Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel Cinematic Universe, Buffyverse or anything else you may recognize

Thank you to everyone who has favorited, followed or reviewed this fic so far.

I had to write this chapter twice because I accidentally erased it all when I reached the final scene, AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGHHHHH!

So, this time, its not hope, its an order, enjoy this chapter!

Thank you to Brainstorm Sorcerer for a few suggestions here.

Chapter 3- Not a monster

Several muscle cars were parked in a row alongside a small park bench where Angel, Cordelia, Wesley, Lorne, Lilah, Fred, Gunn and Groo were gathered with baby Connor.

Lorne asked. "Hey, uh, who wants some mu shu? I got beaucoup mu shu here."

"I'll take some, thanks", Fred took some. "Angel, Cordy, this little picnic was such a good idea."

"Sure was", Gunn agreed.

"Last time we'd everyone though", Groo reminded them. "But I understand why we couldn't get them this time."

Fred was scanning Lilah with a device to her annoyance.

"You've all been working so hard..." Angel assured and turned to Lilah. "You too Lilah."

"Of course", Lilah said with a scoff as Fred finally stopped scanning her. "I was scanned longer."

Fred lamely started. "Well that's because…."

"Because you don't trust me", Lilah scoffed.

"Yeah, that's right", Wesley nodded.

"Good", Lilah smirked.

"So, lack of trust is good your evilness?" Lorne asked in surprise.

"For us yeah", Lilah shrugged as all exchanged weird looks.

"That's pretty weird", Cordelia said while holding Connor and cooing at him.

"Yes, dining with the enemy is strange", Groo agreed as Lilah rolled her eyes good naturedly.

Wesley then added. "She isn't bugged, I checked."

"Yeah you did." Lilah smirked naughtily.

"Why is she here again?" Cordelia asked.

"Because we are a thing", Lilah held Wes' hand.

"Right." Cordelia still wasn't fully used to that.

Gunn then said. "I get that we have to be careful, but feels weird hiding from the company we're supposed to be running."

Angel pointed out. "We're not hiding, we're being safe. There are factions at Wolfram & Hart, people who want to see us destroyed." He turned to Lilah. "You're one faction too."

"Don't be too sure", Lilah said, but no one would believe her.

Fred added. "It's not like everyone there's evil. I mean, we work with these people. Some of 'em I see more than I see you guys, at least lately, anyway."

"And you think you can trust him?" Lilah and Fred gave Wesley a look. "Them."

"What?"

"These...people, the ones you're spending so much time with lately. Knox, for example."

Fred sounded embarrassed. "Uh, we're, you know, heh heh, friendly, but he's under me— or I'm on top of him. Professionally. All I'm saying is, he—he's not evil."

"Yes, the department is morally neutral but he may not be, don't fall for the niceties, hon", Cordelia pointed out to Fred.

Angel said. "I think we're all agreed that the Senior Partners are evil. They put us in charge for a reason. What we need to know is...why?"

"I told you all I knew, mostly", Lilah told them.

"What do you mean?" Wesley asked.

"They didn't ask me to talk about the apocalypse, that I did myself", Lilah revealed, surprising everyone at that point.

Lorne then commented. "I'm up to my horns in schmoozin' starlets and boozin' hipsters, Angel."

Wesley asked. "What about Gunn?"

Now Gunn was confused. "What about Gunn?"

Fred lamely said. "It's...well, what they put in your head. All that law knowledge and whatever. Maybe you know something, more than the rest of us."

Lilah chuckled. "You're all dumb."

"Then why did we get the power?" Cordelia asked.

"Because you're all dumb", Lilah shrugged. "You think they'd give him info instead of me? That's a dumb move from them."

They realized she had a point as Gunn told Cordelia. "Either way, at least you have power and prestige, which you wanted since the start."

"Yeah, not in the way I imagined, but I do", Cordelia quipped, appearing prim and proper.

"And you've a purpose too, without really bad politics", Gunn told Groo who nodded.

"And I shall continue with it", Groo added.

Wesley commented. "I did get a rather nice pen." He took the pen out of his pocket. "Sterling." He admired it. "Has my name on it."

