Her captive really didn't know when to give up. "One more time, buddy. You're in my town, what the hell are you doing here?"

The middle aged man in the fur coat tried one last time to free his hands from what he assumed to be her belt and lift his head up despite her small foot on his neck, to no avail.

Finally he let loose a sigh and let his muscles relax.

Good man, Buffy thought sarcastically.

"My name is Cain," he said, interrupting her thoughts. "I'm a werewolf hunter."

Buffy started. "Then why are you here?"

Cain let out a rough laugh. "Because blondie, you've got a werewolf."

"And what do you plan on doing?" Buffy demanded.

"My job," he replied, tiliting his head to reveal a necklace of werewolf teeth. "Killed 'em all myself. This one'll make it thirteen." "You're not killing this one. This is my town and I deal with its problems," she told him.

Another laugh. "What makes you think you can handle the job?"

The slayer replaced her foot with her hand and smiled sweetly at the man. "The fact that I can take down a guy who took down twelve werewolves for a start. That and I did it without breaking a sweat for another. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a werewolf to find and I need my belt."

Cain, apparently unconvinced, took one last shot. "Little girl like you? Humans are one thing, kid, but the supernatural is a whole new ballgame."

Without even turning around, Buffy replied, "I think I can handle it." Then she left behind the very stunned hunter.

"So that's the slayer," he said in amazement. As he carefully picked himself up, he rubbed his wrists, but he was looking out at the spot she disappeared. "Good luck kid, you'll need it."

Werewolf, Buffy thought excitedly. Well, it had to happen sometime. Wonder what werewolves feel like. Her feet were moving on autopilot, taking her to the library without any conscious thought. I mean, vampires have a bad vibe, then you have demons which feel weird...would a werewolf feel fuzzy?

"Hey, B," Faith greeted, when Buffy walked through the door with a preoccupied look on her face, "Please tell me you got news, Geeves here keeps making me do drills."

"Faith, if you can't follow the basics, like remembering to check in after a night of patrol, you need to review. I'm merely following basic logic, there's no need to be dramatic," Giles said, peering at her over the book he was reading.

Buffy saw Faith open her mouth to protest further, so she hurridly cut her off. "We've got a werewolf," she blurted.

Both occupants of the library turned to her.

"No way!" Faith yelled with her patent I'm-gunna-kick-some-ass-soon grin.

"A-are you quite certain?" Giles stuttered.

"Well," Buffy amended, "I haven't seen it or anything, but I ran into a werewolf hunter on my turf and he didn't seem like the joking kind of guy. I'd say we have a werewolf."

Now everyone was excited, Faith was grinning like a maniac, Giles was muttering about traditional methods and Buffy had to admit, having a werewolf under her belt would be pretty impressive. After all, what decent slayer hasn't faced a werewolf?

"So we gunna need some silver bullets or what?" Faith asked.
"No," Buffy countered, "No killing. Whoever our wolf is, he's still a person twenty-nine days of the month. We need to find out who this person is and if we can help them."

"Actually, they're humans twenty-seven days of the month," Giles announced, "The nights before and after the full moon have a powerful enough pull on the beast to cause the change. But I do agree with Buffy. Unless it's imperative, simply, um, subduing the werewolf would be the best course of action."

Faith agreed completely, but still felt the need to put up some kind of resistance. "Damn. Putting a leash on the doggie is a lot less fun than just shooting him."
"And a lot more difficult," Giles added unfazed. "Tomorrow night is the full moon, when the wolf will be at his strongest. If at all possible, we need to identify the human and try to persuade him or her to be more cautious. If we fail in both actions, we still have the night after."

"Sounds like a plan," Buffy chirped.

"You don't sound very concerned."

Everyone turned to the entrance. Standing calmly in the doorway was Oz.

"What the hell?" Faith demanded, jumping off the table and stalking towards him.

"Should we be?" Buffy asked equally calm, as if Faith hadn't said anything.

Recognizing the tone of her voice, Faith stopped and turned in surprise, but backed up and moved to Buffy's side.

Like supporting the alpha, Oz thought when he noticed the action. The unwanted connection disturbed him and he quickly said, "I think I'm your werewolf."

