Part 2
Buffy walked into Giles' apartment. She had been all over Sunnydale looking for anything that could help her find Giles, and now at nearly two am, she still had no idea what happened to him. She had hit up Willy's bar but the usual crowd of seedy customers had no idea what she was talking about. None of them seemed any shadier than normal and Willy seemed to be just as clueless. She figured the threat must have just recently arrived in town and word hadn't gotten out yet. Buffy hung up her leather jacket and surveyed the living room that was full of sleeping bodies. Willow and Xander had volunteered to stay at Giles' house to search for anything unusual there. Currently Xander was passed out in an arm chair with Giles' date book on the floor next to him. Willow was curled up asleep on the couch with a very passed out Spike, who was leaning on her shoulder. Buffy raised an eyebrow at this, but decided Willow must be exhausted, so she let it go. Giles' laptop was sitting on the coffee table in front of Willow. She must have been hacking into Giles' e-mail account. Buffy sighed. She felt so lost without his guidance and she had no leads whatsoever. She went to the kitchen to find something to drink. Opening the refrigerator door, she discovered that bachelors weren't very good at keeping up on their grocery shopping. Suddenly the phone rang, alarming her.
She scrambled to answer it before it woke up the others.
"Hello?" she asked breathlessly.
"Buffy? Where's Giles," the familiar voice of Cordelia Chase asked.
"Good question," Buffy replied moving out of earshot from her sleeping friends.
"What? Whatever, listen we have a big problem!'
"Why, what happened?" Buffy asked recognizing the worry in Cordelia's voice.
"It's about Angel. I kind of did something really bad."
"I had nothing to do with it, Buffy!" she could hear a male voice yell in the back ground.
"Shut it, Doyle!" Cordelia hissed back at him, "and keep your eyes on the road!"
"Cordelia!" Buffy cried into the receiver, "What the hell did you do to Angel?! You didn't..."
"No nothing like that! Come on Buffy, I don't do vampires," Cordelia interrupted with her usual tact.
Buffy sighed. "Okay whatever, Cordelia could you please tell me what happened with out the personal references?"
"Well if I could get a word in... anyway, I wanted to get him something nice to cheer him up because he'd been more broody then usual after your visit. So of course, I went shopping."
Buffy rolled her eyes at that but continued to listen.
"Doyle told me about this little weird magic shop downtown and I decided to check it out. You know how hard it can be to shop for Angel. I mean, what could he possibly need? Aside from getting laid and I'm so set with the consequences of that one! So I was looking through all these boring magic books, which I think he might already own, when this ugly old lady approaches me. She tells me she's heard of Angel and had this way to make him human. So I'm like, 'okay weird old lady, why do you want to help him?' And she's all, 'I have my price'. At this point I'm thinking, okay, I have a check book and I'm pretty sure that being human is worth whatever price she'd charge, so I agreed to hear her out."
"Cut to the chase Cordelia," Buffy interrupted getting impatient.
"Okay, okay!" she replied, "so anyway, we did this spell on him-"
"That I had nothing to do with!" Buffy heard Doyle yell again.
"Stop interrupting!" Cordelia warned him then turned her attention back to the phone, "I wanted it to be a surprise so..."
"Hold on! Please tell me didn't do a spell on Angel without asking him first?!"
"Well…"
"And you did it with the guidance of a creepy lady you didn't even know, no less," Buffy snapped. This was so stupid, even for Cordelia.
"But hold on I'm not finished! So it pretty much went horribly wrong because Angel starts screaming in pain, and I kid you not, he divided in two! Like the little gross things they made us look at under microscopes in bio. While that was going on, the old witchy lady morphs this skanky whore demon!"
"Oh my God..."
"Yeah I know! That stupid bitch lied to me! The spell did turn Angel human but it had a slight side affect. It kinda separated out the demon from inside of him. Turns out the slut actually believed that she could get the demon Angel to marry her or something ridiculous like that! So you can guess what he had to say to that...he snapped her neck. It was horrible! Then, here comes the worst part, he totally punched me out! You should see the bruise he left! My nose could have been broken!"