"It won't kiss you", Lilah quipped and got chuckles in response.

Connor made a sound so Angel took him from Cordelia and fed him milk from a bottle. "There you go." He told the rest. "We must be ready."

Wesley reminded. "There's Stick too."

"Stick is-" Angel stopped and handed Connor with the bottle back to Cordelia, looking into the distance, before asking Wesley. "Can I borrow your pen?"

Wesley sounded irritated. "Uhh, sure."

Nearby, a woman screamed as a growling hairy monster followed her, knocking her down to the ground. The monster attacked the girl, slashing her shoulder then biting her neck.

Angel pulled the monster off of the girl. He dodged and blocked some blows, then spin kicked it before punching it away in a spin motion, then jammed the pen into its chest as it was killed and turned into an old man, but then he heard tires screech and realized the woman had driven away.

"Damn it."

Next day, Angel and Gunn walked through the lobby. Angel was holding a sketch of the girl from the park. "She was bitten. I smelled her blood on him."

Gunn noted. "Tonight's the second night of the full moon, which means 2 more nights for her to go all dog-girl."

"12 hours till moonrise, and then— If she hurts anyone—"

Gunn assured him. "She won't. We'll find her."

"We better. She won't even know what's happening to her."

Gunn pressed the elevator button. "Well, she'll figure it out soon enough. McManus did. The guy you... killed. I pulled his credit card records, cross-checked 'em with police reports." He read from the folder. "He left his wife and kids a couple years ago, kept moving, staying in the middle of nowhere most of the time. First year or so, a few mangled bodies showed up here and there, but the last 6 months, guy was leaving corpses like bread crumbs."

Angel sounded sad. "Probably tried to control it for a while and just gave up." They walked to the elevator. "Thought he had to fight it alone, ended up with nothing worth fighting for. But this girl, she's not alone. She's got us."

Angel later paced the lab as Cordelia, Wesley, Fred and Gunn worked busily at different computers.

"We're useless. Is that what you're trying to tell me? All this resources—"

Wesley said. "We're doing everything we can."

"2 years of history on a dead guy and we can't get one lead on a living, breathing girl."

"It took a while to get that too", Cordelia pointed out. "We got the body last night, info today morning."

Angel realized she had a point. "Right."

Fred added. "Fingerprints—have his, don't have hers."

"There must be something at the attack scene."

Wesley sighed. "So far, not even an earring."

Stick appeared. "I wouldn't have let her run off, you're slipping suckhead."

"Sure", Angel handed a sketch of the victim to a lab worker. "I want people on the street with this in 15 minutes. You find anybody who's seen her, you let me know." He asked Fred. "Tire prints?"

"I'm working on it. It takes time, Angel."

Wesley added. "Psychics are working on traces of the girl's blood. They picked up images, imprints." He handed a sketch to Angel.

"Must be her bedroom. Can they make it clearer? Maybe they could—"

"It's not like a photograph."

Angel turned toward a doctor inspecting the man Angel killed in the park. The man Angel killed had a fuzzy graying beard and was rather hairy for a man.

The doctor said. "Pretty rare breed you've got here."

"I'm guessing he looked bigger and stronger than Oz", Cordelia realized, remembering him.

Wesley introduced the doctor. "Dr. Royce is the cryptozoologist on my staff. I brought him in to tell us what we'll be dealing with when we find the girl."

Royce explained. "Lycanthropus exterus. Undocumented in North America... until now, obviously."

Cordelia realized. "Definitely different from Oz."

Fred asked. "How is it different from a standard werewolf?"

Royce said. "Oh, biped, for one thing. Walks upright. Canines are a bit longer than normal. Arm span is—"

"I don't care about that. All I care about is the girl."

"She can be killed if not protected", Stick pointed out.

Angel declared. "Here on out, she's under my protection."

Stick pointed out to him. "If you find her before she turns. Catch her after she goes all hairy, won't be easy taking her out. And you're lucky it wasn't any of those European bastards. Damn are those things a pain in the ass."

Later, Fred was looking at a photo of tire prints on her computer as Lorne looked over her shoulder.

