Hi! Back from camping. Here's an extra long chapter for you.

After getting Nicolai and Liliana on his side, Wesley felt much more confident that he would succeed in his goal to permanently anchor Angel's soul. That had been nearly a week ago, however. True to his word, Nicolai had gone to present Wesley's argument before the elders, but when he returned that first day, his news was neither good nor bad. Wesley's proposal would require a thorough discussion; something that could not be resolved in a matter of minutes—or even hours. Every single elder would have to come to a consensus before a decision was reached. Records and legends of their first encounter with Angelus were examined, details provided by Wesley of Angel's present temperament and morality were contemplated, and benefits were weighed. Before all else, however, came the Kalderash people's unquenchable thirst for vengeance. If they could not be persuaded that what Wesley had in mind would satisfy this thirst more fully, then all of his trouble would be for naught.

Despite this discouraging delay and nerve-wracking back and forth deliberation among the elders, the home of Nicolai Kalderash was not an unpleasant place to stay. Liliana was quite possibly the best cook Wesley had ever met, and her small boys, Vladimir and Stefan, were both sweet-tempered, polite, and much too adorable for their own good. Wesley felt sure that he owed much of Liliana's support to her desire to ensure that her sons would be able to grow up safe from the threat of Angelus. She, at least, understood that vengeance was a destructive cycle from which good could rarely come, and she had no interest in letting it continue if it put the people she loved most in danger.

The natural consequence of Liliana's mindset was that Nicolai dutifully returned to the elders every day to do everything he could to advocate Wesley's proposal. His report that day on returning home had been that only Alexandru and Dragomir were still having doubts. Fresh hope burgeoned within Wesley and the good news inspired Liliana to outdo herself in the kitchen. Wesley didn't know how he'd be able to go back to cooking his own meals when this was over.

[o]

Buffy had been hoping for a nice, calm day to inform her mother that Angel was back, but, by the looks of things, that day wasn't going to come anytime soon. Only a week had passed since his return, and there was already another apocalypse brewing.

The one advantage of this was that it helped to cement Angel's position among the good guys, because this was really not a situation in which they had the luxury of being picky about their allies. Willow and Oz were already supportive and welcoming before the supernatural horizon had even begun to darken, and Giles, remarkably, was not far behind them, but the extra nudge of impending doom was very helpful in getting Xander and Faith to fully come around. Cordelia had gone back to shunning the lot of them, so it made no difference to her either way.

Angel's return had also not gone unnoticed by Sunnydale's demonic community. It didn't take long—given the fact that he was patrolling with Buffy every night—for them to realize that he was not playing for their team this time. To Buffy's great alarm, this meant that he was one of the primary targets of the Sisterhood of Jhe, the group of demons responsible for the current trouble.

As the situation in Sunnydale became steadily more ominous, Buffy had decided to pay a visit to Willy the Snitch, from whom she got rather more than she bargained for. She had been prepared to either hit or bribe him for information, depending on how annoying he decided to be, but someone had beaten her to it. Horribly injured, Willy offered the information she wanted freely, but it was not good news. Not only was the apocalypse mere hours away, but Willy's attackers had been looking for Angel.

[o]

Buffy didn't even try to conceal her panic as she sprinted in the direction of Angel's apartment. She'd only had him back for a week, and there was no way she was going to let those blue-skinned harpies take him away from her again.

It was lucky that Angel opened the door about a second after she began to knock, or she probably would have torn it down in her haste to make sure he was okay. As it was, she nearly bowled him over by the force with which she threw herself into his arms.

"Thank God you're alright," she said into his chest as she clung tightly to him. Her voice came out high and squeaky.

"There a reason I shouldn't be?" he asked, beginning to stroke her hair.

Buffy pulled back to look at him out of slightly bloodshot eyes. "Willy said those Sisterhood demons were looking for you," she said. "And me," she added.

"Oh. That probably explains why I ran into a couple of them on the way back from the butcher's."

