I waited outside the room they'd moved Buffy's mother to, pacing endlessly, my arms wrapped around myself.
I couldn't stop thinking about Angel. About the attack. There was a piece missing. He hadn't been the one to attack Buffy's mother, of that I was almost certain. But his presence, and the way he'd looked…it was all very damning.
But what was I overlooking?
Had Angel been working for the Master all along, and had he been sent to hurt Buffy by killing her mother?
Or was this…what, exactly? What else could it be?
My musings were interrupted when I got the welcome scent of tweed, tea, ancient pages, and aged leather and ink.
'Giles.' I thought with a sigh of relief. I turned and quickly walked towards the scent, and soon spotted him, looking around for the room number. I waved my hand at him and he hurried towards me, coat flapping as he ran.
"Margery," he said as he swept up to me and grasped my arms, "are you hurt?"
I shook my head.
"Angel was…not at his strongest." I answered, and looked up at him with a frown, "I'm missing something, Giles. There's a piece to this bizarre puzzle yet veiled to me. This whole thing just doesn't make sense."
He answered my frown with a puzzled one of his own.
"How do you mean?" he asked, "I know you said you don't believe he's responsible for the attack, but…you fought him, didn't you? He must have been there?"
I nodded, and pulled away from him so I could run my hands over my face in agitation, trying to put everything together in my mind.
"He was, he was, and I thought he had been responsible." I answered, starting to pace again while he watched me over his spectacles.
"I mean, he was right there," I answered, "he had her, he was holding her, and she was unconscious, with a bite mark upon her neck. His true nature was showing, and he was growling, but…I beat him in that fight, Giles. I shouldn't have been able to."
"Why not?"
"Because I'm only partially as strong as a vampire, and while I can hold my own in a fight, against such a proficient killer such as Angelus, he should have been able to defeat me easily, and that should be doubly true if he had just fed from a fresh food source."
I saw Giles grimace at my calling Buffy's mother a food source.
"Apologies," I murmured, "just putting it in perspective."
"It's fine, continue." He answered, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
"Well, he didn't look or smell or act as though he'd just been feeding. He was slow, too slow, and weaker than I'd expected. There was no blood on his breath, and he would have flown into a rage at being interrupted during a kill had he been feeding when we came in, but he denied his involvement instead and pleaded for mercy."
I shook my head again and ran a hand through my long black hair.
"It doesn't compute." I told him. "It just doesn't make sense."
"Then what do you think happened?" he asked.
I shrugged helplessly and looked at him.
"The more I try and figure out what's happening with Angelus, the more I seem to make things worse," I told him, "so I'm rather fearful to even hazard a guess at this point."
Giles sighed and rubbed his forehead agitatedly.
"I wish just once we could have something go our way." He muttered. I nodded in agreement, feeling my shoulders slump in defeat.
Ever the comforter, Giles put his hand on my shoulder and gave it an encouraging pat.
"For now," he said, "we'll continue to think on it." He assured me, then nodded to the door I'd been standing, or rather, pacing, in front of.
"Is Mrs. Summers in there?" he asked. I nodded and motioned for him to follow me as I opened the door and stepped inside.
Mrs. Summers looked a little pale, but she was awake, and talkative. Or at least a little more talkative than she had been.
They were pumping more blood back into her, and I had to sternly remind myself not to look at the bag. The Essence was already having an excited enough time taking in all of the scents of blood, pain, and weak prey.
As we entered, I heard her retelling the details of her 'fall' to Buffy, Xander, and Willow, though she seemed bewildered as to why the doctor thought she'd accidentally jabbed her neck with a barbecue fork, since they didn't own one.
Thankfully she was prevented from thinking too deeply on this when she noticed we'd come in.
"Oh hello, Margery," she smiled at me, "how nice of you to come."
"Mrs. Summers," I bowed slightly to her, "I do hope you're feeling better now."
Then her eyes flitted to Giles and she frowned slightly.
"Are…you the doctor?" she asked, sounding a little dazed, still.
"Oh, uh, no, Mom this is Mr. Giles." Buffy explained. A look of recognition dawned on Mrs. Summers face and she leaned back with a graceful smile.
"The librarian from your school!" she nodded, then flushed in embarrassment. "What's he doing here?"
"Uh, I just came to…pay my respects," Giles interjected, stepping forward, "and wish you a speedy recovery."
Mrs. Summers laughed softly.
"Boy, the teachers really do care in this town." She murmured, beaming at Giles, then Buffy.
'Especially when vampires are involved.' I thought wryly.
"Get some rest, now." Buffy ordered her mother gently, planting a kiss on her pale cheek. Her mother nodded tiredly, but managed to give us a weak wave as we followed Buffy back out into the hallway.
