CHAPTER 10: BEWARE OF THE WICKED WITCH


Carefully watching the mess before him, Angelus the second emerged from the basement, shaking his head and rubbing his aching chest. So - serious wounds did rub off on both of the versions. Good to know.

"What was THAT all about?" The other half, who was picking splintered glass out of his shoulder, glared angrily at his twin.

"That was me paying for what you did to the witch yesterday," he hissed. Maybe this being split in two business wasn't such a great idea after all. The second twin smirked, his pain momentarily forgotten.

"Aw, don't be like that. After all, you and I are one. I got a piece of the action too. Not bleeding as much though, you might want to take care of that. Bleeding holes in the chest are just so passé," he mocked. His other half shot him an evil glare. "You just be glad I remembered to park the car in the garage; if it had been outside our cover had been blown." Angelus the second shrugged.

"I suppose this isn't the best time to present the Scooby gang with the fact that the fluffy soul has left the building," he said as he aimed and threw the bloody pieces of glass out the broken window. "After sunset you should continue to investigate how far they've come in their research on reintegrating us. Preferably, without revealing your identity. There's a good risk they'll just stake you – me – whatever, on sight now, when one of their close friends is dead."


The atmosphere in the Magic Box was troubled and strained that evening. Willow didn't want to face the whole gang, so Buffy was keeping her company in the training room. Giles was spending a lot of time cleaning his glasses, remembering the events of Jenny's similar death and worrying about possible repercussions of Willow's use of black magic.

Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn, who had been released from the hospital earlier that day, were staying in the background, feeling like outsiders when Angel wasn't with them. Even Anya was unusually quiet. Xander sat with her, not sure what to say or think. They all dealt with the fact that Angelus once again was loose and killing in Sunnydale – and once again, he had targeted Buffy and her nearest and dearest. Everyone was silent; concentrating on the futile tasks that they pretended kept them occupied.

The police had no idea how to handle Tara's death – as so often in Sunnydale. Countless murder victims went to their graves without there ever being any arrests made or even any good leads on who had killed them. That was life on a Hellmouth. It didn't look like Tara's death would be any different. They had no solid clues to work with – the only sign of struggle they had found was a bookshelf on the floor and the only set of fingerprints that didn't match either of Tara's friends they couldn't track down, the person wasn't in their database.

The gang had spent a few hours in the police station during the afternoon, all answering questions. The police had been particular interested in Buffy because of her earlier record, not to mention the fact that Riley had just been murdered and left in his dorm room as well. What could she say? Just like the others, she swore that all of them had been together at the time of the murders and that she had no idea who the perpetrator could be. No, she didn't know anyone who might do it, she hadn't been threatened or involved with anyone that might want to get back at her for some reason. The bloody message on the wall indicated that Riley's murderer would be someone that objected to his and Buffy's relationship. Did she have any ex boyfriends that might be jealous? She lied coldly to all of their questions, as did everyone else.

What bothered Buffy most about the situation, though, was the fact that Angel hadn't checked in all day. He had said it before – he lurked, shouldn't he have found out? Of course, he obviously hadn't been able to stay in the mansion after all. Angelus was there instead. Maybe he was held up in a crypt somewhere, if so he wouldn't have been able to get out at all until now.

A few minutes later the bell jingled. Angel stepped in.

Giles immediately got to his feet, Xander grabbed a cross and Cordelia reached for the stake that she always kept in her purse.

Angel looked at them, neutrally, not evilly, sadistically or gleefully that Angelus might.

"It's just me." He closed the door. "What's happened here?"

Anya finally spoke out in her usual straightforward way.

"Didn't you know? You killed Willow's girlfriend last night." Cordelia glared at her. Anya smiled a little. "Oh. Not you as in, YOU, but your evil persona. Since you are two exact copies of the same body and demon, though not soul since Angelus lacks one of those, I don't think it's a terrible mistake to not separate you verbally. I know if I had an extra version of me walking around, that was a vengeance demon, which I was before, I would call her me, since she would be me. Then again, I guess your horrible guilt complex stops you from…"

"Anya!" Xander looked at her tiredly. "Stop it, honey."

As soon as Anya had stopped talking, they all turned to Angel, to see his reaction to the news. Strangely, he looked slightly amused by Anya's ramble, and when they all looked at him expectantly, the seemed to remember that he should say something.

"Oh. Oh, god. Did Angelus kill her?"

Giles looked sternly at the vampire, crossing his arms over his chest. "I believe we already covered that, yes."

Angel sat down at the table in the center of the shop, right opposite Giles. He didn't meet the former watcher's eyes. Giles didn't think about it much, he assumed Angel was simply ashamed and didn't want to face him. Of course he didn't know that the reason Angel was avoiding eye contact with everyone who knew him was because he didn't want any one of them to figure out that his current status was soulless and fancy free.

"How did he…"

"He broke her neck," Giles cut off bitterly. "And left her for Willow to find."

Angel blinked several times and swallowed, presumably in shock. The gang didn't know that he fought hard to avoid throwing his head back and laugh at them. Hard. Humans were so pathetic. Take away an outsider like Tara, who none of them except for Willow really knew, and they were broken, completely unable to act in a sensible manner. How would they feel when he killed someone closer to them? He couldn't wait to find out.

"Where's Buffy?"

