Angelus sat, curled in a chair beside the long main table in the factory, studying the old book of magic in his hands. Spike rolled into the main hall and saw him; a grin crossed his face at the sight.
"Look at the bookworm," he chuckled. Angelus shot a glare in his direction and kept reading. "I take it you didn't kill the gypsy bitch when you had the chance last night?"
"I would have, but the brat and her little posse turned up at the last minute." Angelus still read, ignoring Spike's distressed groan.
"Sooner or later you're going to find out you have to kill the little bitch. You were in her house, why didn't you just gag her or break her mother's neck or something instead of leaving her little presents? Now you can't even get back in."
"There are other ways to skin a cat."
"Could we get a kitty Angel?" Drusilla cooed, coming out of the basement and twirling a piece of her raven hair around her long, black painted fingernail. "A cute little gray one? With big eyes…that mews when it wants milk and to be combed? Sunshine is lonely. She doesn't talk, doesn't move…doesn't touch her kibble or tea…"
"Maybe later," he replied, turning the page of his book. Dru easily made the distance to him and draped her arms around his neck from behind, then started to read over his shoulder. Angelus ignored her as well and shut the volume, the gears in his head churning.
"Care to share why you're grinning like an idiot, or are you going to keep us in the dark?"
"You'll find out soon enough, Sit 'N Spin. I'm going to go take a nap," Angelus stalked away, leaving his publication closed on the factory table. Drusilla touched it tenderly and began to sway.
"Do you see something luv?" Spike wheeled to her and let the vampiress fall into his lap.
"My Angel is going to play a prank on the mean Slayer…remember when we used to pull pranks Spikey? The villagers always were so frightened, they sprayed icky water on everything…I burned my little hand…"
***
Angelus watched the slayerettes from the back of the Bronze that night. They were all there at their usual table; Oz was playing on stage, and he surveyed as they talked on about something. He figured the objects inside his duster pockets, the yellow disk belonging to Jenny and the book he'd stolen from the library the evening before just prior to him surprising Ms. Calendar in her room. The disk he'd retrieved after being thwarted by Xander.
Who, as much as an idiot than ever, was making wide, angry gestures with his hands and emphasizing his words. Buffy yelled something back to him, her eyebrows pointed down with a burning rage. Cordelia shot something back. Willow, always being the ref in their little quarrels, tried to sooth them. Xander stood up with Cordy at his side, and the two disappeared in the crowd. Buffy stormed after them and Willow was left to stare in acceptance that it was hopeless to try to help. Angelus smirked slightly and slipped out into the night after the Slayer.
* * *
"I can't believe how selfish you're being!" Buffy yelled into Xander's face outside.
"I'm selfish? I'm not the one who gave the most vicious vampire around a happy!" Xander threw back. Buffy drew away, awestruck at his outburst. "I'm starting to think this is a certain Slayer's fault. If you hadn't made kissy kissy faces at him in the first place and killed him long ago, we wouldn't be in this predicament! You seem to have forgotten his slight history of being a feared murderer."
"Slight history of being a feared murderer," Angelus imitated, coming from his place to their right. "Xander, I'm touched. You flatter me. But it's not a slight history, rather a long, drawn out one. And how would you like to be part of it? Oh, Cordelia, Buffy. The two girls I wanted to see the most too. What is it, my birthday or something?" the vampire beamed from ear to ear. "I'm having too much fun with this. But seriously now," he stepped forward within range of the feuding trio. "I think I have something you'd like."
"And what would that be?" Cordy asked, not able to think up anything to add.
Angelus grinned again. "I believe it was on a little disk…a kind of yellow in color, I think." He produced the floppy from his pocket and Buffy's eyes shot wide. "The only copy of my curse is on this little marvel of technology. I guess Jenny was smart enough to make a few of them, right? That's what I hate about teachers; they're all so resourceful. All except Giles, luckily he only had one copy of what I was looking for and it wasn't on a computer. Now, what would you guys do to get your hands on this little trinket?"
"Keep it," Xander swallowed, his eyes burning with fury. The females as well were speechless as they beheld their adversary. Angelus smile disappeared. His eyes darted between the three.
"Really? Aw, I'd thought you'd want to play along." He dropped the disk to the ground between them. Buffy eyed it but brought her attention to the demon ahead of them.
"What do you want Angel? You're not just going to hand your curse over and not do anything about it. You're up to something."