There was a long moment of silence, and no one knew exactly where to look. Xander kept rubbing the back of his neck and glancing at Buffy while Willow anxiously played with the hem of her shirt and looked at me; Giles stared at the floor and I tried to look at anything that would distract me from the scents bombarding me.
So mostly I was looking at the florescent lights with squinted eyes.
"She's going to be okay." Buffy finally said, breaking the silence. I looked at her then. "They gave her some iron since her blood count was…a-a little…" her voice trailed off.
"A little low." Giles supplied gently. "It presents itself like mild anemia, you were lucky you got to her as soon as you did." He looked at both me and Buffy then.
I didn't feel very comforted by that statement, as well intentioned as it was.
Buffy felt the same way.
"Lucky? Stupid." She corrected.
"Buff, it's not your fault." Xander told her.
"No?" she answered, "I invited him into my home, even after I knew who he was, what he was, and I didn't do anything about it because I had feelings for him, because I cared about him."
"If the fault lies with anyone, it's me." I told her, looking her dead in the eye.
"If I'd just been truthful with you in the first place, we might have been able to avoid this whole thing. If you're going to place the blame with anyone, don't place it upon your own shoulders. It's mine. I'm sorry."
Buffy paused, but then shook her head sadly.
"I started caring about him before you even saw him," she replied, "It might not have made a difference anyway."
"If you care about somebody," Willow broke in, "you care about them," she glanced at Xander, "you can't just change that by-"
"Killing him?" Buffy finished for her, "Maybe not. But it's a start."
She started to stride away from us, so I followed. Whatever she was planning, I needed to help her with it. I owed her and her mother that much.
"We'll keep an eye on your mom." Xander called after us as we walked. Giles hurried after us, trying to stop Buffy.
When she didn't stop at the sound of his hurried footsteps he called her.
"Buffy!" he snapped. She whirled on him, eyes flashing with determination and anger.
"You can't stop me." She hissed. "The Three found me near the Bronze, so did he. He lives nearby, and I have the perfect sniffer-dog to help track him down." She glanced back at me, "Right, Bloodhound?"
I dipped my head.
"My services are at your disposal." I replied. Giles shot me a disapproving look, which, I must confess, hurt a little. I didn't want to disappoint him, but I wasn't about to let Buffy go off alone.
"Listen to me," he begged, turning back to Buffy, "he is no ordinary vampire. There is such a thing. Now he knows you, he's faced the Three, I think this is going to take more than a simple stake." Buffy wasn't fazed at all.
"So do I." she answered. "So I'm making a supply run." She looked back at me again.
"Dibs on the crossbow." She said.
We armed ourselves with the weapons Giles kept in the library. As Buffy had already claimed, she got the crossbow while I took several stakes, a bottle of holy water, and a longer stake that I think had been part of a spear.
I briefly considered taking a quarter staff, but decided not to since if we were going to confront him in his own lair, there would be close quarters in fighting and I might not have enough room to maneuver it correctly.
We first visited the Bronze, but I didn't smell anything there other than LOTS of humans, hormones, alcohol, and cigarette smoke, so we moved further downwind, closer to where the Three had attacked Buffy.
"Here." She said, coming to a halt, "He came from over here." She walked over to a chain-link fence and then turned to me in expectation.
"All right," I said, walking over to it, "just give me a moment, if the scent's faded it might take me a bit to find it again."
"Angel's got nothing but time," she answered, "go ahead."
I nodded, and closed my eyes, inhaling as deeply as I could.
Several hundred scents filled my head, and I started sorting through them.
Most of them were human, of course. Scents of urine, more alcohol, some vomit, refuse, stale pizza, molded hamburger, etc.
The decay scent here was more from trash than anything else, but buried in amongst that I could just faintly sense an older, more feral scent of decay. Definitely vampire, and hopefully Angel's scent, otherwise we'd spend half the night hunting down some random creature of the night.
Once I found the scent I was looking for, I honed in on it and pushed the others aside.
I had it, then.
"The game is afoot." I said, smiling as I opened my eyes and turned to Buffy. She lifted the crossbow determinedly and nodded.
I started following the trail, navigating through empty streets and through dingy, darkened alleyways, quickening my pace as the scent grew stronger.
He'd made a mistake: he used the same path home every time, so his scent was getting stronger by the second.
I stopped when I came to an old warehouse that looked like it dated from the early 1800's.
"Here." I said, looking at the boarded up doors and windows. Buffy stepped up beside me, and wordlessly moved towards a ladder I hadn't noticed. There was nothing left for me to do but follow her up and into the warehouse.
