Angelus smirked as he entered the school, knowing Buffy was off patrolling with her friends which meant her watcher and that damn gypsy were unprotected. Killing the pair of them would hurt the slayer and prevent them from re-creating the curse which Dru had warned him about… in her own unique way.
As he casually strolled down the hall he decided to take out the witch first, after all Valentine's day was coming up and her desecrated corpse would be the perfect gift for the watcher.
He chuckled to himself as he pictured the look on the Englishman's face when he found her. A plan started to form in his mind on just how to position things for the greatest effect. If everything went as planned he might even be able to turn the watcher against his slayer.
He grinned. Causing strife in the group and turning them against one another… his gift would be one that kept on giving!
As he approached the door to the computer science lab he paused as he heard a feminine moan. Wasn't she supposed to be working on translating the curse and still estranged from the watcher?
He snorted. It wasn't like it mattered and while he would have liked to have left her body for the, not quite as stuffy as he'd thought, watcher to find, raping and killing her in front of him would do in a pinch.
Angelus yanked open the door. "Hello kids, don't you know your public displays of affection are frowned upon in school?"
The two adults sprang away from each other in shock turning to stare at the vampire in horror.
Angelus strode forward only to smash his face into an invisible wall, breaking his nose. "What the fuck?!"
"We warded the room," Giles offered dryly as he straightened his clothes, knowing that being treated as harmless would anger the master vampire more than any insult he could possibly have hurled.
Angelus glared, enraged before he regained control of himself. "You little flesh bags think you're so clever," he said with a sneer before snapping his nose back in place with a sickening crack, "but a ward isn't exactly a threshold, it has weaknesses."
"Of which we're very much aware," Giles assured him, while examining his nails, pretending to pay the demon little mind.
"Wards can always be corrupted," Angelus said trying to hide his anger and failing. He held up now blood covered palm and forced some of his essence into it. He ignored the slight weakness he felt and shoved his palm against the ward, feeling it crumble. With a totally evil grin he strode forward only to break his nose once more and stumble backwards.
"Naturally when casting tantric wards it's best to layer them," Giles offered 'helpfully'.
Angelus snapped his nose back into place and used the blood to infuse his demonic essence to destroy the ward once more, forcing himself not to show the weakness he was feeling from destroying two wards in a row.
This time he paused and felt the doorway, discovering a third ward. "While the spirit may be willing the grey in your hair says you can't have that many layers up," Angelus said smugly, drawing on more of his strength and shattering the third layer.
Giles grinned. "I have yet to run across that problem, maybe in another decade."
Angel snarled and broke the fourth layer, taking a moment to regain his strength. "How many layers can you possibly have put up?"
"Thirteen," Giles said smugly.
"Thirteen?" Angelus asked numbly.
"Would have been fourteen, but you interrupted us," Jenny offered.
Angelus stared in disbelief, but he couldn't sense a lie. He'd broken through four layers and was feeling as weak as a fledge, there was no way he was going to be able to make it through thirteen.
Recognizing a losing battle he just glared at them for a moment before snarling, "Tell Buffy I said hi," and stalked off.
"Well, that was a mood killer," Giles said with a sigh.
"I don't know," Jenny said with a grin, "I found you toying with him rather… stimulating."
"Really?" Giles asked with a smile.
"Definitely," she said, toying with the buttons on her blouse. "Wanna see if we can make it to fifteen layers?"
"I believe I can oblige," Giles said, leaning towards her.
Angelus quickened his pace out of the school cursing his vampiric hearing. "Fifteen?! I'm going to torture that secret from him before I kill him!"
0o0o0o0o0o
Buffy's eyes narrowed as she saw Miss Calendar was talking to Giles in the library, but she decided not to say anything as Giles had been looking happier lately.
Seeing that all the children were there, Giles turned to address them. "Everyone, I've been working with Jenny to recreate the spell that gave Angel his soul back. Well, to be truthful I've done very little of the actual work and was mostly just assisting and playing gopher," he said, hoping to convince his slayer to accept his love back into their group. "At any rate we now have the spell needed to restore Angel."
"We do?!" Buffy asked excitedly. "Like, right now?"
"Yes, we do," Miss Calendar told Buffy. "In fact we were planning on doing just that."
"Why don't we all go to a graveyard and cast it?" Oz asked casually.
"Because Angel's hooked up with a crazy vamp who would see us do it with her crazy future vision and we'd be attacked by a bunch of vamps," Cordelia said dryly.
"And how is that different than doing it here?" Willow asked as she realized the point Oz was making.
"We've warded the library to prevent vampires from entering," Giles told them.
"Several times over," Jenny added smugly, causing Giles to start polishing his glasses, looking embarrassed.
"And just like that it became a good idea," Xander said cheerfully. "Let's all arm ourselves and get to spelling."
"Why do we have to arm ourselves if the library is already warded?" Buffy asked Xander, surprised he was so gung ho about getting Angel back.
"This is the Hellmouth," Xander replied as if that explained everything, which after a moment's thought everyone agreed with and quickly retrieved their weapons.
