Disclaimer: I do not own Buffyverse or anything else you may recognize

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

Well, this story is now back up but I lost all of my stats, which sucks. But I thank everyone for their kind words and support during this time which got me through it, and even though the story is now gonna take time to regain lost stats, I'm gonna finish it to the end, we're this far, one deletion ain't gonna stop me, let's see it through the end.

And thank you, all of you, for your support during this once more, and we can all agree this site's rules need a MAJOR overhaul.

Guest: Thanks for the heads up on that spin-off. I heard, that was so sad, RIP Gaspard Ulliel. No problem, I get you, just don't repeat it afterwards, and nice theories overall still I say.

Chapter 96- Break XIX

The Scoobies, both the past as well as the future ones, arrived back at the dining room, sitting down, as Rosenberg and Maclay got up to get the food for all of them to eat, and they just sat in silence, and no one could blame them for that. They had just seen one of their biggest and most terrifying foes once more, and this time it was in the present day where they had seen him.

Biggest because he had hurt and damaged them a lot when he had been around. And most terrifying because it was Angel himself, their friend, the Vampire with a soul who was a kind and caring person, if shady and willing to do whatever it takes, which was part of him, and it was Angel without a soul.

Angelus!

Without a soul, he had no conscience, and he was the worst Vampire in all of history. What he knew about them, especially the intimate things, he used that as a weapon against all of them to hurt them deeply.

Neither of Buffy or Summers had forgotten about the time Angelus had mocked their sexual performance after their first time and made them really insecure.

Then of course there was Parker too, who had been missing from bed the next day, and had later shown his true colors, and unlike Angel, it wasn't the effect of losing a soul either, he was just a horrible person in general who deserved to have his nuts be run over by a truck until they had turned into bangers and mash, since it would be better off for everyone that way.

Riley, for all his faults, was the first guy to actually have been next to them the morning after. Perhaps their gratefulness for that was the reason they had ignored his insecure behavior for so long until the incident with the Vampire whores, where he had shown his own true colors as well, and the worst of him was on full display for them.

But enough thinking about bad boyfriends, the real concern right now was that Angelus was back. Sure, they had taken all the required precautions to make sure he was contained, but it was Angelus, he always had a plan in mind if he wanted to do something, and do it right as well.

Angelus' bone chilling and terrifying laughter was still ringing in all of their ears, echoing in their minds, and terrifying their hearts.

Rosenberg and Maclay finally came back with the food, putting it down for them all as they slowly started eating it up, not saying a word for now, since everything they had seen was still in their minds, and the past people were still trying to process it all properly before they said anything about it to their future selves.

"So", Xander finally asked. "Illusions of perfect happiness are the only way to take a soul or something?"

"Nope", Rosenberg shook her head. "There are many others."

"Here they used that because it felt like the best option, but there would be many others ways to take out a soul too", Maclay explained properly.

"All right", Xander nodded.

"He has changed so much", Buffy commented as they looked at her. "Back then, it took just being with me for him to be perfectly happy. Now, he got with Cordelia and slept with her, they were together, Connor acknowledged him as his father and called him 'Angel', and Wes and Gunn became friends again, and the sun was back, they had saved the people of LA."

"Yeah, this time it took all of that together to make him perfectly happy", Summers nodded. "The whole illusion was really complex too, Wo-Pang managed to pull it off though, fortunately."

"Yeah, he thought it all through to make the whole thing possible, to make Angel lose his soul", Willow sighed. "Now if only they had been a bit more careful than they were."

"Again, in their defense, they had no idea Cordelia was possessed and working against them, so their plan with Angelus was fine, it was just that thing possessing her foiled it all", Tara pointed out.

"Yup, that thing was the bane of all plans that were good but risky", Dawn nodded.

"I think it was the bane of all things good", Dawnster scoffed and shook her head. "What it made Cordelia do…."

The anger in her voice was clear, and the rest were silently fuming in anger as well, since that never stopped being heartbreaking, what had been done to Cordelia by that thing, she had been used to do things she would never even consider in her normal state.

"All because it wanted to take over this world, didn't it?" Giles asked and got nods. "Not surprised."

"Yeah, but its plan wasn't pure evil, it actually wanted its own form of world peace", Summers explained. "But the price was too high. It cost people freedom and their right to choose for themselves."

"We're not giving that up for anything", Buffy said firmly.

"We know, that's why we did not like her final plan at all, it was horrible, and it took away what was special about us humans", Rosenberg agreed.

"And what it did to Cordelia is unforgivable, so it's not like trying to bring about any kind of world peace would absolve it of its sins regarding her, or Connor", Maclay said, shaking her head. "It was an evil thing deluding itself into thinking it was doing any kind of good."

"Sounds about right to me", Willow said with a nod.

"As for Connor, I feel really bad for him, but now it is time for him to grow up, because if he had, then I wouldn't mind Angel asking him to take care of the rest, but his only agenda seems to be to get an excuse to off his own dad", Buffy said.

"Not wrong there, that's what it is, but you will see what happens to him later, there's improvement, much later, but there is, and he is the second biggest victim of this thing behind Cordy", Harris said, the food all finished now. "So, sleep time now?"

"Yeah, that'd be good", Xander nodded, as they all got up and this time moved to their bedrooms to sleep for the night.

Things are gonna get crazy after this, and we're about to get to the Faith/Angelus Trilogy.

Anyway, hope all enjoyed and see you all next time with another chapter. Stay safe from the coronavirus ya all!