I was not a little anxious entering Angel's lair.
He must have known retaliation would be in store for tonight's stunt. After all, he'd been hunted before, so he would know full well that Buffy would be coming for him. We could be walking into a trap, and I said as much to Buffy.
"Good." She answered, "That way we don't have to try and find him all night."
Much to my surprise, however, once we were in, we weren't immediately set upon by Angel, or any other vampire for that matter.
That just made me more anxious, and I think Buffy started to become a tad more fearful as well.
We started moving through the building, trying to keep to what little light the streetlamps offered.
Buffy let me take the lead so I could follow the scent, but as we were moving down a hallway, and sensed it much more strongly from behind us and whirled around, as did Buffy. We were just in time to watch a dark shadow shift and then disappear into the rest of the darkness around us.
"I know you're there." Buffy said, lifting her crossbow, "And I know what you are."
"Do you?" Angel's voice came to us from the darkness, but it echoed off the walls and through the empty rooms to where neither of us could pinpoint where it was coming from.
"I'm just an animal, right?" he continued.
"You're not an animal." Buffy answered, "Animals I like."
"So I'm just a monster, then?" he asked, "Is that why you brought one with you? Using a monster to find a monster?"
I felt a growl burn in my throat at that, but I managed to smother it.
He wasn't wrong, after all.
Suddenly another growl came from the shadows and Angel stepped into the dim circle of light coming in through one of the windows that wasn't boarded up.
His true face was showing again, and he growled at us.
"Let's get it done." He said.
Angel broke into a sprint, then.
At first I thought he was coming right at us, and I started to move to meet him, but at the same time tried to keep out of Buffy's line of fire.
He altered course at the last second, and instead jumped on top of an old table, and then leapt up and grabbed hold of the metal rafters and swung himself up and out of sight, while Buffy loosed an arrow that missed.
She quickly reloaded and moved to the spot underneath where he had disappeared while I circled, trying to spot where he had moved to.
A blur out of the corner of my eye alerted me to his presence and I snarled a warning before springing over a knocked over oil drum and sprinting for Angel as he swung down to kick at Buffy's exposed back.
I knocked one leg away as he kicked out, but caught his left boot in my jaw. He hit hard enough to knock me over, but by that time Buffy had turned around and started to take aim again, but he knocked the crossbow aside and sent it skittering across the floor.
She spun with the momentum, and kicked at him, catching him in the chest and knocking him back against the wall.
Buffy dove for the crossbow, snatched it up, and flipped over on her back before he could recover and he froze when he saw she had the drop on him.
I smiled in grim satisfaction and got to my feet, growling at him.
They stared at each other, and she hesitated. I felt my stomach drop, and it only got worse when Angel changed his face back into the one Buffy knew and loved. It was a dirty trick, but effective.
"Come on," he said, "don't go soft on me now."
The crossbow twanged and I flinched, but the arrow hit the wall a good six inches away from Angel's face.
"A little wide." He commented.
"Buffy?" I queried, glancing at her, "Don't be fooled by his trickery."
"I want answers." She snapped at me, getting to her feet.
"Why?" Buffy addressed Angel, "Why didn't you just attack me when you had the chance? Was it a joke? To make me feel for you and then…" she hesitated, her emotions running high, but she continued.
"I've killed a lot of vampires," she informed him, "Never hated one before."
Angel smirked a sad, knowing smirk and nodded.
"Feels good, doesn't it?" he asked, "Feels simple?" He looked at me, as if to see if I agreed.
"You know, don't you?" he asked, "How easy it is to kill when you feel it's justified? When you feel what you're doing is right? That you have the right? That you're the one with the power?"
I swallowed.
Yes, I knew. But I wasn't going to tell him that.
"I invited you into my home and then you attacked my family!" Buffy yelled. Angel turned back to her. He looked…tired.
"Why not?" he asked, "I killed mine."
He looked at me again and lifted an eyebrow.
"Did you?" he asked.
"Didn't have to or need to." I answered. Angelus shrugged.
"I killed their friends," he continued, alternating between looking at me and Buffy, "and their friends' children. For years I offered an ugly death to everyone I met. And I did it with a song in my heart."
He flashed me a mirthless grin.
"Remember how good it feels to hold that much power over these weaklings?" he asked.
"I only ever wanted to be left alone." I snapped at him, "I'm not like you or your kind."
He cocked his head.
"Aren't you one of us?" he asked.
"Half." I said, lifting my chin.
"That explains the smell, then." He said with a shrug, "But I know that look in your eye," he continued, "you've tested how far you can go with what you can do. You enjoyed it."
"Be quiet." I warned him.