"What happened?" she asked, alarmed.

"Killed 'em," he said, shrugging. He looked more closely at her and frowned. "Buffy, it's nothing new for demons to be after us. What else is wrong?"

"Willy might have also said that the apocalypse is going to happen tonight."

"Do you need to call Giles?" he asked, jerking his head in the direction of the phone.

"Yeah, thanks." She hurried over and made the call. The conversation was short and not as comforting as Buffy had hoped.

"He says to wait until he and Willow get everything set up," she said restlessly.

"Shouldn't we be picking off more of the demons?" asked Angel.

"He doesn't want us to risk it. We're gonna need to be running at all cylinders if we want to stop these guys from opening the Hellmouth, so we should just sit tight." Which, they realized simultaneously, left them confined together in his apartment.

"Uh. Want to do some training?" he asked. Buffy seized on the suggestion with relief, and Angel began to direct her in the slow, graceful movements of tai chi. She learned quickly and they were soon flowing through the motions together as if they were steps to a dance they both knew by heart.

From what little Giles had told her of the martial art, Buffy understood it to be primarily an exercise to improve one's circulation and breathing during a fight, so she was not sure how it was a useful technique for Angel to have mastered—nor why he felt the need to dispense with his shirt before beginning. Not that she was complaining. Whatever benefit it may or may not have had for Angel, it left Buffy feeling remarkably calm and rejuvenated. She felt much more like the unstoppable force she would need to be when the time came to face the Sisterhood of Jhe than she might have been otherwise.

Just when their training session started to lean in a distinctly less professional direction, it was interrupted by a rapid series of knocks on the door. They jumped apart and Angel went to see who was there, feeling both annoyed and sheepish.

It was Xander. "Hey," he said awkwardly. "I've got this, um...," he stumbled over his words, fidgeting and looking from Buffy to Angel and back again. "There's this, uh...." They could almost see his nerve abandoning him. "This is probably a bad time, isn't it?" Both of them nodded mutely. He turned to go, then stopped, hand on the doorknob. "Can I help?" he asked hopefully. They shook their heads, and he slunk back out, looking crestfallen.

Once he had closed the door behind him, Buffy and Angel barely had time to exchange bemused glances before the phone rang. It was Giles, and the call was even shorter than the first. "Time to go," said Buffy after hanging up.

[o]

"They've agreed!" Nicolai announced the moment he walked through the door.

"Really?" asked Wesley.

"Yah!" said Nicolai robustly. He turned to Liliana and repeated the news in Romanian. She beamed and hugged him.

Wesley, meanwhile, had taken complete leave of his dignity, and was performing a triumphant little jig where he stood (which sent Vladimir and Stefan into peals of laughter). "This is fantastic!" he cried. "I can't thank you enough! Oh, I can't wait to tell Angel about this. When will it be finished?"

"They are waiting until sunset," said Nicolai.

"That's not even an hour off!" said Wesley. He couldn't remember ever being this excited about anything—not even when he was made Head Boy at the Academy. "You're quite sure they're going to do it, aren't you?"

"As sure as I am that my name is Nicolai Iosif Kalderash," he said.

[o]

"Oh, my God," said Giles. "It's grown." The slimy, three-headed beast that had erupted from the Hellmouth when the Master escaped was back, bigger and nastier than before.

"I've got the middle head," said Buffy, lunging forward with her battleaxe. Angel took the head to her right, while Faith went for the one on the left. Behind them, Giles and Willow began the spell that would bind the monster once more.

Angel, Buffy, and Faith ducked and weaved about the three heads, hacking at them with their weapons whenever they could. It shrieked in pain and frustration, writhing more fiercely. Faith was momentarily knocked to the floor when the head she was fighting swung around like a whip and caught her in the legs, but a quick kip-up and she was back on her feet, ready for more. Buffy had jumped on top of the middle head and brought her axe thudding down into its horribly glutinous flesh. It screamed and flailed, and she hung on for dear life.

