Part 6:

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A few phone calls later everyone was gathered in Buffy and Angel's apartment. It was already growing lighter outside and most of them were rather tired. Their tiredness quickly vanished, though, the moment they heard the news.

"Amy a vampire?" Willow whispered, unable to believe what she was hearing.

"Fangs and all," Xander mumbled. "And magical powers to boot."

Faith, who had managed to steal away from Mrs. Post just in time to join the meeting, was still deep in thought and did not appreciate having yet another problem added to the huge pile they were already facing.

"As if we hadn't enough trouble already."

"Well, one piece of good news," Angel announced, reaching behind him to produce something wrapped in dirty rags. "We have the Glove of Mhynegon."

"That's the magical doohickey that the Watcher lady is so worried about?" Cordelia asked, kind of disappointed by the sorry sight.

Angel carefully unwrapped it, allowing everyone to see the spiked iron gauntlet. An almost palpable aura of evil seemed to emanate from it, making even those with merely human senses quite uncomfortable. Willow started reaching for it, somehow drawn to the thing, but Angel quickly pulled back.

"Not a good idea, Willow. Once you put it on you can never take it off again."

"Oh!"

"G-man is still looking for ways to destroy it," Faith said. "No headway so far, though."

Buffy sighed. "Well, it should be safe here. I doubt Lagos knows where we live, whoever he is."

Willow bit her lip before speaking up again. "On the matter of Amy ... I ... I still have the curse."

Everyone fell silent upon hearing her say these words. They brought back a lot of painful memories, especially for Buffy and Angel, who snuggled closer together without conscious thought.

"You mean we can ...," Cordelia began, "I mean ... poof, and she's all good again?"

"Well, the curse ... it was written specifically for Angel, Angelus rather, but ... I think I can modify it. With Giles help, I mean. We can ..."

"No," Angel interrupted her.

"No? Angel, I'm sure I can ..."

"It's not about your ability, Willow. I am quite confident that you could do it. What I mean is that we should not do it."

"Why not?" Willow was on her feet, looking exasperated. "Amy is ... was my friend. We can help her. We can ..."

The look in Angel's eyes silenced her.

"The curse is not about helping, Willow," the vampire said softly. "The Gypsies did not give me back my soul out of the goodness of their hearts. It's not called a curse for nothing."

He sighed, trying to figure out the words to explain what he was felling, what he knew was right.

"Amy has been a vampire for three weeks now. There is a good chance that she was the vampire who killed her father. Even if she was not, though, she has certainly killed for blood. Numerous times. If we give her back her soul she will remember it. Remember it all."

Looking up to meet Willow's eyes again he added, "she will wake up every morning for the rest of an eternal life and remember how good it felt to kill her father."

Willow, looking at the pain in Angel's eyes, remembered that he spoke from vast experience. For the first time she consciously realized how terrible it must have been for him when she gave him his soul back. He remembered killing Ms. Calendar, remembered torturing Giles, remembered all the cruel things he had inflicted upon Buffy and her friends and family.

Remembered how much he had enjoyed doing it.

"Oh my God," she whispered. "Angel, I'm so ..."

„You have nothing to be sorry for, Willow," he interrupted her again. "You did what was necessary and," he cast a side glance at Buffy in his arms, "I am hardly in a position to complain right now."

Buffy gave him a smile, then turned a serious expression towards the rest of them.

"Angel is right. Giving Amy back her soul is not something we should do lightly. I know I sound kinda hypocritical saying this after everything that happened all these years ... I mean, half a year ago, but it's for the best. Burdening Amy's soul with the memories of killing her father would be nothing but cruelty."

There was silence for a long while.

"We still need to do something, right?" Oz asked. "Having a witch-vampire running around can't be good."

"Certainly not," Angel agreed. "Amy might not be an experienced witch, but she has cast at least two very powerful spells that affected the entire town."

"And that was by accident," Buffy added. "God knows what she'll do now that she's evil."

Everyone quickly agreed that they needed to find and destroy Amy, it was the only way. It was also the best they could do to honor the memory of the girl that had once been a friend to some of them.

As for their other problems, Angel was convinced that there was a way to destroy the glove, having read something about it a long time ago. He and Willow dialed up Giles, hoping that he had come up with something by now. Buffy meanwhile, seeing the thoughtful look on Faith's face, took the opportunity to take her sister Slayer aside for a moment, drawing her into the separated area of the apartment that served as their bedroom.

"I hope you're not planning anything kinky, Buffy," Faith smirked upon seeing the bed. "I'm not that easy a catch."

"I wanted to ... I heard some of the things Post told you."

Faith's smile vanished quickly, replaced by the same thoughtful look she had had all night.

"You know that she is wrong, right?" Buffy asked when Faith did not say anything.

"Is she? I mean ... Post is a bitch, yeah, but ... in the time we spent in that church saving Amy and those other two kids seven people died outside. I mean ... maybe we could have stopped that."

"Maybe," Buffy agreed. "Or maybe they were all too far away for us to save them. It was a very bad situation that night, Faith, and no matter how strong and fast we are, we can't be in two places at once. We can only do our best."

They had sat down on the edge of the bed and Buffy draped an arm around Faith's shoulders.

"Being human isn't a weakness, Faith. Neither is having emotional attachments. Neither Angel nor I would have survived all these years in Hell if we hadn't had each other. I wouldn't have made it through my first year as the Slayer without Giles, Willow, and ... even Xander. Yes, my friends have been used against me now and then, I won't deny that. Sometimes they even hurt me, badly. It does not change the fact that I need them. That we need them. Not just as backup, though that is worth quite a lot."

Buffy looked down. "During my first few months as the Slayer I felt incredibly alone. Here I was, one girl in all the world, destined to fight and die for a world that would never appreciate anything I would do for it, that would probably not even notice my death except maybe as a side note in some local newspaper. I was ready to quit because I had no intention of dying for some faceless masses."

Faith looked up at her. "What changed?"

"I found friends," Buffy said, smiling again. "Friends I could share this burden with and, even more important, friends that gave a face to what I was fighting for. We're not fighting for six billion entries in some tax database, Faith. We're fighting for people like Willow, Oz, Cordy, my mom, hell, even Xander. Because they deserve to live a good life. Because they deserve better than to end up dead because of some hungry vampire."

Buffy squeezed Faith's shoulder. "So don't let Post tell you that having friends is a weakness. It's just the opposite and maybe someday those dusty old Council guys will realize that."

Faith considered this for a moment, then smirked again. "The wise words really clash with your look, B. No one expects a blonde to come up with this stuff."

Buffy smirked back. "You're talking to a really old woman, remember? I'm thrice your age, little girl, so I'm allowed to spout wisdom whenever I want and you have to listen."

Faith opened her mouth, probably for another comeback, but instead let loose a huge yawn. Infectious as it was it quickly caused Willow, Oz, and Cordelia to yawn as well, reminding them all how tired they really were.

"I think we should call it a night," Angel said, having just gotten off the phone with Giles. The Watcher had found some references to something called the spell of the Living Flame, which could presumably destroy the glove. He, too, found himself quite tired, though, and reluctant to cast magic in this state. With the glove safe in Buffy and Angel's keeping and the sun about to rise and chase the vampires off the streets everyone felt it was time to call it a night, so to speak. Most of them would not be able to grab more than an hour or two of sleep before school started.

No one noticed that Xander and Cordelia lingered outside the apartment door for a minute when everyone else left, sharing intense looks. Neither said anything, though, and in the end they, too, departed toward their respective homes.

The sun rose over Sunnydale.

TO BE CONTINUED