Buffy interrupted us.
"What changed?" she asked, "Why'd you stop?"
"Found a girl about your age," he answered promptly, "beautiful. Dumb as a post. But a favorite among her clan."
"Her clan?" Buffy asked.
"Romani." He answered.
"Gypsies." I murmured, frowning slightly. The wheels in my head were turning, and I thought I could guess where his tale was traveling. But I didn't think what he was suggesting was possible. No human could be strong enough to do that to a vampire, surely?
"The elders conjured the perfect punishment for me," he continued. Ah, more than one human. That was slightly more plausible.
"They restored my soul." Angel finished.
I felt my eyes widen.
A vampire with a soul.
Miracles do exist.
"What, they were all out of boils?" Buffy asked.
"When you become a vampire, the demon takes your body, but it doesn't take your soul." He explained, "That's gone. No conscience, no remorse. It's an easy way to live."
See? I could make life sweet and free again
'Never again.'
But we were so powerful…
'It was a lie. We were no more powerful, only more ruthless.'
"You've no idea what it's like," Angel continued, "to do the things I've done, and to care. I haven't fed on a living human being since that day."
He turned to look at me again.
"I'd love to hear why you quit." He said.
"We're not here to discuss me, Angelus." I reminded him.
"So you decided to start with my mom?" she asked.
"I never bit her." He answered, "You're Halfling friend over there can vouch for that, remember?" He shook his head in exasperation. "I wanted to kill you tonight," he said.
To my surprise, Buffy hesitated, then laid down the crossbow and walked closer to him. She paused, then tilted her head, exposing the tender, soft part of her neck to Angel. The soft glow of the light from outside illuminated her flesh, and even from where I was standing I could see her pulse throbbing.
"Go ahead." She breathed.
"Slayer, no!" I gasped, moving to get between them, but she lifted her hand for me to stop.
I hesitated, but my grip on my weapon tightened, ready to fling it at Angelus should he try anything.
Buffy kept her eyes on Angel the whole time.
"Not as easy as it looks." She told him.
He smirked at her, a playful, amused look dancing in his eyes.
"Sure it is." A voice interrupted. They both whipped their heads around and I looked up to see the female vampire who'd turned Jesse striding towards us.
I felt a hot flash of rage race up my spine and my fangs snapped down.
I would never forgive her for doing what she did to that poor boy.
Never.
"You," I growled, moving towards her, "you whore. What do you think you're doing here?"
"I wasn't talking to you, pest," she hissed at me, and locked eyes on Buffy. "You know what the saddest thing in the world is?" she asked, stepping slowly towards her.
"Bad hair on top of that outfit?" Buffy guessed. I smirked.
"To love someone who used to love you." She replied. My smirk faltered. I knew what that was like, too.
I won't bore you with the details now, but suffice it to say my attempts at relationships never end well. The longest one lasted was a year. It just never felt right to try and be with someone when I knew I'd have to leave them all too soon.
Buffy glanced between Darla and Angel.
"You two were involved?" she asked.
"For several generations." The vampire answered.
"Well," Buffy said with a shrug, "if you've been around since Columbus like Marge over here, then you're bound to pile up a few exes."
Darla glanced at me.
"Columbus?" she asked.
"Before, actually," I answered, "just before the Ottoman Wars."
Her eyes widened a little at that. I'm beginning to think I can stagger an enemy just by telling them how old I am. Why should I even bother fighting?
"You are older than him, right?" Buffy continued, keeping her eyes on Darla. "Just between us girls, you are looking a little worn around the eyes."
"I made him." Darla answered, "There was a time when we shared everything, wasn't there, Angelus?" When he didn't answer, she continued, "You had a chance to come home, to rule with me in the Master's Court for a thousand years, but you threw that away because of her. You love someone who hates us. You're sick."
"Says the blood-sucking creature to another blood-sucking creature." I muttered, loud enough for her to hear. I may be one too, but I can't help but call out hypocrisy when I see it. And I was getting rather bored with Darla's ramblings.
She chose to ignore me.
"You'll always be sick," she continued, "And you'll always remember what it's like to watch her die." She looked at Buffy then, and I moved closer to her and Angel, feeling the hair on the back of my neck stand up as I sensed a threat.
"You don't think I came alone, did you?" she asked.
"I know I didn't." Buffy answered, and kicked the crossbow back up into her hands and pointed it at Darla.
"Scary." Darla chuckled, and then whipped out a pair of pistols. "Scarier." She said, and shot Angel in the shoulder.
He yelped in pain and fell against the wall, and then she looked at me.
"Nice stick," she laughed, "I know bullets can't kill vampires, but what about Halflings?"
