Angel walked silently down the halls of the high school, instinctively seeking out the darkest shadows. As he neared the library, he heard voices raised in anger.
"The moment that Angelus lost his soul, you should have destroyed him!" a woman's familiar voice shouted.
"We had no choice!" Giles said harshly. "Our main concern at that moment was the Judge. After th--"
The woman turned around sharply to see what had caused Giles to stop speaking, and saw Angel. The woman sneered, and said, "You dare to come here, Vampire? You are more callous than I thought."
Angel's eyes narrowed, as his lips thinned, before saying in a voice that brought chills down everyone's spines, "What right do you have, to say such a thing to me, since I am not one of your number?"
"As Head of the Council, I have such a right," the woman replied arrogantly.
Angel's lips curled ever so slightly into a sneer, before replying, his voice contemptuous, "So…you are the one that made Buffy's life Hell on Earth."
The woman stiffened in outrage, before walking over to Angel, and slapping him ruthlessly across his left cheek, before shouting into his face, "How dare you!"
Angel, in a rare show of anger, grabbed the woman, turned her around, and lowered his suddenly vampiric face until it was a mere inch from her neck. He said, his voice deadly calm, "I dare, because I know what Buffy was like before being Called as the Slayer. I was there at her Calling. I have watched as her life has slowly been destroyed."
Angel glanced up through yellow eyes at the Scooby Gang, wanting to see their reaction. He wasn't disappointed, as they stood in complete and absolute shock. He addressed the gang, saying, "You could not have known, since by the time she came into your midst she had learned to hide her emotions very well."
The woman began to struggle, trying to break free of Angel's hold on her. Angel's grip tightened, as he said softly, his mouth close to her ear, "Don't." The woman stilled. "Very good. Now, listen to me, 'Head of the Watchers.' I can very easily kill you right now, but I will not. Why, you are probably wondering. Simple. I don't kill humans. I have not killed a human in about one hundred years."
With those words, Angel released the woman, and stepped back, as his face returned to its human guise. The woman turned around to gaze at Angel, and found herself falling into the darkest pair of soulful eyes she had ever encountered. A shiver ran down her spine.
"How did you know about her Calling, and how were you there when it happened," asked the Head of the Council nervously.
Angel closed his eyes, as an expression of pain and grief briefly flashed across his face, before saying, "I was…brought to watch her Calling. After I was shown what I was supposed to see, I was given a choice: return to the way I was living…or help her."
Angel opened his eyes, an eerie determination shone from them, as he said firmly, "I chose to help."