"So wait, this demon Angel...he's Angelus?"
"Yeah, but like on steroids! He's ten times more powerful...Buffy, I was so scared."
"He didn't kill you...why wouldn't he kill you?"
"How the hell should I know...we're pretty sure he's coming your way, though. Before I passed out I remember him saying some stuff about revenge. Buffy, you're in a lot of danger. I am really sorry. I feel like such an idiot."
"Well you should! You put Angel, and all of us, in a great deal of danger! Cordelia, you're lucky to be alive! Hold on a second, Angel is human?"
"Yeah, that's what I said isn't it? He's asleep right now, though. That spell really took a lot out of him. We're on our way to you right now. We have to find a way to get the demon back where he belongs and Angel whole again."
"We'll get to that later. Where are you guys right now, anyway?"
"About two hours out of Sunnydale."
"Okay, good. Hurry, cause we probably need Angel to fix this whole thing. And Cordelia, Giles is missing. I have a strange hunch who might have taken him and if I'm right he's in a lot of danger, too."
Willow was sitting alone at The Bronze. Her friends were nowhere in sight, and she felt so lonely without them. She fiddled with her straw wrapper and stared down into her drink. If only she hadn't been so depressed about Oz, they may have stayed with her. No one here was even paying attention to her. She wished the floor would just swallow her up. Suddenly she got the sensation she was being watched and looked up. She found herself locking eyes with Spike. He smirked at her. He looked so good in that leather duster of his. He walked over to her in his confident sexy way.
'Hello luv' he said pursing his lips, 'Care to dance?'
Before she could answer he swept her up in his arms. She felt a burning blush creep up her neck as his cool hands pressed against the small of her back. She held onto him as he swung her out onto the dance floor. His lips touched her earlobe gently, sending shivers though her.
'You look good enough to eat,' he whispered.
She looked over to see Oz staring at them. She couldn't speak. His eyes were filled with tears. He shook his head and turned to leave.
'Willow?'
"Willow? Wake up!" Buffy voice brought her slowly out of her dream. "We've got big problems."
"Huh?" Willow mumbled as she sleepily opened her eyes, quickly remembering where she was. She soon realized she was curled up on the couch with Spike leaning on her shoulder. She gasped and pushed him off her as she rose off the couch. He murmured something but didn't seem to wake up.
"Angelus is back...in an even deadlier demon way." Buffy said, and quickly brought Willow up to speed.
"Oh my God...do you think he has Giles?" Willow asked.
The expression on Buffy's face spoke volumes. Xander stirred and opened his eyes.
"Who has Giles?" he asked suddenly feeling very alert.
"Angelus," Buffy stated simply.
"What? How?" he stammered.
"Long story short, Cordelia is an idiot." she replied.
"Wait, now, Cordi did what with him?" he asked shocked.
"No, no, no. She tried to make him human as a cheer up present. And in Cordelia fashion, she didn't think twice about it when she chose a very dangerous way to do it. Now we have a supped up version of Angelus and a human Angel," Willow explained.
"Two Angels?" he asked.
"In simple terms...not really," Buffy said, "What we do have is an evil, powerful demon coming after us. I need you guys to be very careful. I really don't need more friends to rescue. Willow, I need you to get on the spell that demon woman used. Unfortunately, she's no longer any help to us, being dead and all."
"Well, well," Spike said suddenly startling them, "that bloody wanker is back. Now it's time for some revenge!"
"What the hell are you going to do? Insult him to death?" Buffy snapped.
"I was just offering my services, is all. I'm supposing he's got your watcher?"
"That's what I'm guessing. However, I've been all over Sunnydale and I turned up nothing," she replied.
"Well if I know Angelus, and he has Giles, he's got something big planned. I'm figuring he'll come find you pretty soon." Spike stated.
"If that's the case, we'd better be ready," Buffy said, "Xander, you come with me. We need to get some supplies from the dorm. Willow, start researching."