An eyebrow shot up. "You just got up this morning and thought, 'You know, I'm feeling pretty wolfy today, let's go bother Buffy'?"

"I woke up in the woods naked without any memory of it. And I felt...I don't know, but I think I'm your werewolf," Oz told them.

"So what do you want us to do?" Buffy asked, stil not backing down.

"Don't tell Willow," he said quietly.

If Buffy was surprised to hear about her former best friend, she didn't show it. "Fine, anything else?"

Oz nodded and looked at the specially built cage in the corner. "Does that lock?"

Plans were made and Oz left to get ready, promising he'd be back with plenty of time to be locked up.

Faith, who had been silent and unwavering in her support of Buffy while Oz was there, now turned to her. "What the hell was that!"

"That was Oz," Buffy replied calmly, knowing full well what Faith was asking and also knowing that she deserved the truth. Now it was all going to come out.

"I know that was Oz, I've seen him play at the Bronze. That's the only place I've seen him and I know you've never been in there, so how do you know him?" Faith yelled.

"He is, the, erm, rather he was the boyfriend of Willow three years ago, correct?" Giles interjected.

Faith looked at Giles in surprise. She had a feeling in a few minutes everything was about to come out into the open. That little thing, or rather, big thing that happened to Buffy in the past was about to be revealed.

She was right. Buffy took a deep breath and told her the story. "Willow Rosenburg was my best friend in high school. She and Xander Harris. Then there was Cordelia, Oz, and...Angel. He..."

"He's the guy," Faith said with a nod. The way Buffy had said his name, she just knew that this had everything to do with Angel.

"Yeah," Buffy continued, "He's the guy. Together we were the Scoody Gang. Willow was the net girl, Xander was snack guy, but Angel...Angel..." Buffy bit her lip hard. Her knuckles were white, just short of drawing blood. "...was everything. He was my equal. And he was killed. I was devestated, but my 'friends' weren't very understanding."

"Harsh," Faith said with a whistle, "Sounds like you had some pretty lame ass friends, there B."

"I thought they were the greatest for a while," Buffy admitted, "They knew everything about me, but they were still my friends. They made me feel like I was still normal, you know? But they thought they knew what was best for me, like they knew what 'normal' really was. See, the thing about Angel is he's a vampire."

Faith stared. Buffy, Buffy, little miss I-never-break-the-rules was in love with a vampire!

Buffy continued as if she didn't see Faith's mouth open in surprise. "He made me feel more normal than all my friends ever could. He was the only one who really knew what I had to go through. And when he died...well, they said somethings, I said some things--"

"--you hit Xander..." Giles murmurred under his breath.

Faith's eyes went wide. "You, Buffy Summers--Buffy who doesn't do anything wrong or bad or even remotely close to the badness of not flossing--fell in love with a vampire AND hit a human!"

"I don't know if you can call him that," Buffy muttered.

"Buffy!" Giles chided.

"Angel meant a lot to me, and when he died Xander was practically dancing-on-the-table, singing-with-the-birds happy. Maybe I was a little harsh, but I was so angry at him, at Spike, just as everyone," Buffy explained.

Faith started. "S-Spike?"

"Yeah," Buffy affirmed angrily, "Spike's the undead bastard who killed Angel. His crazy girlfriend Drusilla's the one who killed Kendra. If I ever find him, he'll have a whole knew perspective on not being able to die, I'll tell you that."

Faith couldn't look away from the floor, hearing her sister slayer's fury at the man--no, vampire, who up until just that second, was the reason she couldn't wait to get out of the stuffy library.

Seeing both his charges preoccupied with other matters, Giles cleared his throat and said, "So now that everyone is fully aware of the situation, what are we going to do about Oz's...condition?"

Buffy frowned. "I don't know Oz too well, he and Willow had just started going out. But he did come to us for help, so I guess that's a point in his favor," she said a little grudgingly.

"He's got a really decent rep in the Bronze, the nice guy of the band," Faith added.

"But his poker face might mean he's hiding something," Buffy said.

Giles shook his head in disagreement. "I think the boy was scared. He didn't know what happened after he woke up, but most importantly, he didn't know who he hurt. I don't believe this is any kind of scheme."