There was something about the way Angel said those words that made Xander's spider sense tingle. He had something of a déjà vu, he remembered himself on Valentines Day 1998, Angelus pulled him out Buffy's bedroom window, and he'd asked him where Buffy was before throwing him of the roof. That was a while ago, but not exactly something he would forget for a long time. More like – ever. He didn't get the chance to expand on those thought though, because as soon as Giles told Angel that Buffy and Willow were in the training room, he was off to see them.


Willow sat quiet in the dark, her back turned at Buffy. She hadn't said much. Actually, she hadn't said anything at all for hours, but Buffy didn't want to leave anyway. She wanted Willow to know that she was there for her, all the way. Apparently Willow blamed herself for letting Tara go to the dorm alone.

If Willow felt guilty, what should she do, Buffy thought darkly. Ultimately SHE and no one else was the cause of all this. Angelus hurt her friends to get to her. Tara and Riley were dead because of his sick obsession with her.

Riley had been killed because he was her boyfriend and Willow because she was a skilled witch and her best friend. It suddenly occurred to Buffy why most Slayers had been lonely fighters without friends or family that knew about their calling. Buffy's friends might have saved her from an inevitable early death on more than one occasion, but the cost had been high. So high. The fact that innocent people that she cared about had died when trying to fight the battles SHE was destined for didn't exactly make her feels like the goddess of everything righteous.

She turned her head as she heard the door open.

"Buffy…?"

Angel's voice. Finally he came to see them. Buffy wasn't sure how Willow would react to the alter ego of Tara's murderer, so she got up to meet him at the door.

"Hi Angel." she said, rather tonelessly. It was hard not to view him as Angelus now, now that she knew that an exact copy of the same demon and body was walking around out there… those hands brutally grasping some poor innocent kid heading home… those fangs splitting open a throat…

He looked concerned. "You heard?" Angel nodded and looked in Willow's direction.

"How is she?"

"Bad. Still beyond bad. She's like Giles was when… uhm… But worse, Giles hid his feeling better. I don't think the black magic really helped…" Angel looked interested.

"Magic?"

"Yeah. She went after Angelus, juiced with dark spells from books that she stole from Giles." She looked at Willow's turned back and lowered her voice. "He's worried what it might have done to her, I mean, she's powerful, but she's not ready for that kind of magic. She wasn't able to hold it up very long. Angelus had her at the throat when I came in, he would have killed her if I hadn't showed up."

Angel nodded. "Probably, yeah." Buffy furrowed her brow. That was a weird answer.

"Buffy?" Willow approached them. "Who are you…" She stiffened as she saw Angel.

"You." Not noticing it herself, Buffy moved herself so she stood between Angel and Willow.

"Willow, take it easy. This is Angel, not Angelus." She put her hand on Willow's shoulder. "I know you're upset. So am I. With the demon that did this. Not Angel."

Willow shook her hand off.

"No…" She stared intensively at Angelus, who was a little uncomfortable with her penetrating look. Damn witch. If she could sense his lack of soul only by looking at him, she was more powerful than Buffy and Giles gave her credit for.

She moved closer to him, practically forcing him to look her in the eyes. He knew that if he didn't do anything it probably wouldn't take long before she revealed his true identity, but what could he do? The only way to stop her from doing – whatever she it was that she did – would be to turn and run or inflict some kind of physical pain.

His first instinct was to shove her away, preferably so hard that she hit the wall right across the room and broke at least a two digit number of bones in her body. He COULD do that of course, it wasn't even a question whether he had the physical strength… But then, his cover would be blown and with an upset Buffy standing only feet away, it was quite possible that he would be dust before he had time to utter a sneering "Hello, lover". No. Bad plan. Instead, he did his best to keep his eyes mild and sorrow filled. Hard work.

Which failed.

Willow roared and hit him hard, obviously using magic. He flew backwards, through the door, crashing it, into the shop. The six people sitting there were staring at him.

"Willow!" Buffy's voice. Before Angelus could get up Willow spoke her irritating incantation once more.

"Kali, Hera, Kronos, Tonic. Air like nectar, thick as onyx, cassiel by your second star. Hold mine victim as in tar."

He couldn't move. Great.

"Willow, what are you doing!" Buffy grabbed her friend.

"This isn't Angel," she answered coldly without taking her eyes of Angelus. "It's Angelus."

Giles, Cordelia, Gunn, Wesley, Xander and Anya immediately got to their feet, grabbing various weapons. As Willows spell collapsed, Angelus jumped to his feet in gameface, hissing at his attackers. Giles hit him with a large cross but Angelus answered quickly by kicking it out of his hand.

Xander and Anya threw holy water at him while Willow chanted a spell that, judging by the heat under his feet… Consecrated the ground under him! Damn it! While he had to concentrate on moving constantly to avoid the consecrated part of the floor, Wesley managed to shoot him in the shoulder with a crossbow and Cordelia raised her tranquilizer gun and shot him with one dart. He jumped and kicked them both, sending them flying backwards.

Xander hurried up to Angelus and kneed him in the crotch, but he wasn't even fazed. Angelus grabbed him and flipped him over, sending him headlong to the floor. As he struggled to get up Angelus grabbed the thing closest to him on one of the shelves, a weeping Buddha, and hit Xander's already concussed head with it, which knocked him unconscious.

While he was busy with this, Anya had picked up Cordelia's gun and she shot him with three more darts. Dazed, Angelus turned to Buffy, who overloaded him with a series of punches and kicks. Angelus struggled against the affect of the tranquillizers, but he couldn't do much. With a loud thud, he fell to the floor, unconscious.