Fred told the rest. "Those fine lines? Bad for the car, good for us. Apparently, they mean old tires, at least 5 years."

Gunn commented. "Nice sketch. Somebody saw your girl last night— East Hollywood."

Angel told them all. "All right. We're looking for a mid-size sedan, at least 5 years old, somewhere in the Hollywood area."

Stick added. "Moon's about to rise."

Wesley informed the group. "I'm in the DMV database, but there are thousands of possible matches."

Lorne then pointed out. "Color me clever. Sister gets slammed around by a werewolf, she's putting pedal to metal. I mean, red light, green light, same diff."

"So traffic cameras", Cordelia realized. "Go on, take a look."

Gunn told her. "I'm looking at the cameras. You get set to run with it if I find a match."

Angel then asked. "Is the van ready?"

Fred nodded. "Yep. I triple checked."

Gunn finally got it. "10:19 last night, 1992 Honda Civic ran a red light at Western and Franklin. Blond woman." Gunn handed a printout to Angel and he looked at her.

"That's her."

Gunn read out. "License number: 2ABM-543."

Wesley added. "Address: 2315 Harvard."

Cordelia finished. "Name: Nina Ash."

At her house, Nina Ash was in her room, having just transformed while her niece Amanda touched the doorknob, making werewolf Nina turn to it.

"Hey, doggy." Nina turned toward Angel, who was sitting in her window. "Come and get it."

Werewolf Nina lunged toward Angel, who pulled her out the window and they both fell from the roof to the ground.

Angel and Nina wrestled until Wesley shot a tranquilizer dart into Nina's body.

"Nice shot."

Human again, a naked Nina woke up inside a prison cell. She'd got scratches on her shoulder.

"Oh, God."

She heard someone walking toward her and gasped. She reached between the bars and grabbed some clothes from a pile sitting right outside her cell.

Angel walked up to the cell, unlocked the door, and walked inside.

Nina backed into the corner. "What—who are you?"

"It's OK. My name's Angel. You're safe now."

"Safe? Oh. Well...great. That's..." Nina made a run for it, but Angel grabbed her. "Get off me! Let go of me! Help me, somebody!"

Angel tried to calm her down. "What I'm trying to do, Nina, is help you."

"Said the psycho rapist. How do you know my name? What do you want with me?"

"First of all, I've a girlfriend whom I love and I'm loyal to her, so I don't want to rape you", Angel assured Nina. "I just want you to see something."

Using a laptop, Angel showed Nina a video of a werewolf pacing inside a cage.

"I don't— What am I supposed to be looking— God, what is that?"

Angel asked. "You don't remember?"

"Remember?"

Angel now reminded her. "2 nights ago... You were attacked... in the woods. You were jogging."

Nina remembered at last. "Jogging. Wait. Yeah. I remember that I... that thing attacked me."

Angel continued. "Not exactly. I was in the area, I heard screams, but by the time I got there..."

Now Nina remembered everything. "That was you. Yeah, I remember you... You saved me."

Angel grimly told her. "I was too late."

On the video, the werewolf collapsed on the floor of the cage and transformed back into human form—into Nina's form, horrifying her.

"Oh, my God."

Angel revealed to her. "It was a werewolf, Nina, and you were bitten."

Nina was in disbelief. "No. This is... insane."

"The bite already started a process. You may have already started to feel the effects: Distorted vision, heightened senses."

Now it all hit Nina at last. "Blood. Jill, my sister, she was cooking meat. Oh, my God. I...I smelled the blood. It was making me...Oh, God, Amanda, my niece.

Angel assured her. "She's OK, and so's your sister."

"No, you don't get it."

"Nina, it's OK."

"No, it's not!"

"You didn't—"

"I wanted to rip her throat out!"

Nina sighed, running her fingers through her hair, and walked toward the window.

Angel reassured her. "It wasn't you. It was that thing inside."

Nina scoffed. "Oh, like there's a difference?"

"There is, a big one. I know this is a lot to take—"

"Don't tell me what you know. You didn't wake up and find out you're a...monster. You don't know anything."

Angel decided to spill the beans. "I'm not a werewolf like you, but I—I know what it's like. I'm a monster, too."