Buffy leaned back in her chair. "Or he just had a bad hangover."

Faith grinned, but she still agreed with Giles. "I vote wolfy's in. For now."

Slowly, the senior slayer aquiesced. "For now."

Cordelia was having a horrible time. First, the contact she had, you know, the guy who would immediately cast her into a leading role opposite that cute October Sky guy (hey, it was her fantasy) ? Yeah, well, turns out he's dead. Then the gorgeous Malibu-themed condo her friends wanted to practically give her burned down. Now she was stuck party hopping with the entire population of ex-street walkers in LA, living in a completely unliveable apartment that always smelled like wet cats.

The young brunette sighed, falling onto the couch that seemed to be the source of the smell. She couldn't even get rid of it because it was the only piece of furniture other than her battered coffee table in her living room! Her stomach rumbled loudly, but there was nothing she could do about that now, she just had to wait for her shot. Or the next party.

Was she ever going to catch a break?

"Where's Doyle?" Angel asked walking through the double doors of the Hyperion.

"'Where's Doyle?'" Gunn mimiced. "No, 'Hey guys, how've you been?' No, 'Hello Gunn, nice night, huh?'" Gunn scoffed angrily and walked out of the room.

"We don't know what's wrong with him, he's been testy all day," Wesley volunteered.

Angel was still looking at the door. "Right. Where's Doyle?"

"I think he's at his house," Fred said. "He hasn't been here at all today."

Angel gave a terse nod and followed Gunn out the door.

Wesley and Fred shared looks of confusion, and then shrugged. All in a day's work.

Gunn was sitting on a seat by a window facing the street. Angel stood behind him silently, not really looking at him or the window.

"Alonna died today," Gunn told him, not looking away from the empty street. "It's been a few years, but I always get really angry. At the vampires, at the world, just...everything." He fell silent, then continued. "I know I've been a pain to you and the gang, but I'll deal. It won't happen again."

"It's a little harder than just dealing with it. You get a lot of slack here, especially when you're not in this business for money or pleasure. Do what you need to do," Angel said not unkindly.

Gunn was so wrapped up in his own thoughts he didn't even hear Angel leave.

"Doyle!" Angel yelled, pounding on the half-demon's door.

After much too long, Doyle opened the door. "Angel-man, ya have the most terrible timin' of anyone I've ever met. I feel like complete crap," he mumbled.

"Did your vision include anything else? About that girl? Something you maybe forgot to tell me?" Angel growled, stalking into the room.

Doyle heard the menace in Angel's voice and winced. "Er..."

"Doyle, I need to know these things! What if I wasn't prepared and she killed me? Or what if I was too shocked to help her?" Angel was really angry now, he was pacing the length of the living room, trying frantically to keep from transforming into his game face. Doyle fell into his chair and rubbed his chin nervously.

"It was dark and I didn't know for sure..."

Angel cut him off. "Why didnt you tell me?"

"I was afraid of what you would do, man!" Doyle finally yelled, jumping off his couch. "You'n slayers have a bad history! If I told you, you might've thought about it too much and chickened out, or somethin'."

Angel was about to protest violently, when he realized his movements weren't hindered by the clothing and food that usually littered Doyle's floor. He looked more closely at Doyle and saw he didn't look hungover at all, but stressed. "What've you been doing? Everything's cleaner, you're cleaner," Angel remarked loking at his surroundings.

"Oh, well," Doyle hurridly shuffled around some knickknacks, trying to look busy. "Y'know, just, uh, spring cleanin' an' all that."

Angel moved around, looking at everything. "This other room is completely cleaned out," Angel observed with surprise. He put two and two together and the resulting surprise made him forget his fury just moments earlier. "Doyle, are you getting a roomate?" he asked incredulously.

The half breed stuck his head in the fridge and above the large amount of sound in the form of various clinks and clunks, Angel heard a very muffled, "Yeah..."

"Why didn't you tell me you needed money?" Angel demanded, "I would've paid you more or leant you--
"--I know ya would, but I didn't want that!" Doyle interrupted, "I have ta pay off my debts on my own. It's not about the money. This is just somethin' I gotta do."

