A/N: I'm feeling nice today so here's chapter four as well. We left Xander feeling more than a little uneasy...

Chapter 4

Xander started to run. He could hear it chasing him through the shadows. Pumping his arms and legs he pushed himself as hard as he could, wishing more than anything that Buffy was there with him, to save his sorry skin. "When we find Oz I'm gona have words about his girlfriend fraternising with Dead Boy. When he gets involved I always get hurt." He gasped then wondered why he was wasting his breath instead of using it to stay alive.

When he gets involved you always survive! That creepy voice said again.

Finally, Giles' apartment block came into view. Xander practically threw himself down the stairs.

XxXxX

Will, I've been everywhere looking for you," the Slayer said taking her coat off walking into Giles' kitchen. "Xander said someone had information on Oz?"

"Yes, well, it appears Willow's fears were….." Giles trailed off hearing a ruckus outside. "What on earth….?" The three of them headed for the front door.

XxXxX

Xander scrabbled across the floor towards Giles' front door; he flew through the door slamming it behind him and threw the lock while trying to catch his breath.

"Are you sure it's closed Xander?" Giles mocked the teenager's entrance. "Why the hurry, Murray?" Buffy quizzed.

"Mansion………. Things……….followed…….hunted…….Angel……." The boy gasped.

"Things are hunting Angel?" A hint of panic entered Buffy's voice. Willow rolled her eyes and busied herself on the computer.

"No." Xander bent over resting his hands on his knees. "I think I'm being hunted by Angel." He said finally.

"What?" A bubble of anger and fear started in Buffy's stomach.

"I went to the mansion looking for Willow..."

"Wait, why were you at Angel's looking for Willow?" Buffy interrupted.

"I got there and it was empty and quiet," Ignoring Buffy's question, "then out of nowhere there was a nasty sounding growl and a pair of gold eyes staring at me through the bushes. Sound familiar to anyone?" He looked meaningfully at Buffy and Giles. Neither reacted. "See? How do we know he hasn't gone bad again? I mean he wasn't particularly friendly when he yanked me through the fire escape."

"That would be the whole not liking you thing." Willow said absently.

"How bout the fact that I got chased all the way here by something that growls and has glowing yellow eyes? How do we know that he isn't setting us up, that he isn't luring us all to this place to ambush us and kill us?"

"If Angel had gone bad I'd know." Buffy said defiantly.

"Like you knew last time? Just cause you weren't involved doesn't mean he's all fangs and soft stuff. There are other women in the neighbourhood besides you believe it or not and for some reason dark, brooding and semi-homicidal seems to be one of the top ten turn-on's of the decade!"

"That's enough Xander. Arguing isn't going to accomplish anything." Giles snapped denying Buffy the chance to respond. "We know that Oz is missing and I think we should err on the side of caution. After all we haven't had much contact with Angel recently; we don't know what he's been doing. I think we should keep our minds open to all possibilities." He avoided looking at the slayer.

"Giles! I cant believe you really think it's possible that Angel has gone bad." Buffy said indignantly

"Uh- hello, were you listening? I got chased from the mansion to here non-stop. I could've been killed!" Xander's voice rose.

"We don't know what followed you here; it could be just another run of the mill demon or vampire. We know what a hit you are with them!" Buffy growled.

"Me? What about you? You lip lock with the nastiest of them all!"

"Hey! I haven't seen Angel let alone spoken to him recently and you know why? Because of you! All I get is 'Angel this' and 'Angel that' from you. Whining about how much you hate him and how evil he is when you know nothing about him. He flies in and saves your life on a regular basis and you still cant find a single nice thing to say about him! You know what I think? I think you want it to be him so that you can do your happy dance and say 'I told you so' over and over like you've always wanted. Well I refuse to believe that he is pulling some kind of trick on us."

"Well, I suppose this would be a good time to mention that he left me a letter last night. He didn't stop, or say anything just slipped it under my door. He said he had a lead on Oz's whereabouts and was going to look into it." Giles said cautiously.

"See! I believe he wants to help Oz and Willow because he cares. Willow's right we've been so wrapped up in our own misery, especially you!" Not registering Giles' information.