Nina inquired. "So...what? You're like a Frankenstein?"

"What? No!" Angel rubbed his forehead. "I'm—I'm a Vampire."

The surprises didn't cease for Nina. "Vampire."

Angel explained. "But I have a soul. I'm—I'm not evil, and neither are you."

"But Vampires kill people, and they—"

"Can control themselves if they want to. I do it every day, and so can you. I'll help."

Nina asked. "Can you...cure me?"

Angel reassured her. "No. But I can keep you safe."

A while later, Fred and Nina were riding in a van along with a couple of security guards in suits, with Groo too.

Nina looked around. "So, the entourage. All this for me?"

"Um, no... yeah, kind of. I mean, it's just in case you, you know."

"Run away."

Fred assured Nina. "It's not like you're a prisoner. You're totally not. It's just... really important that you stay with us tonight."

Nina sighed. "This is just so... I should be in ceramic's class right now. We're learning raku. Seems like somebody else's life."

Fred pointed out. "Nina, it's just 3 nights a month, not even days. Your life doesn't have to change...much."

"How would you—you're not a monster, too, are you?"

"Nope. Standard-issue science nerd. I did spend 5 years in a demon dimension... 'til Angel saved me."

"Guess he saves a lot of girls, huh?" Nina commented.

"Girls, guys...puppies. He's pretty much an equal-opportunity saver."

"Also, I'm a half-Demon", Groo added.

"Really?" Nina asked.

"Yeah."

"And he's great", Fred assured Nina. "He was in that Dimension too."

"You were trapped?"

"No I'm from there."

"Right", Nina realized how weird her life had just gotten, then asked Fred. "So are you Angel's girlfriend?"

"No, her name is Cordelia, I'll introduce you two sometime", Fred assured.

"Well, at least he's not lonely", Nina said, glad for him.

Fred told Nina. "We all... we try to be there for each other."

"Like a family."

"Yeah. A demon-hunting, helpless-helping, dysfunctional family."

Groo added. "And I'm part of it too."

Fred told Nina. "Cordelia and Connor are big help for Angel, they're his family, Connor is his son, though Cordelia isn't the mother, mother was an evil Vampire who tried to make Angel evil, and he knocked her up and she dusted herself to give birth, then Connor was kidnapped and saved by our friend, the Devil's son, and now Angel and Cordelia are together, and they are an unlikely family, oh my God I'm rambling."

A beat.

Nina then nodded. "Right, got it."

They soon reached Nina's place as Fred and Nina stepped out of the van and walked toward Nina's house.

"I changed my mind." Nina turned around.

Fred offered. "Um, I could go in first, explain—"

"No, let's just—"

"Hey, I know you're scared, but running away is not gonna help."

Nina sighed.

Fred and Nina walked into Nina's house as Nina asked. "What about fleeing? Can I flee?"

Fred shrugged. "Maybe they're not even here."

Then Nina's sister Jill arrived, yelling. "What the hell happened to you? I've been worried— Who are you?"

Fred introduced herself. "I'm Fred. It's nice—"

During that time, unseen to them, outside the window, it could be seen Groo and his team were fighting some people in suits.

Jill went off on Nina again. "I come home and you're just gone. Amanda was terrified."

Nina apologized. "Jill, I'm sorry."

Groo was dogpiled by various people.

"Who leaves the house without their purse or keys? What'd you do, jump out the window?"

Groo used his strength to throw them all off in different directions.

Nina made an excuse. "I thought Amanda heard me say I was leaving."

Jill scoffed. "Oh, that's great. Blame it on a 9-year-old."

Groo knocked another person down as his men beat up a few more.

Fred now stepped in before it could get worse. "It's my fault. I called Nina like totally suicidal 'cause this guy in our ceramics class dumped me. And then my car got towed. And she wanted to call, but my cell phone battery—"

Jill wasn't in the mood. "Do you mind, whoever you are? This has nothing to do with you."

Nina didn't want Fred to suffer her sister's wrath. "Leave her alone."

"Oh, like you left Mandy alone—in the house at night? Do you know she didn't want to go to school today. I had to lie, tell her I heard from you."