Angel's latest blow had severed the feelers on top of the right head, but it hadn't even retaliated when he doubled over, feeling as if his insides were being ripped apart.

"Angel!" Buffy cried, but her momentary inattention cost her, and she was flung off of the middle head so hard that she flew through the library doors and skidded down the hall. All three heads came roaring after her. "Faith, go for the heart!" she yelled, running as fast as she could back into the fray, dodging the screeching heads.

Inside the library, Angel was still on the ground, his face contorted with agony, but there was no time to go to him. Buffy caught up her axe again, then hastily rolled to avoid the nearest of the lunging heads, which crashed through the wall as it missed her.

Faith threw her sword, and it hit its mark right below where the three long necks joined. The monster's screams increased in both pitch and volume. While it was distracted by the gruesome wound Faith had inflicted upon it, Buffy stole another glance in Angel's direction just in time to see bright beams of reddish-white light come pouring from his eyes and mouth. Then the light faded and he lay motionless on the ground amid an avalanche of books that had been knocked from their shelves. Buffy screamed his name again and ran towards him, but one of the thrashing heads caught her in the back, and she slammed down to the ground.

"Omnia...vasa...veritatis!" shouted Giles over the sound of the chaos around them. The binding spell was complete. "Now, Buffy!"

But Buffy was still on the floor, and Faith was too far away. Behind Giles, Willow screamed. The monster had transformed. The three heads had become one, its terrible features now sharply defined and more frightening than ever. Horror shot through him, but he had to act. He grabbed Buffy's axe and ran forward. The beast lunged, and for a moment it seemed that Giles would be swallowed, but then the thing let out a long, ear-splitting cry. The axe's head was completely buried in the roof of its mouth. With a series of blinding flashes of light, the dying beast retreated, until, finally, it was gone.

Buffy groaned and lifted her head. She could see Angel stirring too and she collapsed again in relief.

They made it.

Another apocalypse averted.

[o]

Wesley had been sorry to say goodbye to Nicolai, Liliana, and their sons, but he was keen enough to tell Angel what he had done to make up for it. And, in any case, he and Nicolai had promised to keep in touch, so it wasn't too bad. He arrived back at headquarters at roughly nine in the morning the next day, and struggled to keep his eagerness and triumph from showing as he walked to Quentin Travers's office.

"Oh, good morning. I didn't know you were back already," said Quentin after Wesley had knocked and entered.

"I only just arrived, sir," he said. "Now, if Tobias hasn't already done it, I'd be more than happy to resume my duties with Angelus today."

Quentin shook his head dismissively. "No need," he said.

"What do you mean?" asked Wesley, feeling a growing sense of foreboding. What had happened while he was gone?

Quentin frowned at him. "Weren't you aware that Angelus was to be used for the Slayer's Cruciamentum?"

Wesley's eyes widened. Oh, God. "What?" His voice was faint and distant. "No, I—"

"Oh. I thought I'd told you," said Quentin. "No matter. Angelus is dust. The Slayer passed, even if she does have a bit of a problem with her attitude. However, I believe that may have been due more to the ill-advised methods of Rupert Giles than any real shortcoming on her part. Which, incidentally, is why the other Council members and I have selected you, Mr. Wyndam-Pryce, to take his place as her Watcher."

Bwahaha. Totally managed to work the shirtless tai chi in after all. Because the story would have been utter rubbish without some of that, right? Anyway, this was obviously the alternate version of "The Zeppo", with the happy difference that we don't have to follow Xander around the whole time. And I'm pretty sure Angel's soul didn't get bound during that fight in canon. Something else must have knocked him out for a few minutes. I pieced together as much of that fight against the giant wormy monster thingy as I could from the tiny snippets we got about it in the actual episode. Also, how sad for Wesley now. All of that trouble in Romania only to come back and be informed that his friend is dead and he's going to have to be the new mentor of the girl who killed him. Oh, the dramatic irony.