She shot at both Buffy and me, and we both dodged out of the way, rolling opposite directions. I slid underneath a table and laid still, watching. Buffy leapt over another table, while Darla continued to fire at her.
Buffy was the main target, so that gave me an advantage.
I clutched my stake and started to crawl to the downed oil drum, hoping to get close enough to assist.
Angel was writing in pain on the floor, so he was out of commission, so it was just me and the Slayer against a woman scorned.
You know the saying, I won't repeat.
Darla was taunting Buffy as she approached, talking about what parts of Buffy she was going to shoot first.
I heard the crossbow fire and I heard Darla grunt, and for a moment I thought it was over already, but then Darla laughed.
"Close," she commended, "but no heart."
I growled and dodged behind a pillar. I was getting closer, but still not close enough. And then I heard something up above us shuffling around, but Darla hadn't spotted it. I looked up, and through the darkness I saw the children and Giles peering over the banner of the staircase at us.
I was both relieved and worried. Worried because if Darla knew they were there, they would be a target for her, but relieved because we had assistance.
"Buffy it wasn't Angel who attacked your mom, it was Darla!" Willow suddenly shouted. I groaned inwardly as Darla immediately swung around and started firing up at my friends.
"Stop!" I screamed, rushing her in a blind fury. The thought of her harming one of them was enough to make me panic, otherwise I would have realized what a foolish thing I was doing, but it was too late now.
I nearly reached her before she realized what was happening, but nearly was not enough. She whipped a gun in my direction and fired, and I felt something slam into my shoulder. It was a small caliber gun, but at such a close distance it still spun me, and I went down, but not before I got out the bottle of holy water I'd brought.
When I hit the ground I launched it at her before she had a chance to fire again, and it crashed into her arm.
She shrieked in pain as the holy water bit into her skin and dropped one of her guns. She was so angry she didn't even think to use the other gun, she just slammed her foot into my face. Stars flashed across my vision, and then they were swallowed by darkness as my head slammed into the ground.
I don't know for how long I was out, but it must have not been too long, because when I opened my eyes again, I realized someone, presumably one of our three rescuers, had found the control box to the lights and tampered with it because a dizzying flash of lights was going off all around me.
This did not help my already pounding head.
I groaned at the burning sensation in my shoulder, but struggled to roll into a sitting position.
Darla was still shooting, and I heard glass shattering.
'No,' I thought, struggling to get to my feet, 'no, please, don't.'
My visions swam and I nearly went down again, but I forced myself to stumble towards Darla. I'd lost my larger stake when I fell, but I was fumbling for another one in my pocket. She'd hear me coming before I got to her, of course, but I had to buy Buffy some time.
"Come on, Buffy," I heard her taunt, "take it like a man."
I gritted my teeth and lifted my arm to throw my stake, when suddenly Angel lunged at Darla, one of Buffy's arrows in his hand, and he plunged it straight through Darla's back and into her heart.
Her back arched and she fired blindly at the ceiling as she sagged and sank.
"Angel?" I heard her ask in confusion, and then she fell and disintegrated.
Buffy and Angel stared at each other while I sagged against another pillar, my head swimming and pounding so hard from the kick I'd gotten that I could barely see straight, but I could see enough to watch Angel slowly turn and walk away, while Buffy stared after him, unmoving.
It was over. That was all that was important. It was over, finally.
The darkness started overtake me again, and without really realizing it, I somehow ended up sprawled face-down on the ground.
"Margery!" I heard Giles and Willow yell in unison, while Xander shouted, "Marge!" and Buffy wordlessly hurried over.
"She got shot." Willow said, her words coming quick, scared pants. "I saw it, she got shot. Shoulder, I think."
"We should get her to the hospital." I heard Giles say, but he sounded farther away now.
"N-No." I managed to breathe, "J-Just…blood." I blurted. "Get me blood."
"Done." Buffy said, already up and moving, while Giles rolled me over as carefully as he could and started to slide his arms underneath my body.
"I'll take her to my place," he told Buffy, "please hurry."
For a moment I thought I was floating, but then realized Giles had stood up and had me cradled against him like a baby. I tried to look at him, I tried to say I'd be all right, but before I could do any of those things, I passed out.
And that's why I'll never go into battle on an empty stomach ever again.
(Hey guys! Thanks so much for reading! Sorry if there's a ton of typos in this one but, again, I wrote this pretty late at night...like...two a.m. so sorry if there's something ludicrously wrong! But I really appreciate you guys reading this. I'm done yet, since there's an epilogue coming soon, and then there's going to be a third installment...eventually. But be sure and let me know how you're liking it so far! Thanks!)