A/N I really thought that more people would have reviewed the last chapter. I guess it wasn't as good as I thought. Anyway I hope that you enjoy this chapter, it is Angelus vs. Tara.

Also to Home and Charmed, yes Spike is still alive and no he doesn't have his soul. As for Angel and Buffy I think that their relationship might be over.

Chapter 16

Say your goodbyes

Tara's Bedroom

10:00

(If you're worried about them, then go check up on them) Angel was saying to Tara. She was worried about Angel and Miss Calendar, because neither of them showed up for her performance. She even called them and no one answered their phones.

(Yeah maybe you're right.) she said back to him as she put on her shoes.

(Good. Now travel light, you've been running yourself ragged lately)

(Whatever you say, big brother) she joked with him as she reached under her bed to get some weapons.

"Are you goin' somewhere?" Kendra asked as she woke up.

"Yeah, just a quick patrol."

"Mr. Giles said it would be quiet tonight."

"Yeah I know. I...I just gotta clear my head."

"Do you want some company?" Kendra asked eagerly.

"Naw, I'll be fine." with that said Tara got out a very small stake and a taser and took off into the night.

"Something just doesn't feel right." Tara said after a few minutes of walking.

(I know what you mean) Angel answered her.

"You don't think that Angel missed my performance because he and Buffy..."

(Of course not) Angel told her quickly. (You told him about his curse.)

"Yeah but sometimes the heart overrides what the mind wants." then she thinks of something. "I think I need to go check on Miss Calendar."

Tara then walks through a dark alley, for a short cut towards the school. Suddenly a vampire steps out in front of her and another one appears behind her. Tara slows, then stops and turns to face them. More vampires appear, surrounding her. They then form a loose circle around her. There are almost ten of them in total.

"Walk away." Tara tells them. Not taking her advice one of them walks toward her. "I'm serious. Don't do this. Not now."

"So you're the elusive Seraphim?" the vampire in front of her sneers. "You don't look so tough."

He then lunges at her and she shoves him. He flies backward into some large tubes. The other vamps attack.

Tara backhands a vamp, kicks another one in the face, spins around to punch another one. Then the leader attacks her with a long staff. She punches him in the face, takes the staff and uses it to stake a vamp behind her. She hits the leader in the face with the staff, dusts a vamp to the left of her, punches another one, and quickly dusts three more vamps with three quick jabs of the staff.

She pauses and faces down the one that spoke to her earlier. He runs at her, and as he flies over her head she stakes him. She turns and puts the staff to the throat of the last vamp, a woman, who stands still looking scared.

Tara slowly lowers the staff. The vampire looks surprised, then turns and begins to run away down the alley. Tara stands there looking thoughtful. After a moment she lifts the staff and throws it like a javelin. It flies down the alley and dusts the female vamp as she's running.

"Damn,..." Tara said panting from her slight exercise. "Why want people listen when you tell them you're busy." she comments as she runs in the direction of the school.

Jenny's classroom.

10:20

Jenny's still working at her computer. She taps a few keys, then looks up at the screen. A percent complete window appears over the Romanian text, and the bar zips across it.

"Come on, come on..." she says excitedly.

The bar disappears, and a translation scrolls up next to the original text.

"That's it!" she said releasing a breath she didn't know she was holding. "It's gonna work!" she says as she smiles and save the result. "This... will work." She pops out an unlabeled yellow floppy disk and sets it aside by some books near the edge of her desk. In the mean time a hardcopy has started to print out.

She wheels her chair over to the printer and looks it over. She looks up and sees Angelus sitting in a desk at the back of the class. She gasps and jumps out of her seat.

"Oh Angel it's just you." she breathes a sigh of relief. "When did you get here?"

"Oh only a few minutes ago." he said standing up.

"Angel, I've got good news."

"I heard." he said with a small smile. "You went shopping at the local boogedy-boogedy store and you're trying to give my grand-childe his soul back."

"Y...yeah." she said nervously. "Did Tara tell you?"

Angelus sees the Orb on her desk and picks it up. " The Orb of Thesulah. If memory serves, this is supposed to summon a person's soul... from the ether... store it until it can be transferred."

The Orb begins to glow as he looks into it. He glances up at Jenny for an instant. She edges away from him.

"You know what I hate most about these things, Janna?" Jenny screams as he heaves it into the chalkboard behind her. It shatters into hundreds of pieces and a lot of dust.

"They're so damn fragile." he says as he loses the smile. "Must be that shoddy gypsy craftsmanship, huh?" Jenny has backed into the wall and trembles with fear. She starts to inch her way toward the door.

"Angelus?" she says recognition dawning.

Angelus reaches over to the PC and turns the monitor so he can see it.

"I never cease to be amazed how much the world has changed in just two and a half centuries." Jenny has reached the door and tries to open it. It's locked. He turns the monitor back around.

"It's a miracle to me. You, you put the secrets to restoring a soul in here..." He shoves the computer off of her desk and onto the floor. It breaks, and the monitor shatters and sparks and starts to burn. Angelus tears the printout from the printer.

" and it comes out here." he says as he looks at the paper. 'The Ritual of Restoration.' Wow. This, this brings back memories." He starts to tear the printout in half.