"Shut up! Just shut up!"

Jill now yelled. "I called the police! I thought—" Jill got calmer. "You sleep all day. You've got bruises you don't remember getting. Just tell me. What's going on?"

Nina apologized again. "I'm sorry about last night, but you can't count on me all the time."

Jill was shocked. "Since when?"

"Just... find another babysitter." Nina walked out.

"I'll just..." Fred grabbed a picture, "if that's OK. And maybe..." she grabbed a stuffed animal, "she's... she'll be OK." She walked out.

Fred and Nina walked back toward the van as the former pointed out. "So she was yelling and furious, but that's good. It means, you know, she cares."

Nina felt guilty. "If something happened to Amanda..."

"But it didn't, and it's not going to."

"You don't know that."

Then they saw the knocked out goons, now all tied up by Groo's team as he waved at them. "We encountered a slight problem."

Later

"Have they said anything?" Angel asked.

"No", Groo shook his head. "But we'll get them."

He walked out when Lilah arrived and held up a vial. "'The Ghost of Christmas Past helped me get it, who is he again?"

Stick then appeared and explained what it was. "Calendula. Its used to avoid aura detection."

"Which means someone wanted it to avoid being read by Lorne", Cordelia realized.

"Yup, and that someone is", Royce entered the room at that very moment and Stick pointed at him, "him."

"What?" Royce's eyes widened in horror.

"In my experience, the nerds are always up to something", Stick turned to Wesley and Fred, who looked offended. "No offense."

"Tell me Royce, why do you have Calendula on you?" Angel asked as Stick held up the vial, and he paled.

Groo came back in. "He talked pretty easily when I hit him."

"What did he say?" Cordelia inquired.

"He works for a man called Jacob Crane", Groo explained to the group. "He has a restaurant, and he wanted to serve werewolf for dinner."

All looked disgusted, even Lilah, as humans eating humans went too far for her.

"They say they had a source inside here", Groo said as the others looked at Royce, who paled and tried to bolt but Angel grabbed him and hurled him into a corner, knocking him out.

"Bastard", Cordelia said with a scoff.

"We need to go this Crane's place and take him out", Angel ordered immediately.

"Still the muscling approach", Lilah smirked and shook her head.

"Well, what do you suggest?" Angel asked her.

"Watch me", Lilah winked. "I'll show that dressed up skank a real lawyer."

Later, at Crane's restaurant, Crane was fuming. "They couldn't even get the werewolf."

The door opened as Lilah walked in. "Hello, Mr. Crane."

"Yes, that'd be me", Crane turned to her.

"I am Lilah Morgan of Wolfram and Hart", Lilah said, making Crane pale as she smirked.

"What can I do for you, Miss Morgan?" Crane inquired.

"Well, I'm just here to inform you, that you've been served", Lilah put the papers in front of him. "And you're under arrest."

Two cops arrived as Crane paled. "For what?"

"Cannibalism", Lilah shrugged as the cops grasped Crane. "We have evidence you serve humans to your customers, and you tried to abduct a client of ours called Nina Ash, on her behalf, we have a case against you."

"This is ridiculous!" Crane roared. "I didn-"

But then he was cuffed as the cop started reading out his Miranda Rights. "You have the right to remain silent-"

Crane was led away as Lilah added. "Oh! And this place is ours now!"

His look of horror and anger was everything as Lilah smirked coolly.

Angel was showing Nina around, walking her through the lobby.

Cordelia then passed through as Angel attempted to take Connor, but she wasn't in the mood. "Nuh uh, he is nine months old now, and his first word will be "mama" or nothing."

Angel fearfully nodded his head, then Cordy turned to Connor with a baby voice. "Isn't that right? Mama, say mama?"

Connor laughed and screeched happily, but nothing else as Cordy let out an annoyed grunt, before marching to her office.

"You are killing me more than the freaking Beastmaster ever did."

Angel and Nina stared after her, the latter the mostly shocked, while Angel was just scared.

"Who was that?"

"That's Cordelia."

Nina looked from where Cordy went to Angel, eyes still wide.

"Your girlfriend?"

"Yeah."

"She's kinda scary."

