Scooby Snacks
by DaBear
Rated R for language, disturbing images, gore and death. Third season spoiler warning. The characters do not belong to me, they belong to Joss Whedon, 20th Century Fox, Mutant Enemy, and such forth and so on... i.e. NOT ME.
Follow up to 'Unexpected Arrival'. An unexpected arrival changes the third season finale.
Warning Multiple Character Death!!

Angels Mansion

Willow and Oz are sitting in Angels room watching the souled vampire toss and turn on the bed. His temperature is up above human norms and Willow is getting worried about Buffy. The red headed hacker has her werewolf boyfriends hand in a crushing grip, her worry obvious on her face. Glancing up at the clock she turns towards Oz and whispers, "She's going to be to late isn't she?"

Glancing up at the clock himself the stoic young man looks sadly at Angel and simply says, "Maybe." Getting up from the chair he heads over to the door and leaves the room. Faintly Willow can hear him pick up the phone and after a second start to talk to someone, probably Giles at the Library. A few minutes later he comes back into the room with a frown on his normally expressionless face. Looking at his girlfriend Oz says, "I called Giles to see if he could send Xander over so that we could go and look for Buffy. But he says that Xander left for here over two hours ago."

"You don't think Xander went after Buffy to try and get her to spare Faith again do you?" Willow asks anxiously. She really can't understand Xanders reactions to the situation. Faith's evil, she's proved that over and over these last few weeks. She should be in jail or dead. Then Willow thinks about her friend and what she thinks may have passed between him and the rogue slayer and reconsiders his actions. If Faith had slept with him, this is just the sort of action Xander would take. He is very loyal to those he cares about. But Willow can't believe that Xander would choose Faith over her and Buffy.

On the bed Angel is muttering to himself. Every once in a while she can just make out a word that he is saying. "Buffy... Mayor... love... walrus... no... burning... hot... HOT... ungghh." Rushing over to the bed Willow dips a towel into the bowl of water on the nightstand and wipes Angels forehead tenderly. Looking up at Oz she's frowning and very worried.

"We really need to find Buffy soon Oz."

Oz is nodding his head in agreement with her as his eyes widen with fear and surprise. Willow sees the look in his eyes and spins back around to Angel as his hair starts to flame. Acting quickly Willow grabs the bowl of water off the nightstand and drenches Angels head with it. Unfortunately it does little good. As the two teens watch in horror their friend bursts into flame. Running to the bathroom Willow is trying to get more water into the bowl as the flames catch the bed sheets on fire. Oz runs out of the room towards the kitchen where he remembers there being a bucket. Willow comes back into the room at a run and trips over the edge of the carpet. The bowl of water goes flying and spills uselessly across the floor. Willows head hits the floor with a surprisingly sharp CRACK. As she lays still on the floor her blood quickly pools under her head from the large wound on her temple and seeps into the carpet staining it in an ever increasing circle.

The form of Angel on the bed turns to dust without anyone to see, yet the flames continue to spread across the room, catching the walls aflame and finding delightful tinder in the many drawings scattered around the room.

It is much to late for Angel as Oz comes racing up the stairs with a bucket of water, and as the flames reach the rug that Willow is slowly bleeding to death on and set it alight, a similar flame spreads across the floor towards the door. The flames now have the whole room in their control and as Oz reaches the door the flames reach Willow, setting her hair and clothing alight in a macabre dance of heat and flame, of death and destruction. Shouting in horror at the sight of his girlfriend on fire, Oz tries to enter the room, only to be rebuffed by the overwhelming heat. Throwing the bucket of water the he had carried up the stairs onto the flames in the doorway he tries again to enter the room to get to his Willow. The flames quickly surge back into place in the doorway and slowly begin to seep down the hallway to the rest of the house.

Leaping over the flames the young musician reaches Willow's body. Smothering out the flames on her cloths and hair with his jacket he picks his limp girlfriend up in his arms and turning back towards the door he is stopped by the flames. They have weakened the doorway and the roof above it and as he watches the roof collapses and covers the doorway in a heap of ruble. Turning back around Oz runs towards the only other means of escape in the room, the window. Running at it full tilt he curls his arms around Willow and leaps at the drapery covered window. As his feet leave the ground he turns in air to take the brunt of the breaking glass on his back. The window shatters and as the two teens are falling through the drapes catch hold of the young man and wrap around his legs. The other end of the drapes fails to tear free and as the two teens fall towards the ground the drapes tighten around Oz's ankle's and jerks him to a stop hanging upside down twenty feet from the ground. As he comes to a sudden stop his grip on Willow loosens and she is torn from his grasp by gravity. He couldn't have know that she was already dead from the lose of blood and the burns, and as her body falls the remaining twenty feet to the ground Oz screams out in agony and horror as her head hits the ground and bursts like an overripe fruit.

