Disclaimer: The title came from Disney's 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame', so I don't own it, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel' came from Joss Whedon, so I don't own them, and 'Charmed' came from Constance M. Burge, so that's not mine either. Anyway, enjoy.

Feedback: It's here to be read; let me know that it has been

ElvenPrincess01: Sorry, but Adam will be showing up; however, he won't be the same Adam as from the show… By the way, good point about the chip preventing Cole from changing; you won't believe it, but I never considered that factor, it was only intended to stop him from shimmering. Then again, that fact also helps the story along…

CharmingStar: Hope this is soon enough

Goddessa39: Actually, it's the fourth season for 'Charmed' in this story, so that idea doesn't make much sense in this context, but thanks for the suggestion anyway. Oh, and you got my pairing ideas correct

sired-by-spike: Glad you liked it; I've only ever picked Doyle's character from the books, but I figured he deserved to be included here as well.

El Chacal: Sorry, they won't be in time for that; however, I can assure you this story will be B/A all the way.

wackycavegirl: I do what I can; hope this didn't take too long for you.

seer-cassandra: 'Death warrant' is an understatement; if the Initiative don't get torn apart to such an extent that their parts spread across America, it'll be too good for them.

AN: This picks up just where 'Pangs' left off for the Scooby gang; e.g. Buffy just found out that Angel was in Sunnydale again and didn't mention it to her, due to Xander's unfortunate slip of the tongue.

What Makes a Monster?

"What?" Buffy said, looking over at Xander with a slightly shocked expression on her face. "What do you mean, Angel was here?"

"The bloody Poof was here!" Spike yelled, looking over at Xander in horror. "You didn't tell him about the chip, did you!"

Xander sighed and looked over at Spike. "I would have thought having Dead-Boy laughing at you would be the least of your worries, Spike," he said, before turning back to Buffy. "Look, we wanted to tell you, but he thought it'd throw you off your game if you knew he was back here, and, well…"

"Well what?" Buffy asked. "He thought he could just leave me in ignorance of the fact that he still feels the need to come sneaking around in my town even though we're broken up? He thought that-"

The phone rang.

Giles reached over and picked it up. "Hello?" he said, listened for a few seconds, and passed it over to Buffy. "It's Cordelia for you," he said.

Buffy took the phone and held it to her ear. "Cordelia?" she asked. "What's this about?"

"Angel's in trouble!" Cordelia yelled.

Buffy sat up straight in her seat at that. "What?" she asked.

"Doyle- Drunk in Residence and guy who has visions- had a vision of Angel being held with some red guy in some kinda military setup down there," Cordelia explained. "Don't know who the other guy is, but-"

"Wait wait wait," Buffy said, raising one hand as she processed the information. "Military guys? You're sure?"

"Yeah, it seems like that," Cordelia said. "Why?"

"We've been trying to get a bit of information about them recently; they've been tracking demons and vampires for the past few months and performing these weird experiments on them," Buffy said. Then she smiled. "They've even put this chip in Spike that stops him harming any humans!"

"HEY!" Spike yelled at her from across the table.

"Really?" Cordelia said, intrigued. "Spike can't hurt anyone?"

Then her tone of voice changed. "Wait; couldn't they stick one of those in Angel? I mean, it wouldn't make much difference, but he still prefers to have the option of hitting humans, doesn't he?"

Buffy paled. Cordelia had a point…

And besides, if they were harsh when conducting experiments on normal vampires, how much harder would they be on something as… unique, for lack of a better term, as Angel?

"Good point," she said, trying not to show how concerned she was. "Thanks for the tip; we'll get right on to it."

"What?" Cordelia said. "Sorry, I think you missed something; Doyle and I are coming down to check this out."

Buffy blinked in surprise.

"What?" she said. "You're coming down here… for Angel!"

"Hey; he saved me from a vampire my first month in L.A., and he helped me find this great apartment!" Cordelia said. "Besides, if I don't save him, where else am I going to find a job until I get a good acting gig? See you soon!"

"Hold on a-" Buffy began, but then a brief click was heard, and Cordelia had hung up.

"Well?" Xander asked, looking curiously at Buffy. "What?"

"Angel's been captured by those military guys," Buffy said simply.

"What!" Spike said, looking over at Buffy with a wide grin on his face. "You mean they went and captured the poof?" He grinned as he looked downwards. "Somebody down there likes me!"

Buffy looked over at him at that, a harsh gaze in her eyes. "Whever likes you down there, Spike, you seem to be forgetting that there are at least four people in this room who don't share their views, and quite frankly, given that Cordelia and another guy are coming down here soon, you might want to start telling us more about this base before we decide to try something a bit more… violent… to make you talk."

She raised a curious eyebrow. "Any preferences as to what we have to cut off first?"

Spike swallowed, looked briefly around at the others for some kind of assistance, and quickly realised that he wasn't actually going to get any from them.

He glanced back at the very irate and extremely annoyed-looking Slayer.

This didn't look all that good….

"So, you say that this…. 'Sunnydale' place has its own supernatural defender?" Piper asked Leo, as she drove the SUV down the long road towards Sunnydale. "What are we talking here; a witch?"

"No," Leo shook his head. "A Slayer."

"A what?" Phoebe asked, looking over curiously at Leo.