"Right", Angel agreed before telling her. "Anyway, the guy who wanted to take you is in prison now, he wanted to feed you to his guests due to you being werewolf."

In spite of her disgust, Nina felt self-loathing. "Should have let them choke on me."

"Nina, never ever say that, please", Angel assured her as he grasped her shoulders. "Okay? There are people who care about you. Werewolf or not, you can't just leave them."

She realized he did have a point.

Later, both Angel and Cordelia drove Nina home.

"This is it", Angel stopped the car.

Nina watched her niece drawing in chalk on the sidewalk. "She's a really good artist."

Angel offered. "Oh. My refrigerator's always available if she's looking to show."

Nina asked. "How do you live with it? I just wanna wake up. You know?"

"I had a friend who was werewolf too", Cordelia told Nina, who turned to her. "Real nice guy, slacker type but great in studies and played in a band. Then got bitten."

"What happened next?"

"Still the same", Cordelia assured Nina, deciding to leave out the later stuff for obvious reasons. "You can be too."

Angel agreed. "At some point you'll be at the grocery store or with Amanda, and the whole werewolf thing, it'll just be a part of who you are."

Nina sighed. "Next you're gonna tell me you actually like being a Vampire." She turned to Cordelia. "And that you love being a half-Demon."

Angel shrugged. "Well, being nearly indestructible is cool."

"And I get visions to help people", Cordelia's eyes narrowed. "Not anymore though, guess they don't like us working at the firm."

Nina told the two. "I can't tell them."

Angel said. "Maybe, maybe not. That part's not covered in the manual." He told her what was important. "They're waiting for you." Nina hesitated so he added. "Look, if you separate yourself from the ones you love, the monster wins."

Nina commented. "You make it sound simple."

"Well, it's not."

Angel then added. "They're your family. I have mine." He held hands with Cordelia. "They ground me, make me happy. No curse or monster can take away family. Yours will stay with you."

Nina smiled gratefully at the two of them.

"See you guys next month."

Nina got out of the car and walked up to her sister and niece, who gave her a hug.

Angel and Cordelia watched them together as the latter said. "I hope they can work it out."

"Me too."

"I think she has the hots for you", Cordelia quipped as Angel looked at her.

"Really?"

"Yeah, just see how she looks at you", Cordelia smirked.

"Well, I only have eyes for one girl", Angel smiled.

"I know, I was just teasing", Cordelia said as they kissed. "Or maybe we can be in a three-way-"

"Cordy!"

Cordelia laughed at Angel's exasperated reaction and assured. "I was just kidding, dummy."

With that, they drove off.

At night, the whole group and Lilah were at Angel's place as Lilah quipped. "Nice place. No wonder you got seduced so easily."

"Who wants Chinese?" Fred then asked.

Gunn said.. "Long as nothing comes tar-tar, I'm in."

Fred offered Wesley a menu, but he shook his head. "No, I'm too tired to make any decisions."

Lorne told Fred. "Just order the usual, Fredikins."

Angel said. "I'm buying."

"No matter who buys, we're getting it anyway", Cordelia quipped as chuckles rang out.

"Well, I do not know what to buy so I shall rely on you all", Groo said as Cordelia picked up Connor and fed him milk.

Fred said into the phone. "We moved, actually, to a law firm."

"The law firm", Lilah said as all rolled their eyes good naturedly, now used to having their enemy as part of the group.

"Uh-huh. Different. No, nice. OK, um... one mu shu chicken, two beef and broccolis, one cashew shrimp ... umm maybe some lettuce wraps..."

Then Stick appeared and asked. "So, what are you all doing today, nimrods?"

All of them groaned. They were used to Lilah in the group, but they would never get used to Stick.

The end.

With Groo around, Nina was never taken here.

And I wanted to have Lilah do something too, so she legally takes Crane out. Of course I don't know a thing about law but this is 'TV law' so I get a pass. And W&H can use their own power here too to have the police arrest Crane.

I like Angel/Nina but Angel/Cordelia is my OTP and they remain together here, so no Angel/Nina, but I still made a naughty joke on it.

Hope all enjoyed and see you all next time with another chapter.