Even To Remember (Makes Me Afraid)

Did she want me to change?
But I change for good.
And I want you to know,
That you'll always get your way.
Shiver' by Coldplay

This is all we have!

Buffy and the rest of the Scooby Gang, including the newly arrived Oz, stared first at Giles and then at the piece of paper he was brandishing. On the paper drawn in what looked like blue marker was a crude leopard-shape. Xander was the first to speak.

All we have is Pictionary?

His utterance gained a stony glare from Giles, but it broke the silence that the group had been wallowing in. They'd been up all night burying Judge-bits and were working under the code of no-sleep-does-not-a-happy-monster-killer-make. Buffy was the next person to chip in,

Okay, Giles, what does it mean?

Well, it could represent an actual Leopard, or an allegorical one. For example in Dante's Divine Comedy is used to represent sexual promiscuity and that could also tie in with it being sighted in the woods. Dante's Leopard was in the allegorical woods of sin....

So you're saying that the person who saw this Al-Goreicle being had enough time to draw it down before being savagely murdered and torn apart?

Yes, well--

They said pieces, Giles! Like Judge pieces! I doubt the guy had enough time to represent his killer with a clever picture-puzzle.

Xander watched Buffy and Giles have another verbal battle and relaxed back into his chair. It was almost as if things were like they'd been a week ago. They weren't, but he could pretend. His hand wandered over to Cordelia's on the desk and he brushed her fingers with his for a moment. She jumped back and glared at him,

she hissed.

He brought his hands up defensively, not wanting an argument and pretended to be very engrossed in what Giles was saying.

...I would not even have been drawn to this had we not dispatched of the Judge so quickly.

...And you reward us for that with Murder-Mystery?

Buffy, please, this is serious. A man did die.

Giles, give me something I can kill. Not just wild speculation.

Cordelia interjected, Isn't that why we're here and not living our lives? She glanced around at the group, --Sorry, life, singular... So that we can find out whatever this thing is and Buffy can kill it.

Assuming that it was a Leopard did this, why not one that escaped from a zoo rather than an Hellmouth-Spawned-Leopard?

They don't keep Leopards in the local zoo, Xander..

Just asking.

Willow, for the first time in a while, was not paying much attention to the conversation going on around her. She was more intent on secretly watching Oz and debating on whether to hold his hand or not. Would it be too forward for her to initiate hand-holding? Does a man have to start that? Would she be breaking the digit touching rules?

Hey, it was a full-moon last night, maybe it was a wereleopard.

Its a possibility Xander.

You mean we actually-- Goody. Gotta love living at Boca Del Inferno!

Giles shook his head patiently and was about to ask the group before him to begin research before the exact words that Xander had said sunk in. He turned to the teenage boy and stared in open surprise before uttering, and dashing away into his office, closing the door behind him.

Okay...That was weird...

***

Dru, baby, please... Spike pleaded even though he knew there was no way of changing her mind. Even if she was aware of what he was asking.

Dru shook her head, Bad Spike, can't leave Daddy at home alone..

This isn't our home Dru! And he stopped being your Daddy' a long time ago...

Oh, now Spike, I may have been an absent father figure. But no-one should stand between a parent and child reunion.

Angelus walked from the shadows, as he was prone to do, and wrapped an arm around Drusilla's waist. She giggled and lent into him like a co-conspirator. Angelus locked eyes with Spike as his hand crept down Dru's front. For a few moments Spike was paralysed --funny-- with indecision, but when he did move it was only to accent Angelus's hold over him as he wheeled out of the room.

Great. Just bloody great.

As soon as Spike was far enough away from the aggravating couple, he gingerly stood up and stretched his legs. He was most definitely in the mood to kill something. Or several somethings. He could go back and stake the bugger right now, but there was the possibility that that would end up badly for him. Hell, possibility, it was an absolute certainty. So, feeling sorry for himself, he made his way out of the mansion and along one of the many roads that littered Sunnydale.

***

She was a hunter. Nothing could best her in a battle, she was strong, and clever, resourceful. And not afraid to kill.

But she was also just a girl.

It was typical that when she wanted just to be normal she would get treated as the Slayer, and when she wanted to be the Slayer she would be disregarded as harmless. In the latter it was an advantage.

Buffy walked through the Hutchinson Cemetery slowly. A large arm was draped over her shoulder and the relatively handsome boy it belonged to kept in step with her easily.

So, Buffy, you go to school around here?

Oh, that's good.

The guy was clearly thinking he had picked up the wrong girl. In the Bronze she had seemed confident and seductive, but outside she was reserved and cold.

Works for me.

Still there are a lot of bad people around here.

I'm sure you'll protect me.

It was the swooning comment of a weak woman but it was delivered dryly and with no-emotion. The guy was tired of this bitch and her... bitchiness. His grip tightened around her shoulder.

But what if its me you need protecting from.

They had gradually stopped walking and were standing by several unobtrusive gravestones. Buffy shrugged off the guy's arm with ease and turned to face him. It didn't surprise her that his face was now different from that of the guy that she had picked up in the Bronze. His eyes were shocking yellow and the pupils were more like a cat's. His forehead was drawn together and considerably more lumpy than it had been. And most subtly were the two canines now poking at his bottom lip. She sighed.

The guy, obviously taking her sigh as an emission of fear, grinned. This was his favourite part.

Gee, sorry to go all evil on you.

Don't worry.. Buffy said softly, as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a stake, I'm used to it.

The Vampire's first mistake was not running straight away. He should have just turned and fled and then he would have had a better chance of surviving. But he, like so many Vampires, had a perverse need to fight with the Slayer. She called it overconfidence.

He made the first move, rushing at her his arms outstretched and a deep-throated growl coming from his mouth. She waited calmly until he was touching her and then stuck her hip out into his pelvis, flipping him onto the ground. It wasn't that easy, it never was.

He lept up to his feet almost at once and stared at her with recognition. Which was funny because he was barely more than a fledgling.

He ran at her with a volley of kicks and punches. She blocked each easily, but only managed to throw one in return. Luckily he was not as good at defending as her, because her punch had him sprawled out over the ground.

The Slayer leapt on top of the Vampire and started pummelling his face violently. As if there was another way to do it. After a few long minutes of struggling and punching, she realised he was unconscious and with a little bit of a sheepish look on her face she stood and moved to retrieve the stake she had dropped on the ground.

It was then that she spotted the other Vampire watching her from the end of the Cemetery. She grabbed the stake and thrust it into the unconscious Vampire's heart, not even stopping to watch him turn into dust. Instead she took off at a run towards the familiar peroxide-dipped Vamp, who in his turn turned and ran.

(Author's Note: I've now broken away from the events that actually happened in the show, it should get even more different later on. I just want to thank those people who have reviewed this fic already. Thank you.)