"Are you sure the wards will hold?" Willow asked Giles. "I mean, you have mentioned that the Hellmouth corrupts spells and we're directly over it."
"Hence the numerous castings," Jenny said with a smirk. "Trust me, not a single vampire is going to gain entrance to the library for at least a week."
"Does it work on trolls?" Xander asked. "Cause if it keeps Synder out I'm willing to spend some time learning it."
"Joke later, spell now," Buffy told Xander firmly, excitement in her voice.
"Right," Xander said, "head in the game."
Giles, Jenny, and Willow gathered in the center of the library to discuss the details of the spell, while the others moved to the side so they wouldn't distract them.
"I can't believe I'm getting Angel back," Buffy said in wonder.
"But you can't date him," Cordelia said, confused.
"What?" Buffy asked.
"You gave Angel a happy, breaking the curse," Cordelia said. "Why are we doing this if you're just going to break the curse again?"
"I can see him without giving him a happy!" Buffy defended herself.
"No," Xander said slowly, "the curse works by making him miserable and being with you in no way makes him unhappy. You don't have to give him a happy to make him happy."
"Well… I'll have him back as a friend and patrol partner if nothing else," Buffy said with a sigh.
"And also removes Angelus as a foe," Xander said, "win-win."
"Which is good," Oz offered.
"He's been a lot more active on our end the happier he's been, until he got too happy," Xander said with a frown. "Hell, at the end I was actually glad to see him around, because as long as he was on patrol with Buffy I knew she'd be okay. We need some way to keep him unhappy until we can find a way to anchor his soul in place, there has to be some way that isn't broken by him having a good night."
Seeing that the other three were staring at him, Xander had to ask, "What?"
"Didn't expect you to have anything good to say about him," Cordelia admitted.
"He was a drunken womanizer when he was alive, who fell for Darla's act, while drunk, and… got drunk. Now Angelus was a straight up monster who got cursed which ripped Angel out of the afterlife and that kinda sucks for him-"
"Kinda sucks?" Buffy interrupted, not liking what she was hearing.
"Yeah, kinda," Xander said, "because he got a chance to make up for all the crappy things he did when he was alive."
"What about while he was a vampire?" Cordelia asked.
"He's not responsible for what Angelus did," Xander said with a shrug. "I mean, you may argue he bears a little bit of responsibility for getting turned… but it's not like he really had a choice. No, Angel is not responsible for what Angelus did, he's only responsible for what he himself did. Anyway he had a chance to make up for it, and chose to mope for a couple of centuries until he started to make a real difference here and then he lost his soul again. Not sure he scored enough points to get into heaven, but this gives him a third chance at it."
"Three strikes you're out?" Oz questioned.
"There's probably a mystical reason for it, but yeah," Xander agreed, "this is probably going to be his last shot, so we gotta keep him unhappy until his soul is locked in and then we gotta keep him on track for redemption, which with all the crap we go through, he has a good shot at."
"You've put a lot of thought into this," Cordelia said, surprised.
"I put a lot of thought in a lot of things," Xander said, "it's just that most of it doesn't come up."
"Like what?" Buffy asked curiously, trying to distract herself so she'd stop worrying about Angel and how their relationship was going to change.
"The Judge had the whole 'no weapon forged' thing going on, but that left some huge holes and I'm pretty sure it was a lie to keep people from attacking him," Xander explained.
"How do you figure?" Buffy asked.
"They had to reassemble him like the world's worst jigsaw puzzle, but the end of his arm wasn't ragged, so it's kinda obvious they cut him apart way back when," Xander explained.
"Could have used obsidian blades," Oz offered, "they aren't forged and properly chipped they cut like a scalpel."
"It would have come up in the story," Xander said, "details like that would have been bragged about. No, I think he could just survive being dismembered and a legend sprang up about it. We probably could have taken him out any number of ways, a rocket launcher was just the safest I could think of off the top of my head, because of the 'burn out your humanity at a touch' deal."
"What was your back up plan?" Oz asked.
"Steam roller," Xander replied.
Everyone just stared at him once more.
"He was strong, but he wasn't that strong," Xander said with a shrug. "The hard part would have been getting him to stay in one place so I could run him over, but I probably could have handled that with just a few taunts."
"How many of your plans are based on Warner Brother cartoons?" Buffy asked, trying not to laugh as she pictured a flattened Judge, smashed into the pavement.
"A fair amount," Xander admitted with a grin, having succeeded in distracting Buffy from worrying.
"They've started the spell," Oz noted, turning to see the three magic users chanting and Giles' paperweight glowing like a hundred watt buld in their joined grips.
The chanting quickly reached a crescendo and there was a flash of blinding light and much cursing from the four watching.
"It's done," Giles said and the three magic users stumbled off to collapse into nearby chairs.
"It worked?" Buffy all but begged.
"I felt the hand of my ancestors," Jenny said in awe, "it definitely worked."
"Yay team," Xander said, rubbing at his eyes to try and remove the spots.
"So now we research a way to nail his soul to his body?" Cordelia asked, blinking and waiting for her vision to return.