"A powerful warrior for good, created several centuries in the past at the same time as the Old Ones- the last pure demons- departed from our plain," Leo explained. "Essentially, one of these demons contaminated a human corpse with their blood before leaving, and thus created the first vampire. To battle this threat, several sorcerers used powerful magic to bind a demon with a young woman, giving her the strength, speed, stamina, and healing powers necessary to go up against the forces of darkness in single combat."

"Just strength and speed?" Paige said, surprised, as she looked over at Leo. "What about when she's facing something that can throw energy balls or something like that?"

"Slayers don't really encounter our kind of demon that much," Leo said, but nodding in approval at Paige's comment, like she was a student pointing out a problem in an equation he'd written on the board. "It's a basic instinct kind of thing; we attract the kind of demons who naturally use magic in combat, and the Slayers attract the demons whose main power in combat is the raw strength to beat their opponent to death."

"I see…" Paige said, nodding thoughtfully.

"And this Hellmouth thing you mentioned?" Piper asked curiously. "What's that all about?"

"It's pretty much what it sounds like; the entrance to Hell itself," Leo explained. "Its origins aren't known, but it is known that just opening the Hellmouth may trigger the ultimate Apocalypse- so, naturally, warriors for good are always stationed on the most active ones to prevent that happening."

"And the current Slayer's stationed on this one?" Phoebe put in.

"Exactly," Leo said. "Her name's Buffy Summers; she's been the Slayer for about four years now. She took out a couple of particularly powerful vampires in her first year as a Slayer, and, so far, has averted at least three apocalypses." He smiled slightly. "With a little help from her friends, of course."

"Her friends?" Piper asked, a prompting tone in her voice.

"Rupert Giles, her Watcher- kind of like her teacher and source of information for all the demons she battles-, Xander Harris, general tactics following a rather interesting spell that was cast on him, Willow Rosenberg, their resident witch, and, until recently, they had a werewolf called Oz and a vampire with a soul called-"

Paige interrupted Leo at that point. "Whoa whoa whoa- a vampire?" she asked, looking at Leo like he'd grown an extra head. "I thought you said they killed vampires?"

"Cole?" Piper said, raising one finger as she spoke.

"What?" Paige asked, looking curiously over at her sister.

"We're meant to kill Cole's kind, but we haven't taken him down yet," Piper pointed out. "Why's it so hard to accept that this guy could be their equivalent of our Cole?"

Paige was about to reply to that, but instead just shrugged and sat back down in her seat. She had to admit, Piper made a good point.

"So, what's his history?" Phoebe asked, looking over at Leo. "How'd he get a soul? What's his name?"

"His name's Angel, and, to answer your first question, he was cursed," Leo explained. "He was originally a normal vampire, but then he killed the favoured daughter of a clan of gypsies. To make him suffer, they gave him back his soul, along with all the guilt and horror of every evil act he'd ever committed."

"Ouch," Piper said, wincing briefly as she tried to imagine what it must be like to have something like that in your head. "There was a lot of that?"

"Almost a hundred and fifty year's worth," Leo said.

"Oh," Paige said, wincing slightly at the idea. Having the knowledge of the evil that could be committed in that much time…

Hoo boy, she thought to herself.

"So, he's like Cole now?" Phoebe asked, looking over at Leo. "A warrior for good, even though he's… meant… to be evil?"

"Yeah," Leo said. Then he smiled slightly, as a thought seemed to occur to him.

"What?" Paige asked, looking at her brother-in-law. "What's the joke?"

"It's just that Phoebe's comment about Angel being like Cole is more accurate than even that," Leo said, smiling slightly as he spoke.

"What?" Piper said, briefly glancing over at her husband as she spoke before turning back to the road. "How's he like Cole?"

"He fell in love with the Slayer," Leo explained.

Piper was so surprised she briefly slammed on the breaks.

"WHAT!" she said, looking over at Leo in astonishment. "He fell in love with his mortal enemy?"

"Is there a problem with that?" Phoebe asked, looking in an almost accusing manner at her sister.

Piper blinked briefly at that, as thought she'd only just realised what she'd been saying, but then sighed looked back at Phoebe.

"It's not that, Phoebe; I'm perfectly OK with the idea of you and Cole, you know that," she explained. "It's just… the coincidence factor of the whole thing, I guess. I mean, the only two demons we've ever known with souls, they've both fallen in love with a woman who's destined to kill them, and now they're both in the same town?"

Paige nodded at that. "Yeah, I see what you mean," she said. "It is a bit odd…"

"Actually, it's not," Leo said, raising his hand slightly to interject. "Angel moved to Los Angeles a few months ago; he doesn't live in Sunnydale anymore."

"Oh," Phoebe said, looking back at Leo, curiosity evident on her face. "Um… why did he do that?"

Leo sighed. "It's… complicated," he said, looking back at the sisters. "Essentially, the curse on Angel's soul, for some reason, came with a clause; if he ever experienced perfect happiness, he'd lose his soul again. He found out about it, and decided that… well, he thought it would be for the best if he left Buffy."

"Oh," Phoebe said, as she sat back in her seat as Piper continued her driving.

She wasn't sure how to feel about that.

Here she was, driving along to a town protected by a woman who, like her, was a warrior for good who'd fallen for a being that was meant to be evil…

And that relationship had failed.

Was that just because of their circumstances in particular?

Or were all relationships like hers and Cole's destined to end up in tragedy…