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Author's note: I just realized I forgot about Oz so while I don't know if Willow and Oz were already involved when Angel released his soul in this version they'd gotten up to smiling and stuttering at each other when ever they "just happened" to meet at school or the Bronze but hadn't gotten past that yet. Oz is a were wolf but (so far at least) has been good about locking himself in so he can't harm anyone so the Scoobies don't know anything about it yet.

Chapter Five: Willy's bar

Willy sealed the last beaker and looked at his tally for the night "A most impressive take Mr. Willard Warington Mckena" Willy said to himself. Especially the heart of a G'olich Demon he patted himself on he back. It was very rare to have a G'olich killed without damaging it's heart since they healed almost instantly from practically any wound. However it seems that when a G'olich had it's back broken and all four of it's limbs torn off and taken as payment for gambling debts it takes it more then the half hour between when the collectors left it and sunrise when the bar closed to heal.

Hacking out the G'olich's heart was a bit risky since some demon or vampire might realize it must have been killed in the Bar and not telling who did it wasn't in character for Willy the Snitch. On the other hand a well preserved G'olich heart could go for as much as 100,000$. With that much at stake Willard was willing to risk having to abandon his scheme of collecting demon parts from what got left from brawls in his bar.

Looking up after stowing the last of the night's take Willy scowled at the cash register. He really should count how much cash he got, it was a very good night and the cash might even cover the cost of the drinks but he was too tired to...

Willy's thoughts were interrupted by the front door crashing open, wrenching the bar holding it closed from it's brackets. "Shit!" Willy thought as he saw the slayer standing in the doorway. "What happened to make the Slayer so furious." None of the rumors he could recall explained her being so furious.

Behind the Slayer was her friend, the one who twisted the prophecy. Willy always felt a little nervous when he saw him since although he didn't show any indication of any power he did seem perfectly willing to plunge into the Master's lair so he probably had some power Willy simply couldn't detect. Right now he looked furious and determined and was carrying a large double bladed ax in his hands. Following him were the watcher and the neo-pagen, both of them looking grim and determined.

The sight of the neo-pagan witch was enough to make Willy forget any mere nervousness the others made him feel. Even a very weak and poorly trained witch could destroy a more powerful magic user if they had enough raw energy to use and The slayer's rage was producing enough energy by itself to take out a powerful mage. Adding that from the watcher and the prophecy breaker the neo-pagan could probably take out an arch-mage.

"Look Slayer whatever you want I'll tell you, just don't hit me I got beat up enough last night, A bunch of loan enforcers came in and they..."

Shut up." The Slayer cut through Willy's babble. "There's only one thing I want from you and that is the location of Angelous's Lair."

"Angelous?" Willy repeated "I though he was with you?" he exclaimed doing his best not to look at the neo-pagan. Being scared of the Slayer was in character, being scared of the neo-pagan wasn't.

"Angelous wasn't with me!" The Slayer screamed at him. "Angel was but he lost his soul and turned into Angelous!" The slayer grabbed Willy lifting him up by his shirt "Now I know you hear everything that goes on in this town and I want you to tell me were Angelous's lair is." The slayer hissed at him.

Willy stared directly at the Slayer. Fighting the instinct which demanded he keep an eye on the neo-pagan or erect some magical shields to protect himself. With all the emotional energy the slayer and her friends were generating the romany magic user shouldn't have a problem turning his bar into a crater or pulling whatever information she wanted from his mind. The fact that she wasn't threatening to do that could mean that she didn't know how to collect emotional energy or simply that she wanted to hide her power from him.

Willy the snitch couldn't sense magic after all and if Angelous and his Seer knew she had that much power they could prepare enough to counter it by sacrificing minions for blood magic. Whichever it was revealing that he was aware of how much power she had a bad Idea which could at best end with him tied up somewhere and blowing his cover and at worst leave him a mind-striped moron or dead. All of which meant keeping the fact that he was terrified of the neo-pagan hidden.