"I'm not convinced there is anything erroneous about the information Angel has or his motives but we must keep on our toes. He is notoriously unpredictable."

"Wait so you've spoken to Angel?" Buffy pointed to Xander. "And you've had a letter from Angel. Wow! Am I the only one who isn't allowed to talk to him?"

Willow sat at the computer only half listening. She didn't really believe Xander was right but there was a twinge of doubt. What was Angel doing at Oz's house? How did he get in? Was he really telling the truth? What chased Xander from Angel's home? She tried to ignore the doubts that were circulating.

"This is great. Cordy doesn't want to talk to you," Buffy continued "because of what you've done. Angel loves me and wants to see me but can't because you're so judgmental. You think I wanted to tell him I couldn't see him anymore? You think that was easy? Well it wasn't. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. Killing him was hard but he was gone. There was no way to undo it. But this? This is a nightmare. He's there, in that big house, watching to see if I'll come and I can't because all I get in my head is your pathetic voice screaming all these evil things and I can't take it anymore! I'm going out to look for Oz. Now you can either shut up and help me or stay here and leave a friend in trouble by sitting and doing nothing with your stupid theories."

"Hey!" Willow said finally having heard all she could stand. "This is really helpful. Arguing is really helping Oz, isn't it! This is exactly why I spoke to Angel in the first place. He listened, didn't make judgments, just listened, not making my problem seem pathetic next to his."

"When did you talk to Angel?" Buffy said.

"Last night. I went to Oz's house and Angel appeared."

"At Oz's house? That's convenient!" Xander sneered.

"What?" Buffy snapped.

"Well I mean come on! Oz goes missing. Willow goes to check on him and Angel just happens to be there? I smell something strange with our tooth fairy, and it ain't hearts and flowers, unless he's developed a crush on Will."

"Did Angel say why he was there?" Giles ventured trying to ignore the fact that the boy had a point.

"He said he was patrolling the park and saw me go into Oz's."

"Does he always patrol the park, Buffy?"

"A lot of the time, kind of an unwritten agreement that whenhe does the park I do the graveyard."

"Well I see nothing untoward in his presence at Oz's house."

"Except he'd have to be invited in unless Oz was ……."

"Oz isn't dead." Willow snapped. "He said that he and Oz have had chats in the past so he'd been invited in."

"Is that likely?" Giles slid an agitated glance at the slayer.

Willow shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe I guess. Oz isn't very vocal about things usually."

"Maybe he finds Angel easy to talk to." Buffy suggested hopefully.

"I suppose it is possible, they do have similarities." He noted the quizzical look from the teenagers. "Well, both men have demons to control and no one knows about that better than Angel, so it is possible Oz finds it easier to talk about it with the vampire."

Buffy flinched at the cold tone the watcher used on the word 'vampire'.

"We must be alert. Either way Oz could be in serious danger if Angel is right. And, playing devils advocate, if Angel is dangerous then he may very well have Oz captive somewhere. It's not my first theory but it is a possibility Buffy and as I said before we must keep an open mind about this."

"Whatever." Buffy huffed.

"Nice attitude, Buff. Funny how when it's your honey involved you don't wana know."

"Xander." Willow pleaded, hoping he wouldn't start up another argument.

"Get a life Xander. You're just miffed because you lost Cordy because you couldn't decide what you wanted. You wanted Will when you knew you couldn't have her but you decided to hurt everyone in the process by pursuing it. Will was doing fine until you started yapping at her."

"Hey! She could've said no!"

"I believe she did, on many occasions it would appear!" Buffy bit back.

"Hey this is your argument. Don't bring me into it! I want no part of it!" Willow objected.

"Too late, Will, you're already involved. Hate to point out the obvious but if it hadn't been for our little encounter then Oz wouldn't be missing right now and everyone would be happy." Xander sniped.

"Everyone? Really? 'Cause I seem to recall being bitched at morning, noon and night about a certain guy I used to be dating, even before this happened!" Buffy snarled.

"Oh here we go again, making it all about you, as usual!"

"I'm just pointing out that you seem to think about you, yourself and no one else."

"You're one to talk."

XxXxX

Giles gave up listening. He knew it was futile trying to cool them off when they got like this; it was easier to let them argue until they ran their courses.

