Fortunately, Buffy and I both had second period free, so we met up in the library with Giles to begin sparring again.

After such a slow summer, I was worried I'd be a little slow myself, especially since Buffy had kept her reflexes sharp. Giles set us up with padded weapons at first, and then stood back to observe us.

As I discarded my coat and looked at her, I couldn't help but notice Buffy had a strange look in her eyes. It wasn't fear, it wasn't excitement, it wasn't even really an emotion. Or if it was, it was a new one bred from the joining of a myriad of other emotions. It was just something…dark. Something lonely and haunted looking.

"Hey," Buffy said, her voice even sounding different. Distant, if that were possible.

"Yes?" I responded.

"Do me a favor," she continued, "bring the fangs out."

I frowned and glanced at Giles, who crossed his arms and frowned as well.

"Why?" I asked.

"It helps me get in the mood." She answered with a shrug, but her eyes were boring into me with a look I didn't much care for. I'd seen Hunters fix me with that look before, it's what made me keep moving. I couldn't stand that look. It reminded me of what I really was to humans. As if I needed to be reminded.

"I don't know if that's a good idea." I said.

"No, it's cool," Buffy said, "you're not planning on taking a bite of me, are you?"

"Of course not."

"Then bring them out."

I felt my frown deepen, but I obeyed. She took a good long look at them, and I saw her shoulders and spine stiffen as she took a breath.

As we started battling, gradually building up speed with our padded quarter-staffs, that look in her eyes intensified. I got the distinct feeling that she wasn't seeing me, or the library, or Giles. She was battling some phantom in her mind. Whether it was a phantom of memory or a phantom feeling, it was turning her into a ruthless fighter.

The ends of her staff turned into a blur, she was striking so fast, and from both staffs I could see bits of padding beginning to strip off.

"Buffy," I heard Giles say, "Buffy, slow down, we're not giving points for speed." But she wasn't hearing him.

Her lips were moving silently and she was staring straight through me.

"Slayer?" I managed to grunt in between blocks.

Her eyes suddenly flashed and she thrust her staff at me so hard that when I blocked it, the blow broke my staff completely in half. I stumbled back in surprise and barely got my footing under control before Buffy was coming at me again, still swinging wildly.

I tightened my grip on my two halves of my staff and intercepted the blows, just barely.

She started to make growling sounds as I continued to block her, her face turning red with exertion and anger. She stabbed at me with the staff, which I knocked away, and she surprised me by following up the thrust with a side-kick that I barely managed to block, but in the process dropped one half of the staff.

Buffy suddenly snapped.

She let out what I can only describe as a yowl of frustration and literally launched herself at me, dropping her staff in the process. I followed suit and dropped the other half of my broken weapon and tried to stop her as she slammed into me.

She threw a swing at my head, which I managed to block with my forearm, and then she was a flurry of limbs.

I managed to block the first few attacks, but soon gave up. She was moving too quickly and in a fever of anger, or fear. I covered my head with my arms and pulled away, trying to avoid any more hits, but she caught me just on the edge of my forehead.

It felt as though a shock of lightning cracked through my brain as my vision flashed with red and white.

I didn't even realize I'd fallen until I saw Buffy standing over me, fists curled, eyes still blazing, her chest heaving as she gulped down air.

She reached down and grabbed the front of my shirt with both hands and yanked me to my feet. I heard a ripping sound as the shirt tore free of one of my shoulders, and she used one hand to grab me underneath my chin and lift my head up.

I was a few inches shorter than her, and she used her grip to lift me off the ground until I was eye-level with her.

"Buffy, stop!" Giles shouted, but she wasn't listening. She was looking at me. No, not at me, at my fangs.

I retracted them and grabbed the hand she had under my chin, trying to make her let me go.

"Buffy," I rasped, "Buffy, stop it, you've won." She squeezed harder and I took one hand off of her arm and used it to slap her hard as I could across her face.

She gasped in surprise and dropped me. I stumbled, and Giles grabbed my shoulders to help steady me. We both stared at Buffy as she slowly turned back around to face us. I'd hit her hard enough to leave the mark of my hand on her face, but the fire in her eyes had dimmed.

For a long beat, no one spoke, and then Buffy cleared her throat.

"Got kind of carried away there, huh?" she gave a short attempt at a laugh at the end of the sentence, but it sounded more pitiful than humorous.

"Well," Giles said, still keeping his hands on my shoulders, he pulled at the torn sleeve, as though he thought bringing it back up to the seam would make it reattach itself, "I think it's safe to say you've stayed in shape."

Buffy nodded, starting to pace like a caged tiger.

"I'm ready." She said, "Whatever they've got coming next, I'm ready." She didn't sound as though she was speaking to Giles.

She finally looked at me, at the torn sleeve Giles was still tugging at, and a look of remorse flashed across her face.

"Oh, hey, Marge, I'm sorry." She said. "I didn't mean to get so…into it."

"It was the fangs, wasn't it?" I asked quietly. She glanced at my face, looked away, chewed on her nails for a moment, and nodded like a guilty child.

"I told you I didn't think it was a good idea." I said with a smirk.

"I know, I know. You were right. I'm sorry." She sighed and smiled apologetically at me. "I'll get you another shirt, okay?"

"I'm not worried about the shirt." I answered, "I'm worried about you."

"Me?" she repeated. "Why me? I'm fine."

"Physically, perhaps," I answered, "but you're not acting like yourself."

She frowned and shrugged. She walked over to the study table where she'd left her sweater and her backpack and started gathering them up.

"So maybe I've changed." She said, her voice hard. "That's what happens when people grow up."

She started to walk to the door, then paused and looked at me again.

"Like I said, sorry about the shirt. I'll make it up to you." And with that she was gone.

For a moment Giles and I stood watching her walk away from the library, then I turned, sliding out from beneath his hold on me. We looked at each other. Concern was mirrored on our faces and Giles sighed.

He rubbed the back of his neck, walked over to the table and picked up my coat, and helped me into it.

"What are we going to do?" I asked him. He shook his head sadly.

"I'm not sure there's anything we can do," Giles answered, "Like she said, she's changed. Maybe for the better, maybe for the worse, we'll just have to wait and see. That's all I know to do at the moment."

I didn't like it, but he was right.

"Are you all right?" he asked as we started to exit the library.

I nodded.

"Nothing compared to what I've been through before." I answered. Yet saying it, it was not completely the truth. Physically I was fine, but…the fact that Buffy had forgotten that I was anything other than a monster to be destroyed…that hurt.

True the fault didn't lie completely with her, but…as I've said before, I don't need to be reminded that I'm an abomination.

Especially not by a friend.

(Sorry for the hiatus and the really short chapter. I've had a lot of personal crap to deal with lately, especially when it comes to my job and the always "fun" issue of having to decide what the crap I want to do with my life and then realizing I haven't the faintest frackin' clue. So, I haven't been in the best of moods to do much of anything, but today I realized I really missed Margery and the Scoobies so I gave it another shot. I'm not really pleased with how short this was but I'm going to really make an effort to work on this fic more while I try and sort crap out IRL. So thank you for being so patient! And again, really sorry about all the waiting!)