"Right," Willow said sitting down in front of the laptop.
"What about me?" Spike asked.
"You can stay out of Willow's way," she glared at him, "and try to stay sober, ok? Remember, Angelus may not know you're fixed."
She smiled at his angry glare and grabbed her coat before following Xander out the door.
It had begun to rain outside. Spike was staring out the window watching Xander and Buffy walking away. Good, he thought, at least her stupid perfect hair will get all wet and so will the rest of her. His face turned thoughtful as he tried to remember exactly what she was wearing on that tight little body of hers. He absentmindedly pulled out a cigarette and lit it.
"You can't smoke that in here," Willow said not looking up from the laptop she feverously typed away on.
"Huh?" Spike asked still thinking about Buffy in a wet tee shirt.
"Giles may be missing but that doesn't mean you can stink up his house with cigarette smoke."
"Yeah, right, I knew you'd be all self-righteous," he mumbled, stubbing out his cigarette on the underside of his boot, "you know, maybe if you lived on the edge a little, people wouldn't think you were such a ninny."
"Okay Spike. You want me to live on the edge? Take chances? Good plan, I'll just recklessly do another spell. Maybe you'll fall in love with Xander this time."
Spike huffed and sat down on the couch next to her.
"We didn't fall in love," he mumbled, "We just wanted to get married."
Willow rolled her eyes but said nothing.
"You know, I don't really think you're a ninny. You seem to have this whole computer thing down pretty good," he said gesturing at the laptop.
"Oh great, Willow the Nerd. Thanks Spike, but I'd rather be a ninny."
Spike smiled looking at her profile and said, "Red, you know you're not a nerd, you're actually-"
"I got it! I found the spell! It's pretty simple considering... the only problem is getting the two of them in the same place at the same time," she said frowning at the screen.
"Good luck with that one," Spike scoffed, "You do understand that this is Angelus we are talking about, and if I heard correctly, he's been upgraded to a more powerful model."
"Yeah but we have Buffy," Willow said optimistically as she wrote down some items on a piece of paper, "Come on, we have to get some supplies."
She got up and put the list in her pocket. Spike looked thoughtfully at Willow's white tank top.
"What?" she asked confused.
"You know it is raining," he said.
"Yeah, so? I'm the kind of witch that doesn't melt in rain," she said smiling goofily.
"I know that, but..." he said gesturing to her shirt.
"Oh. Ohhhh," she said, suddenly very aware of the fact she was also wearing a white bra. She crossed her arms uncomfortably.
"Come on, you can where my jacket," Spike said handing it to her.
"Thanks. I guess it's not like you're gonna catch a cold or anything."
"Here, take this," Buffy handed the full duffel bag to Xander effortlessly.
He almost dropped it but recovered quickly, "That was a little embarrassing."
"Sorry," Buffy said as she wiped the rain off her face. "Why does it have to rain?"
"Because God hates us," he said with a shrug. "Let's hurry up I don't really like leaving Willow alone with Spike, neutered or not."
"Yeah me neither," Buffy admitted as they walked towards Giles' house. "I just don't trust him. Not that he's ever given me a reason to think otherwise. Plus they shouldn't be alone with Angelus running loose. Spike isn't much help in the defending department right now."
"Come on, Buffy. Willow is smart. Don't worry about her. What makes you think he'd even defend her anyway?"
"Maybe the whole I'd stake his ass if he didn't thing?"
"Good point."
They walked into the house and Buffy was surprised when she didn't see Willow or Spike there. She sat down in front of the open laptop and read the page that was still on the screen.
"Looks like she found a spell to fix Cordelia's stupidity," she commented reading it.
"They have a spell for that?" Xander asked leaning over her shoulder to read along with her.
Buffy smiled at him, "I guess they must have gone to get some supplies."
"So much for them not being alone with each other," Xander said.
They were silent for a moment, both very thoughtful.
"Let's go after them," Buffy said.
"Good plan," Xander said handing Buffy some stakes from her bag.