As he does this Jenny finds a way out and flee's. Angelus grins and gives chase. As Jenny makes it to the hallway stairs, she looks back and Angelus isn't there. As she turns around, she see's Angelus standing in front of her.

"Angel..." was all she got to say, as he grabbed her and broke her neck.

"God I love that sound." he says as he caresses her face. "Now I'm just a little hungry." After feeding on her, he drops her dead body and takes off into the night. Just a minute later, Tara runs into the school and finds Miss Calendar on the floor dead. After looking over her body, she found that her neck was broken and that she was drained of blood.

It was obviously a vampire attack. It had to be Angelus. As she starts to cry, she takes out her cellphone and calls Giles.

"Yeah, Giles it's me." she says into the phone. "No I'm not alright...just please call an ambulance and tell them to come to the school." she thens listens to Giles. "It's Miss Calendar... Giles I'm so sorry, but she's dead."

After talking with Giles a little more she hangs up the phone.

"I'm sorry Miss Calendar... I was going to try to save you too." she replied as she closed the older woman's eyes.

(Tara.) Angel whispered into her mind. (He hasn't been gone long, you can probably still catch him.)

(Where is he going?) Tara asked as she stood to her feet.

(To see Buffy.) he replied.

Angelus was still on a high from the blood he drunk from Jenny Calender. Gypsy blood was just the best. With a grin on his face and blood still on his lips, he ran through an alley, and stopped dead in his tracks. Looking up he see's Tara glaring at him.

"Hey sis." Angelus says innocently. "What are you doing all alone down this alley?"

"Nothing much, Angelus." she says as she see's the blood on his lips. Sensing what she's looking at he wipes it off on his sleeve.

"So you figured out who I am. Damn, I'm really impressed."

Tara's only reply was to reach in her duster pocket and take out a small stake.

"Who do you think you're going to stop with that little thing?" Angelus asks as he laughs and points at her little stake. His laughter dies quickly however after she hits the release on the asp in her hand extending it to a baton.

"Where do you think you're going?" Tara asks as Angelus tries to walk around her.

"Going to see my girlfriend." he replies with a wiry grin.

They are now standing right in front of each other.

"Oh, you really think I'm gonna let that happen?" she asks.

"You think you're gonna stop me, sis?"

"I surely do."

Angelus throws a right cross at Tara's face but she deflects it with her free hand and whips the baton into Angelus' face. Tara quickly spins into a backhand swing and Angelus catches her arm, forcing her down on one knee, and slams a knee into Tara's face. Angelus doesn't let her go and lifts her back to her feet to swing her around and throw her through the air.

Tara flies back into a large heap of trash bags and card board boxes next to the loading dock of a building. She scrambles out of the trash onto the loading dock and picks up her baton where it had landed. Angelus leaps high through the air landing on the dock before she can get to her feet. Tara uses the baton to block Angelus' kick but the weapon is knocked out of her hand and the vampire punches her across the face.

Still on her knees, Tara retaliates with a fist to Angelus' groin. As the vampire bends down in pain, she gets to her feet, picks up an empty liquor bottle and smashes it over his head. She then grabs Angelus by the coat and rams a knee into his back sending him against the building. Angelus swings a backhand but Tara blocks it and slams the same knee into his stomach.

Angelus recovers and grabs Tara by the collar of her leather duster and then slams her back against a heavy door. She hits Angelus in the face with a left cross, but Angelus just slams her against the door again, and gets his hands around her throat. As Tara is forced down, under Angelus' strength, she pulls out a taser from her duster and shoves it into Angelus' chest. The shock flings him back and he falls into the trash heap. Tara gets on her feet and goes after him.

Angelus raises his head and growls at her, in full vamp face. Tara plants a hard kick into his chest and Angelus tumbles out onto the pavement. Standing over him, Tara tries to hit him with the taser once more, but Angelus catches her wrist, forcing her to drop it, and drives a fist into her stomach. He lifts Tara over his head and growls as he runs with her across the alley to send her crashing into a group of storage drums against the side of a warehouse. Tara tumbles to the ground but Angelus picks her up again and sends her flying to the other side of the alley. She lands on a pile of large metal conduit tubes, which break her fall none to gently, and she flops to the pavement.

Angelus hears the loud engine of an approaching vehicle and quickly climbs up the side of the warehouse, disappearing over the top. With a smile on his face he begins to get on his feet, until he looks down and see's some black boots. Looking up he see's Tara looking down at him.

"What took you so long?" she quips as she kicks him in the face. As Angelus falls on his back she gets on top of him and holds the sharpened end of the baton with both hands over his heart. Just as she is about to plunge it into his chest, she hesitates.

(Tara do it!) Angel shouts in her mind.

(But what if he doesn't come back, I...)

(But nothing Tara. Do it!) he yells back.

"What's the matter sis, lose your nerve?" Angelus asks from his position under her. Tara looks down at him with a tear in her eye before she replied.

"I love you." she says as she plunges the stake end of the baton in his unbeating heart. Angelus gives her a questioning look before he crumbles into dust.

As the dust of Angelus began to blow away, Tara started to weep. As if on cue the heavens opened up and it started to rain. Because it knew that, that night an Angel wept.

TBC...

Please review...

The Summer's Interlude is after this chapter. Also this was probably my favorite chapter to write.