"I don't know where Angelous is, honest!" Willy squealed shaking in Buffy's grip. "I didn't even know he'd lost his soul. I heard he moved in with Spike and the Seer, or that he'd kicked them out of their lair or that you and Angelous had finally dusted them. Either that or he'd left town. Nobody knew for sure what happened."

"And where precisely. Would their lair be" The Watcher drawlled with a strong east London accent. Somehow more threatening then all the Slayer's overt threats and almost enough to make Willi forget the neo-pagan witch.

"I don't know, honest!" Willy cried, for once none of the fear he was expressing was faked. The combination of these four enraged and out for blood was absolutely terrifying and he didn't even dare check his healing spells because the witch could see them if he did.

As the Watcher and the slayer stared at him Willy wracked his brain for something that would get him out of the situation he found himself in without blowing his cover or getting beaten to pulp .

"Wait!" Willy cried grabbing the Slayer's hands to stop her from throwing him across the room. "I don't know where Spike's lair is but I know who does. A bunch of Jaws, the loan shark's goons were in earlier and they mentioned taking messages to Spike."

They hadn't really but Willard knew Spike used Jaws goons as messengers in exchange to not interfering in Jaws business. However he couldn't tell them how he found that out since he'd found out during his scrying attempts. His scrying wasn't very reliable even with the Hellmouth boosting his power and the best scrying ball money could buy but even that much magic ability wasn't in character for Willy the Snitch.

"Which goons? Tell us how to find them and we'll leave" The Watcher's voice hissed.

"Ahh.." Willi hesitated. Since he didn't actually hear the goons talking he didn't know who was handling the messages now and he had truly did wish to help the Slayer get Angelous. The only one he was sure would know was Roberto but since he was Jaws right hand vamp giving his name to the Slayer probably wasn't a good idea if he intended to keep making a living in Sunnydale.

"I'm not sure you see..." Willy said to buy time. "...I was hiding behind the bar at the time but I..." Who could he give the slayer who'd have some information that would help her but wasn't so important he couldn't pay Jaws to make up for the loss. Then he had it "...I think it was the vampire that calls himself Hook. He usually lairs in one of the large Crypts out in the middle of Ocean View cemetery."

Giving The slayer Hook was an inspired stroke and it took all of his considerable acting ability to remain looking scared and intimidated and not break out in a wide grin. Hook was Roberto's senior childe so he'd know where Spike was even if he didn't handle any messages himself but was an incompetent idiot and Jaws wouldn't be too sorry to see him gone.

Staring at Willy's sweating face for a long moment Buffy finally spoke "If I find you lied or held back on me I'll be back, and you won't like that." Dropping Willy to the ground she turned away, out the door she'd come through less then five minutes before. The Watcher and the Neo-Pagan following right behind her. Just as Willy started to relax, Xander stepped towards him.

"I wouldn't worry about Buffy coming back if I was you. I'll see she doesn't even if you lied" Xander said in a perfectly calm voice. Before Willy could sigh with relief he continued. "You see, Buffy is a protector, she has a problem with hurting peope, even scum like you. I, on the other hand am just a piece of white trash and I have no problem feeding you feet first into a meat grinder if that's what it takes to get the truth from you." Xander smiled at him. Or at least his lips drew back from his teeth, although there was nothing humorous or happy in the expression. "Is there anything you want to say?" At Willy's negative shake of his head the humorless grin widened. "Well, I'll be seeing you Willy, One way or the other." With that Xander left and hurried to catch up with his friends.

Willy slowly collected himself from the floor and poured himself a double scotch, swallowing it with one gulp. Not even pausing to make sure it was plain scotch with none of the additives some demons liked. "How had I missed that?. Xander had no hidden powers, no I almost wish he did. Someone with power acted to preserve it and you could try and see to it that you weren't worth wasting that power on. Xander simply did whatever it took to protect his friends."

Although a halfway competent magician might kill him Willard suspected it would take someone near Arch-mage level to survive the experience.