
Oz too was surprised "How do you feel?"
Willow took a brief look at herself and Oz. And she focused on what her body was telling her. They both had scratches. Oz had bruises and partial bite marks on and near his face. Willow discovered she had bruises on her shoulders. As Oz had told her she was tired, sore, and she was blanking on where she had spent the night. Then she realized her position, the warm body next to her, and that over the sheets covering the bottom half of the cage there was no evidence of Giles, so either someone must have replaced him on wolf watch, or they were alone. Since she couldn't see hair, it was probably Buffy or nobody "Oh, okay I guess, you were right."
Oz wasn't pleased, he didn't want to be right, he had hoped her first transformation was different from his and he was about to tell her so when their sitter/Slayer decided to interrupt with a clearing of her throat "Not to ruin how cute you two are, but could we skip the morning snuggle, there's classes and quite the story about last night."
Oz and Willow smiled at each other a moment more before getting up and dressed, discreetly, for Buffy's sake. No sense in being crude. Oz reflected that since everyone had their voices back; that the creepy 'Gentlemen' Buffy had dreamt of were no longer a threat.
After they were dressed and out of the cage, Buffy was about ready to fill them in on the crazy night. It was one she would always remember. But she was cutoff by another voice; belonging to someone coming into the crypt.
"Buffy? Cordelia told me you'd be here, I figured I'd bring breakfast" Oz and Willow both looked surprised at who entered. His all black outfit was as per usual. What was unusual was that it was daylight, that the face was beaming with joy, color, and the warmth of the sun and not brooding. But the final touch was that he was eating something from the bag of food he was holding.
Buffy confirmed it when she smiled and then looked about to get on his case "Angel, couldn't help it huh? This eating thing, not from the blood bank, it must be great."
It didn't take anymore for Oz and Willow to reach the clear conclusion; Angel was human. They both turned to Buffy with Willow asking the question "How?"
Buffy had grabbed the bag from Angel and started passing the food around, the two wolves were grateful, the transformation was quite draining "Well, you see..." and as Buffy told them of the Mohra demon showing up; it was while they were tracking down 'the Gentlemen.' It was a hard fight, but eventually the Slayer and the vampire were able to overpower the assassin, but not before it was sliced open in various places. The demon's blood had splattered on the two, healing their injuries. For Angel, it did more than that.
During the story Oz was reflecting on how much of an influence the Slayer had, she had prevented him from leaving Willow. That had led to a new commitment on his part. All of the subsequent events stemmed from that, not to mention the advice from Giles. And now, her decision to call Angel for help had led to the vampire somehow losing that part of himself.
At that time other beings were also contemplating Buffy, plans that had that were in progress regarding Angel and his role in the world had been ripped apart by her choices.
Willow was considering the state of the group, her and Oz had survived the upheaval of his betrayal and their mutual curse, Xander had something going on with a former vengeance demon, and now Buffy had received an invaluable gift, Willow still remembered how crushed Buffy had been when Angel had announced his intention to leave. Not only was he back, but his reasons for leaving had disappeared.
Oz was doing the same thing, but he incorporated one event that Willow could not know. He thought back to Giles and the trip to the cemetery. It seemed connections and happiness were hitting everyone in the group. If Oz didn't know otherwise, he would've started suspecting a spell of some kind was involved. This wasn't happening to Giles, and Oz began to wonder 'can I help him somehow' It wasn't right that the former Watcher should feel forced to converse with the corpse of a woman long dead.
Given that this was Sunnydale, it wasn't too weird for the dead to come back to life, but Oz didn't have the first clue how to do something like that. Perhaps he should try some more traditional matchmaking approaches first, or just be more of a friend.