Angel smiled his almost-smile. "Alright. Be sure to tell me when you get a roomate. I'm sure the gang will want to meet him."

"I will," Doyle promised.

Angel turned to leave and was almost out the door when Doyle called him back.

"Yeah?" Angel said, still in the doorway.

"I thought I was doin' the right thing, not tellin' ya," Doyle said.

"I know you did, Doyle. Don't worry about work, just find a roomate." Then he left.

The half-Brakken demon exhaled loudly and fell back onto his unusually clean couch. Man, he needed a drink. Having a guy like Angel mad at you is no joke, but knowing he'd be mad at you for a few days realy drains a person. Especially when he's got a million or so of the most incompetant creeps in LA looking to stay in his apartment.

Doyle ran his hand through his hair tiredly, looking through the shrinking list of applicants. Dory Ma...wel, she's out, he thought, anyone with more than one x in their name is automattically outta the running.

He was just corssing off a Philipeana something or other when there were three sharp knocks on his door.

Please don't let that be Angel, Doyle prayed opening the door.

Definitely not Angel.

A stunning brunette in her twenties beamed at him brightly.

"Hi! I'm Cordelia Chase."

Jenny walked briskly through the halls of Sunnydale high and studied the ancient, faded words in her hands with enthusiasm. Normally she would've had a different attitude to the grueling work, but she couldn't help be feel invigorated by the dull task. Giles had informed her of the werewolf problem and how Buffy had revealed her past to Faith. Now it was time she do the same for Buffy.

"Ms. Calender!" Buffy greeted. "Come to see Giles?"

The technopagan smiled at the blonde, "Actually, I came to see you."

"Me?" Buffy asked in surprise.

"You," Giles said, coming out of his office.

"Gee, don't I feel loved," Faith joked, sitting across the table from Buffy.

Ms. Calender nodded to Faith who had become something of a daughter to her. "You need to hear this too, Faith."

Buffy shifted in her seat. "So what's the what?"

"Well..." Ms. Calender started, uneasy now that she was actually going to reveal her secret after so many careful years. "I have to tell you both something."

Buffy and Faith took in her serious demeanor and looked at each other with wide eyes.

Ms. Calender took a deep breath and continued. "Three years ago, my real name was Janna, not Jenny Calender. That was the name I took on when I renounced my old life and my clan."

All the blood in Buffy's face seemed to disappear and she looked as white as a ghost. Fed on a girl about your age...beautiful...dumb as a post...but a favorite among her clan.

She could remember Angel's words exactly and she knew exactly what that conversation was about.

Ms. Calender took one look at Buffy's pale face and the realization that was dawning in her eyes and knew that there was no going back. Faith, on the other hand, was completely confused and a little worried at the unheathy shade her sister slayer had turned.

"He was the reason you were here, wasn't he?"

All eyes turned to Buffy. Faith looked expectantly at Ms. Calender.

The teacher just nodded sadly, "Yes, he was. Angel was supposed to pay for his crimes."

"And me? What was I supposed to be paying for, huh?" Buffy asked with a quiet fierceness.

"Buffy, you weren't supposed to be hurt at all. Which is why I eventually abandoned my post and refused to help my uncle with his obsessive vengence. But, it was my fault that the arm was brought to Sunnydale, and for that I-I can't apologise enough."

Buffy just stared at the floor with a grim expression on her face.

Ms. Calender looked to Giles for help, but his face was a careful mask, revealing nothing.

"I-I felt as though I had to do something. I felt like Angel's death was all my fault, so I've been researching magic and spells, and...well, I think I know how to bring him back."

Jenny expected an explosion, for Buffy to scream or yell or...something. But there was only silence.

And then very slowly, Buffy's eyes moved up, unseeing, to look at Ms. Calender with such intensity it felt as though her gaze was boring a hole through her.

Almost imperceptibly, Buffy whispered, "You can bring him back?"

So much was riding on that question. Buffy's happiness, Giles's trust, her credibility and sucess as a practicing witch...

"Y-yes, I think I can. I mean, there's always a chance...but I think I can. I need another powerful witch who can handle a spell of this magnitude, and..." the technopagan paused, unnerved by the intense look the slayer was shooting at her, "And I'll need your help. It'll be a little risky, but--"

"I'll do it," Buffy interupted. "Just tell me what I have to do."