Sunnydale High School Library

Giles and Cordelia are sitting at the table in the middle of the Library searching through musty old books trying to find any weaknesses for an Olvikon demon. Other then dropping a mountain on it or throwing it in to a volcano, of course. Something that is feasible, since they only have one day to make this work. It is slow going and Giles is constantly worrying that Buffy has not checked in yet. The time limit on the poison has passed and he hopes that she was able to get Faith to Angel in time.

The phone rings on the counter and interrupts his train of thought. Getting up from his chair he walks over to the phone and answers it.

{Sunnydale High Library. Rupert Giles speaking.}

{Mr. Giles this is Sunnydale Memorial calling.}

{Oh my, is everything all right?}

{I am afraid it is not Mr. Giles. I have the sad duty of telling you that Willow Rosenburg is dead. Since we cannot reach Ms. Rosenburgs parents, you are listed as her next contact. Do you have any idea where her parents are Mr. Giles?}

{Willow's dead?} asked Giles in a strained tone of voice.

{Yes, sir. She was found outside a house on Crawford Street by the Sunnydale Fire Department, the house was on fire and it looks as if she tried to escape by jumping from a second story window.}

{What about Oz? How is he?}

{I am sorry sir no one else was found at the scene, yet. Do you know where Ms. Rosenburgs' parents are?}

{I am sorry no. They left town for the weekend.}

{Thank you sir. And you have my condolences.}

Giles slowly puts the phone back in the cradle and stares at it as if wishing it to ring once more and tell him it was all a big mistake.

As Giles is staring at the phone Oz comes bursting into the Library and heads directly to the book cage. Ripping open the door he goes in and begins gathering weapons.

Cordeilia looks up from her book startled. She hadn't heard the phone conversation and had no clue as to the current situation and the most recent developments. "How's Angel? Did Buffy get Faith to him in time?"

Cordy is surprised at Oz's sudden sob, and gets up to go over to the cage. Before she gets there Oz steps out of the cage with an axe in one hand, a sword in the other, a crossbow strapped to his back with a quiver of bolts on his hip and a knife in his belt. Staring out of dead eyes Oz tells the tale of Angels demise and the death of his beloved Willow.

Once he finishes the short tale he asks, "I am going to go kill Faith, since I can only assume that she has killed Buffy. Are you two coming with me?"

Giles and Cordelia glance at each other and then looking at Oz they nod in unison.

Faith's abandoned apartment

Giles and Oz are the first ones to the open apartment door. Peering into the room they can see scattered furniture and broken glass that give tell to the fight that occurred. Both men step warily into the room and look around for anyone. Oz heads around to the room with Giles on his heals to check the bedroom. Seeing the disorder in the room both men know that Faith left in a hurry, her cloths scattered across the floor and a spilled bottle of Jack Daniel's laying next to the bed.

Cordelia is the first one to look out of the window and see the pools of blood congealing there. At her startled scream both men come running from the bedroom and seeing her pointing towards the window they race over there expecting to see the worst. All that they see is blood. There is no body, but the amount of blood on the roof is enough to tell all three that something died here tonight.

Oz is the first one to see the blood trail leading to the balcony railing and he heads over to it and leans over to see what is below. Seeing only a dumpster he is about to turn around and go back in when his heightened senses spot the blood seeping out of a bag on top of the pile of refuse.

With a startled exclamation Oz runs back inside and leaves the apartment heading down the stairs three at a time trying to get to the ground floor as quickly as possible. Reaching the first floor landing he hits the release bar on the fire door and is running around the building towards the dumpster as fast as he can.

Reaching the dumpster he jumps up and grabs a hold of the edge and pulls himself up and into he bin. Seeing the bag that he saw blood leaking from was much small for a body Oz reaches to his belt and pulls out the knife he had gotten from the school. Slowly cutting open the smallest bag and hoping to all the Gods and Angels in Heaven that it's not what he think it is. Please be a ham, or a rotten bit of steak, please be anything but...

"oh God..."

"What is it Oz?" huffs Giles as he comes up to the trash dumpster. Leaning against it trying to get his breath back he almost misses Oz's quite reply.

"It's Buffy."

"Is she ok, do we need to get her to a hospital?" asks the hopeful Watcher.

"No, Giles. There is no need for a hospital."

"What do you mean? She is surly not napping in there for the lovely surroundings. Come on lets get her to the hospital."

"Giles she has been chopped to pieces. A hospital won't be able to help.

"No! No I won't believe..." Giles begins as he pulls himself up into the dumpster. Seeing Oz holding Buffy's severed head Giles moans and drops back to the ground. Pounding his fist into the side of the dumpster Giles screams "No!" over and over again.

Cordelia comes running up as Oz jumps from the bin. She is holding a piece of paper in her hand and is staring at the wailing Giles on the floor. Oz seeing the piece of paper grabs it from her hand and reads it to himself. It's in Xanders near illegible scrawl, which is the first of the unpleasant surprises to come.

Hey gang,

I hope Angels death was as painful as the Mayor told me it would be.

I told Buffy that she should have left Faith alone, so she brought this upon herself.

Hope you all have a wonderful Graduation.

Hugs and Kisses
X & F


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TBC...
DaBear