Revenge Is A Confession Of Pain
- Latin Proverb

Willow stood up, walking over to the bookcase and bringing back with her a dictionary in the form of Webster's.

"Hilary is in rage. You just can't be in rage without a reason and I believe that reason lies within the definition." She put the book on the table and flipped through the pages. "The definition of rage is violent anger and passion. I believe we can cure Hilary if we find what she's passionate about, the problem she can't fix and help her fix it."

Giles stood up, taking of his glasses and pushing another book into the center of the table.

"I did some further research and I believe the demon we are searching for is the Furibund, a sort of chaos demon. He works alone, using his victims for destruction. His victims become Furibundus, which in Latin means maniacal and raging." He paused, looking distressed, which is weird because we just found the answers we were looking for.

"You have your uh-oh face on… what's the uh-oh?" Buffy asked, leaning in and twirling the book towards herself. "Oh. That is a cause for uh-oh." She pushed the book back towards Giles like it was diseased.

"Yes, uh-oh. If we don't act quickly, Hilary will become a Furibund herself. The Furibund's victims mutilate, their passion becomes their disease and if not solved in time they, themselves become Furibund, which in Latin is furious and enraged." I twirled the book towards myself, looking for a picture of the Furibund… and uh-oh is right. It looks like a horrific transformation of the werewolf with a hunched back, a long muzzle with sharp, pointed teeth, the spine clearly showing and tail not at all puppy like. But since this whole conversation is about rage, let's talk about those horns, if I had to show you a picture of rage, I'd show you the Furibund's horns. Long, pointing towards the sky, sharp with grooves running along them. This creature, the Furibund is ridiculously outrageous… no pun intended. It's hands, not at all like a werewolf's, curls into the hairy palms, fingertips replaced by claws. I push the book away, exactly like Buffy did.

"Buffy, Faith, I'd like you to visit the girl's parents, find out anything you can about her. Willow see if you can find anything else to cure her. Dawn and Xander, look in her dorm room for anything that may lead us to solve her crisis." Buffy stood up and I followed suit.

"What should we be looking for?" Xander asked, also standing up.

"Diaries, divorced parents, abusive parents, a long lost love, we're looking for something big, the Furibund's power doesn't work on a missed homework assignment."

--

Dawn layed the diary on the table, shaking her head back and forth.

"I felt like such a criminal reading this, but it clearly states her passion." Dawn paused, twirling the diary around on the table. "Her parents. The father is an alcoholic, the mother judges all the time and they're married, fighting her whole life." I sat forward in my seat, raising my hand up.

"Whoa, wait. We spoke with the parents, who live only about an hour away, they have no idea they're daughter is here, in the slayer academy, the mother started sobbing half way through our questioning. My point being, your making them sound like assholes, the father a drunken asshole… and they didn't fit the description."

"It's not what I'm saying, it's what Hilary's saying. Basically, she feels like a failure, so she ran away from home looking for a little credit."

"So, what we need to do is get her parents here and get them to say… what?" Xander asked.

"We get them here and get them to see that they're daughter is actually alive, get them to admit how much they've missed her and how much they need her. I'm sure a few 'I love you's' could do the trick nicely." Dawn stated

--

We watched Hilary sob into her mother's arms, I looked over at Buffy, there were tears in her eyes, she looked at me and we stared into each other's eyes, a small smile curving her lips. She grabbed my forearm and I didn't realize I was smiling too until she looked away, making me oddly miss her amazing green eyes.

"C'mon, let's go." Then she pulled me out of the room with cells lining the walls and the heart mending confrontation that solved our first crisis.

We walked to the picnic area in comfortable silence, seeing only Xander, Dawn, Giles, Willow and Kennedy sitting at the tables.

"How'd it go?" Dawn asked as we sat down. Buffy smiled wider this time and I actually looked down at my chest as my heart skipped a beat.

"Hilary isn't going to become a Furibund and her parents are going to take more time out of their day for her."

"So problem solved?" Xander asked.

"Problem solved." Buffy replied. I was angry not at the shuddering roar hidden in the shadow of the trees, but that it made Buffy's smile dramatically drop to a frown before she spun around staring into the woods. The Furibund leapt out, lifting his head and giving another terrible roar. When it lowered its head again, its eyes made everyone at the table either stand up and take a step back or in Dawn's case, let out a small scream before clasping her hand over her mouth.

Its eyes were grey, it's pupil red. It reminded me of a vicious murder on a stormy day. He ran, Buffy standing nearest. Its clawed hands unrolled themselves, taking a swipe at Buffy. She tucked and rolled, I pulled the knife out of boot and leaped at him, landing the knife in the middle of its chest, he roared again and I barely dodged the clawed hand that came flying for my face.

"The venom lies within his teeth and claws!" Giles yelled from somewhere behind me. I stood up again, seeing it viciously shake around, trying to reach the knife. I saw Kennedy jump at it from behind, landing another knife in the back of its head; it stopped convulsing and spun around, heaving in breaths. Kennedy eyes opened in shock before she sprinted in the opposite direction. It took two steps before slamming into the ground with a loud 'thump.' It was silent as we all walked up to the demon, waiting for it to spring up and attack again. I kicked it with my foot, it didn't move on it's own.

--

"Wow, what a furry bundle of maniacal, raging madness!" Xander exclaimed, backing up a good few feet from the demon again.

I would've laughed, I knew it was funny. But Xander sounded distant and the pain in my arm was starting to crawl up to my elbow. I shoved my wrist into my pocket, hiding the small, rapidly bleeding cut.

I gritted my teeth, as the pain kept growing. It was flaring, like somebody was rapidly stabbing me.

And somehow I knew, as everything around me started becoming more and more annoying, that it was the venom coursing it's way through my veins.