"Buff, why do you always think I'm playing a trick on you? Maybe I really want you to restore my soul, to change me back to that poor, brooding sap who actually liked it when you touched him. And then maybe I want hell to freeze over before you get the chance to visit…Okay, you're right. I am up to something. But by the time you figure it out, it'll be too late." His arm shot back and he grasped Willow's wrist as she brought the wooden stake down. "Not so fast school girl. I'd thought you'd be bright enough not to try to sneak up on me." He pulled Willow around and vamped out. The net girl wriggled out of his grasp and into Cordelia. Angel laughed insanely and paused. The Slayer drew her weapon from the inside of her short jacket, and he began reciting something in a dead language before she could advance.
They listened for a few seconds to his chanting. "He's doing the Freaky Magick talk…thing, like what Giles does. What's he saying?" Cordelia sounded panicked as they saw his eyes glow a brighter yellow than normal.
"It's not Latin…I know that. It's really rapid fire," Willow replied as they began backing away. Angel bared his fangs and continued with his 'freaky magick talk'.
"I say we start running. Right now," Xander offered. Buffy opened her mouth to respond but there was a deafening sonic boom as a flashing, hot wave blew out of the vampire's glowing eyes and straight over them, knocking all five back into the walls of the buildings around the Bronze.
***
Angelus groaned loudly as he revived. It was so dark he couldn't see his hands in front him. He knew he was still alive; he now smelled like garbage and his head pounded worse than it ever had. The Slayer hadn't gotten up. That was a plus. He slowly stood himself up, and with his head in his hands, he stumbled away from the club and the slayerettes.
***
Buffy, Cordelia and Willow arose from various places. Cordelia shrieked as she removed a used pizza box from her head and got up off a bag of rotting vegetation. Willow and Buffy shushed her, unsure of the places of her boyfriend and the vampire. Buffy swept the vicinity and came up with nothing but the yellow disk which had been damaged when Angelus threw it to the ground.
"Hopefully this isn't too banged up," Willow sighed as she picked up the floppy and inspected it.
"Xander? Are you still there? I hope you didn't land in anything icky…" Cordelia called out. There was no answer. For a moment Buffy assumed there was nothing in the shadows but the faint tingle a semi unconscious creature of the night would probably throw off, if she ever let one regain its consciousness.
"Angel's still there. Maybe we should split before he comes to." Buffy turned to them.
"But what about Xander?"
"I don't know. We would have found him, right? He probably got up…or he could have been thrown out of the back street. I just know Angel was doing something weird and I don't want to be around to find out what it was for."
"Yeah. He could be like…some all powerful wizard vamp now and he could…blow us up. Or something. Let Xander find his own way home, I still have my May Queen title to fill out!" Cordelia complained. "And I intend to fill it out in one piece!" Buffy scanned the shadows, trying to determine where her sensors were pointing her to. But it was too dark.
"I'm with Cordy. We'll go check in with Giles, maybe he can tell us what's up."
"And we can see if this still works," Willow waved Jenny's computer disk. The girls retreated and hurried to the school.
***
Xander moaned. His head was throbbing, more than it had been when he'd hit his head on the ledge inside the broom closet trying to…he stopped his thoughts short. He could see nearly everything, and it was darker out than before. Which meant later at night, when his visibility should be pretty small in shadows like this. He watched three receding figures and heard their voices all the way into the night. It was the girls he'd accompanied out, his best friends and his girlfriend. Xander closed his eyes for a few more seconds and staggered to his feet. There was a weight in the one of his pockets; Xander pulled out an old leathery volume that looked almost like the ones the watcher had scattered around in the library. Wait a sec… Since when did he have pockets in his coat? When was he wearing a coat? And pants that chaffed so much.
"What the hell is-" he stopped again. The voice was familiar, yet still foreign. As in not his, not the light boyish, joking tone that belonged to Alexander Harris. Rather a deep, venomous, more earnest, manly tone. He began naming off people he knew. "Mom, Dad, Sandra, Lori…Uh, Giles, Willow, Cordelia, Ms. Calendar, Bug lady, Oz…" it definitely wasn't his. Then one name sprung to mind that would probably decide it. "Buffy." The voice so did not belong to Xander. It sounded more like…"Dead Boy. Angel." He bolted straight off faster than he ever had, faster than he should have been able to.