"Pardon?" Giles asked.
"Xander was saying we needed to lock Angel's soul in place to make sure we never have to worry about Angelus again," Buffy explained.
"An ounce of prevention," Oz said, squinting a little as he carefully walked over to sit next to his girlfriend.
"That's a good point," Jenny said, "the curse is so difficult to cast because you're ripping a soul out of purgatory-"
"How do you know it wasn't heaven?" Buffy interrupted her.
"Because you can't rip a soul out of heaven," Jenny said firmly. "The curse isn't used on people who would end up there because pulling a soul from heaven is beyond our capability, thankfully."
"Oh," Buffy said softly.
"Anyway, there are quite a few spells to anchor a soul that is still on this plane, we just need to find a decently skilled necromancer," she explained.
"Are you sure Angel's soul was in purgatory and not hell?" Xander asked.
"Xander!" Buffy complained.
"Just making a point," Xander assured his friend.
"It only took three of us, it was definitely purgatory," Jenny told them.
"See," Xander told his friend, "Angel is not responsible for Angelus' sins or he would definitely, one hundred percent, have been in hell. Angel was just a bit of an asshole, hence purgatory."
"And why did you need to make sure we all know this?" Buffy asked annoyed, but not overly so, as she had Angel back, so Xander's usual gibes at her boyfriend weren't a big deal.
"So we can keep in mind that as his friends our job is to help him earn his way upstairs so he's not stuck as a civil servant in the afterlife for a few thousand years," Xander told her.
"Are you using Beetlejuice as a reference here?" Buffy asked in disbelief.
"Kinda sorta," Xander admitted. "Are you telling me working at the DMV isn't punishment for sins committed in their last life?"
"He has a point," Giles said tiredly.
"Seriously?" Buffy asked Giles.
"Not about the DMV," Giles said dryly, "but about helping Angel reach a more favorable afterlife."
"This is Angel's last chance, we can't let him waste it," Xander said. "We owe the guy for saving our ass a time or two and it's time to pay up."
"Oh," Buffy said, surprised and a little grateful.
"And?" Willow asked, knowing Xander better than anyone, so she could see he had another reason he was hiding.
"And… it's the perfect way to torture Angelus," Xander admitted with a wince. "Okay, my motives aren't exactly pure here, but I mean what I said."
"Oh," Buffy said, while Cordelia snickered, relieved her boyfriend wasn't still carrying a torch for the blonde slayer and amused at how far he'd carry a grudge.
"Are you sure you aren't part Romani?" Jenny asked with a grin.
"Nope, just a simple Sunnydale boy here," Xander said.
"Alexander Lavelle Harris," Willow teased knowing he hated his middle name.
"Will!" he groaned.
"So you are part Romani," Jenny said, "and one of the Lavelle."
"The Lavelle?" Xander asked, confused.
"The Lavelle were the branch of the clan that Angelus attacked," Jenny explained, "and vengeance is in your blood. It's nice to meet you cousin."
"So Xander hated Angel because he's a gypsy?" Buffy asked.
"Vengeance is in our blood," Jenny said with a smirk.
"You do hold a grudge really well," Oz noted.
"He doesn't hold grudges, he feeds and nurtures them, taking them on walks when the weather is nice," Willow offered with a smile.
"I don't think it's genetic," Xander said, rolling his eyes, "it's just the way I am."
"Sounds genetic to me," Buffy offered, amused.
"Could be learned behavior," Willow argued.
"Can we discuss my shortcomings at another time?" Xander asked sarcastically.
"I have lunch free," Oz offered.
"No you don't," Xander said with an evil grin. "Training."
"And suddenly my joke turns on me," Oz deadpanned.
"Nah," Xander waved it off, "I'll joke, but I'm going through the training with you."
"So the question becomes is Xander the type who is willing to cut off his nose to spite his face," Giles said amused.
"I never really got that saying," Buffy complained. "I mean sure cutting off your own nose is stupid and all, but your face is also you."
"Yes, but you're aware of what it means so the exact wording is unimportant," Giles told her.
"I don't know," Willow said, "people get different meanings from old sayings depending on their mindset."
Oz looked at Xander. "What does this quote mean to you, Buddha says holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die from it."
"Make doubly sure your enemy drinks the poison and not you," Xander said. "Wise words."
"You children are going to be the death of me," Giles said, not entirely in jest as he rubbed his temples.
"And that's our cue to leave," Buffy said. "Come on, I want to at least check Angel's apartment before the sun comes up."
"We'll take my van, it'll be faster," Oz offered.
"You're going to train him into the ground, aren't you?" Cordelia asked her boyfriend.
"Yeah, but I was going to do that anyway," Xander replied, "now I'll just be doing it while grinning evilly."
"Somehow that makes it worse," Oz said as they filed out of the library.
"The kids are gone, it's the weekend, and we're all alone in the library," Jenny said, "what ever should we do?"
"Reinforce the wards?" Giles guessed.
"I'll lock the doors."
Typing by: fyrewolf5
TN: Nice to see this getting continued, it's a fun story that hasn't been updated in a while.