Circling the room his eyes fell upon the computer Willow had abandoned. A web-site caught his eye; Willow can't have seen it or she would have said. Reading down the page he became more and more engrossed. The thought that it might hold the answers crossed his mind but it was hard to concentrate on the small text with the others yelling at each other. It was a long shot but it was as good a lead as they had.

"Buffy wait!" Willow shouted as Buffy headed for the door again. She had lost interest in the argument and had been reading over Giles' shoulder.

"Will. I know we haven't been listening but Angel isn't the problem so I have to go and find what it is."

"Will you listen to me?" The young witch stepped towards her friend. "If you want to help me now you can start by listening!"

"Buffy, Xander sit down and be quiet!" Giles snapped. "This isn't some silly soap opera; you can't just storm off out into the night when it suits you pretending to have the moral high ground. You need to have ideas and a few facts might also help."

"Such as?" Buffy asked impatiently.

"Listen to this," Willow said. "This web-site was set up last year; a group of kids formed this group. They all met through a chat room and found they had a few things in common."

"Like?" Xander jumped in before Buffy could.

"They were all werewolves and had all been hurt by people they trusted."

"Man what are the odds!" Xander retorted sarcastically.

"According to this site they are all very similar people and much like Oz." Giles said reading the profiles. "All sentimental and sensitive, quiet among strangers and friends and fairly calm people in general. It's quite interesting, it's almost as if the wolf exercises any anger, fear and upset on the full moon, leaving them free of all those emotions while human."

"I wouldn't say that." Xander said remembering the punch he received from Oz when that spell he cast went wrong and Willow and all the girls in Sunnydale went Psychotic for him. "He has a serious right hook." He instinctively rubbed his jaw.

"And he's always scared that the wolf might find its way out even when it's not a full moon." Willow said. "So he's only a little like them."

"I think you're missing the big picture here." Buffy pointed out grumpily.

"Quite. All these students appear to be liked by all but were done wrong in various ways by those they trusted. One of them documented that they all felt they were easy targets for people because they were all too nice and laid back."

"Sounds familiar." Buffy muttered glaring at the back of Xander's head. You did him wrong. Buffy thought. Ok so Willow was involved too and could have said no but Willow has been in love with Xander forever and finally she's met a wonderful guy who loves her and Xander just can't keep his hands to himself. It's almost like he hadn't really seen her until someone else did, and the fact that everyone likes Oz had to be a kick in the teeth too. Shame it's not literal!

"So what happened to these kids?" Buffy said wiping the thought of punching Xander from her mind.

"There are a couple of odd entries then there's nothing." Giles said absently.

Buffy's ears pricked up. "Odd? How odd? What kind of odd?" She moved towards the computer.

"Well the last entry talks about a spell." Giles muttered as he read and re-read the entry.

"Uh-oh, that doesn't sound good." Willow said, a sense of dread chilling her veins.

"It's ancient Greek. I'm a little rusty but it appears it's a spell to the God Luna to 'ease their pain, allow those who hurt them to know their wrongs and for all wronged werewolves to be………..'" Giles stopped removing his glasses.

Willow scanned her eyes down the page to find where Giles had stopped reading.

"… does that say 'to be united'! What do they mean by that?" Her voice had an edge of panic.

XxXxX

Angel stood in the courtyard of his mansion. He smiled to himself remembering the look on the boy's face as they chased him. He'd seen Xander look scared before but this was more enjoyable than normal. Angel never had a great deal of liking for the boy and knowing that the chase had been a product of his own dealings; that made it all the more delightful. They weren't going to hurt him tonight, he'd seen to that. No, it wasn't time, yet. Everything had to be just right. But there was no more Angel could do, it was up to them now, he'd just have to sit back and watch from the sidelines.

He growled at the thought. He hated not getting involved in the fun parts, he wanted to be fighting with them but he had to stay hidden. Buffy couldn't see him; he'd had too much contact with the gang already.

Entering the main room he pulled out a map from his bookcase and began to plan his next move.

A/N: and that olks is where i'm leaving you! So whaddya think? Let me know any ideas you have about what's gona happen and i'll see who's right...

"catch ya on the flip flop"