Faith watched the exchange with barely concealed awe. Not that it really mattered what her facial expression was like, Buffy was looking at Ms. Calender like she was the key to immortality and Giles was watching them both with a strangly blank look on his face.

Faith would never admit it, but she looked up to Buffy. No matter what was happening, however chaotic and crazy it was, Buffy would always be level-headed and keep her cool. She had this amazing ability to rationally and calmly evalutate a situation and methodically kick total and complete ass. But this time, she wasn't even hearing the terms before rushing into them. And the way she was treating Ms. Calender, like she hadn't known her for five years--it was surreal.

"Oh! Um, great! I...well, here's everything, your instructions are at the end, but you can probably figure it out where you are in all this anyway. I'll...just leave this here with you." She put a thick folder on the table and stood there awkwardly. "So, um, if you need--if you want to ask anything, just ask." She took one last look at Buffy who was looking at the folder as though it was the head of a new demon and then left the library, clearly dejected.

"B?" Faith asked softly. "You alright?"

Buffy blinked a few times, then looked at Faith, as though she hadn't realized she was there. "Oh, yeah, um, I'm fine."

Faith shared a concerned look with Giles who fought the urge to comfort his charge, even though he knew there was nothing he could do to help her--this was a battle she had to fight on her own.

"Giles, I'm, uh, I'm going to call it a day, Faith, you think you can handle patrol--oh! Oz! I totally forgot...I'll be back later then. I'm just going to, um, review this and I'll be back...later." Buffy picked up the folder and walked out the door.

Faith and Giles just stared at the door, not saying anything, and then Giles simply went back into his office, sadness written all over his face.

Faith was left alone, and she tried to sort out her feelings. She felt a little betrayed by this newest revelation, the fact of the matter was, the woman she had looked to as a sort of maternal figure had lied to her and all of the people she cared about for three years. But Faith wasn't there when it meant the most and she felt like she really didn't have a right to be indignant, not when Buffy was going through so much pain. Mostly, she just felt like an outsider.

Sure, she could feel sympathy for her sister slayer and vicariously, maybe even some of her pain, but the truth was she hadn't known anything about Angel a few hours ago and now she was thrown into the biggest emotional hurricane ever to hit Sunnydale since his death. And all she really knew were stories.

Faith sighed and propped her feet on the table. Buffy had saved her life, not when she was fighting Kakistos or in any number of the battles they'd been through, but just by being there when she had come to Sunnydale. She had showed her friendship and made her realize that she wasn't alone.

But just as much as she needed Buffy, Buffy needed her. When she first came to Sunnydale, Buffy opened up her home and her Watcher...or something like that...without a second thought. But there was this empty vibe she got from the senior slayer. Within a week of being around the blonde, she realized Buffy could've been just like an ordinary teenage girl, that she wanted so badly to be normal, but there was something holding her back.

And today she had finally figured out what that was.

Actually, it was all pretty cliche. The perfect heroine lost the love of her life and now her life's purpose is to bring vengence to the one she loved and lost. Whoopdy fucking doo.

But oddly enough, the always cynical Faith had a feeling it was more than that. She had enough respect for Buffy to know that it had to be something pretty big to de-rail her so bad.

Faith looked around at the deserted library and just wished she had been there a few years earlier.

Riley was walking down the halls, looking at the folder that was just delivered straight from Walsh herself. This could mean one of two things, he thought, taking long strides, trying to ignore the other agents who were looking at him with pity. Either he was demoted to doing some rookie's job, like watching the beaten hostiles, or he had been given another chance and was going to be sent on another mission where he would no doubt kill himself trying to subdue a demon a hundred times stronger than he was. Goody.

He found himself in his dorm room, sitting on the bed, staring at the manilla paper in his hand. Here goes nothing.

"Graham!"

The agent looked up and was immediately knocked on his ass by Maguire who was smirking down at him.

"Fuck! Finn, you better have--"

"--have you seen this?" Riley waved around a folder, not caring half of the gym was watching him.

Graham rubbed his jaw, knowing it would leave a colorful bruise Maguire would no doubt be laughing at for ages. "No I haven't seen that! I've been down here, sparring for two fucki--"

Riley interrupted him again. "We're Team A on capturing a werewolf!"

The entire gym was staring open-mouthed at Agent Riley Finn and he finally realized how unprofessional he was acting. He motioned Graham to follow him and when the heads didn't immediately turn away from him, he barked "Don't you have some thing else to do?"

The room was filled a loud buzzing and the two agents left.

"A werewolf? No shit!"

Riley scowled at the curse, but said nothing. He was close to swearing himself.

"This is punishment for the hostile that was terminated. It wasn't our fault! We followed the plans perfectly, but that son of a bitch just brushed us off like we were fucking flies or something!" Graham ranted.

"Walsh thinks we can do it," Riley remarked quietly.

Graham glared at him. "A werewolf? Do you know what those things can do!"

"It gets better," Riley told him, opening the door to their room.

"How could it possibly get any better than this?" Graham demanded, closing the door behind him. "Maybe we need to bring the hostile back to life too."

"We have to bring in a wolf, and we don't even know where it would be. We don't have any leads or anything," Riley said.

Graham stared. "Let me get this straight, we have to subdue a werewolf that we don't know exists?"

Riley looked around the room, helplessly, "Well, it's Sunnydale. There's bound to be one lurking around somewhere."

"This is great! Just GREAT!" He kicked the door open and there was a squeak and a few thuds.

Both agents looked at each other and their hands immediately strayed to their guns. Riley peered out first, and immediately relaxed.

On the floor was a red headed girl, clutching her forehead with one hand and trying to pick up her books with the other. "Willow, right?"

Willow looked up at the kind eyes of Riley Finn and turned bright red. "Y-yeah. Sorry I bothered you, I...was just walking in the hall, not pacing or anything, because you were pretty busy a-and I needed to talk to you, and I didn't hear anything I swear! Well, I did heard your roomate yell "great" and then I pretty much fell down and then you're here and now you're here. So...that's pretty much where we are now and I'm going to stop talking."

Graham saw that it was TA business, so he left Riley to take care of it while he fumed silently in his room.

"It's alright, Willow. We were just about done anyway. What did you need to talk to me about?"

Quickly, they discussed assignments and Riley promised to give her a heads up on the next test. Then Riley took a deep breath and went into his room to face his red-faced roomate.

Willow, on the other hand, tried to keep from hyper-ventilating. She had never been very good at lying, but thankfully Riley had taken her fumbling for embarrassement. Because the truth was, she had heard, and it was only with the magical alarms she set, that she had any time to move her head away from the door at all. In hindsight it would've been wiser to use magic to spy from a distance, but the last time she tried that spell, her ears turned a unnaturally bright pink whenever the spell was in effect and she didn't know if it might one day be permanent, so she tended to steer away from those spells.

But Riley, Riley Finn, the nice, All American TA for her psychology class was involved in the supernatural? And some government organization too, from the sound of it. I mean, come on, who in their right mind would call something a "hostile"? A government organization, that's who!

So, Willow thought furiously, not noticing the campus pass her by as she walked on autopilot to her dorm. There was a top secret government organization here to collect, well, werewolves today, but what about tomorrow? Demons? Vampires even? She had to tell Buffy!

Willow sprinted down the street, making a bee line for her old high school library.

Fin! Ahah! So, SO glad that one's done. I promise more chapters are forthcoming, though, I fear they will be even slower than the last. Sadly my time in the Buffyverse is limited to sane amounts and the "real world" is monopolizing all of my attentions. Even this is on borrowed time, but I will some how finish this story; even this far in I'm still really psyched about it and I WILL finish! A big THANK YOU to all of those you reviewed, I looked at my Stats page and was pleasantly surprised to see that I can now find out how many people have viewed the page, which brought the number of people who viewed (and hopefully read) my story MUCH higher. But for those of you who took the time to actually stop and review the story, thank you, you're all so great. There is no greater joy than a pretty little column of emails from in my inbox. Hopefully all the storylines seem to be merging in a more noticable way and you ALL know what that leads to. I'll get there, don't worry. In the mean time REVIEW!