One day Xander was walking past the computer lab where he heard Miss Calendar talking to her Uncle about Angel. Hearing Angel’s name he just had to listen to what the two were talking about.
“Yana we hear that the vampire isn’t suffering as much these days.”
“Uncle that’s true but he’s doing a lot of good.”
“There is no good. This creature is a monster. He was cursed with the soul to make him suffer not feel better.”
“What can I do Uncle? The Slayer is in love with him and he’s in love with her.”
“What an abomination. Think of something and the sooner the better. He must pay for what he did.”
Xander walked away before he could be caught with his thoughts racing. There was a way to get rid of Angel and Miss Calendar was the key or whatever the man was calling her. Maybe it was some weird nickname. He went to find Willow but first bumped into Amy.
“Hi Amy.”
“Hi Xander.”
“Have you seen Willow?”
“Sure she’s out in the quad with her nose in a book as always.”
“That’s my girl. Thanks Amy. See you later.”
He walked out and found Willow reading a book on witchcraft. He made a mental note to check it letter for any wood engravings.
“Hey Will can I talk to you for a minute?”
“Sure what’s up?”
“I think I’d rather do this in private.”
They ditched school and went back to Willow’s since no one was home. He spent a lot of time over there because of his folks who were either drunk and always fighting whether or not they were sober.
“Xander what’s going on?”
Xander had been trying to come up with a way to make Willow go along with his plan to get rid of Angel once and for all which would finally give him a fighting chance to make her his girlfriend.
“I heard Miss Calendar talking about Angel.”
“What about?”
“Well we know he’s cursed right?”
“I’m confused. What does that have to do with anything?”
“Welcome to my world Will. Come on we need to get rid of him once and for all. Who knows what will break the curse leaving the monster free to roam around town to murder us all.”
Willow who had feelings for Xander wondered if this plea for help was more for him since he wanted Buffy for himself. It was a sucky place to be in a triangle in love with a guy that’s in love with someone else but Will being Will agreed to do a spell to undo the curse to show Buffy the true Angelus and not the vampire with a leash.
“I hate Latin. I guess I better get used to is since so many spells are written in Latin.”
She did the spell and Angel’s soul was released into the ether. At the time of the spell Angel was with Buffy and they were making with the smoochies and enjoying a night spent together with the rest of the gang elsewhere. He fell to the ground and his eyes got all glowy.
“Angel are you ok?”
He looked up at her giving an evil grin which sent a shiver down Buffy’s spine.
“Free at last and look a treat for me.”
Buffy knew something was wrong because this wasn’t the man she was in love with. It occurred to her that somehow Angel lost his soul and that she just might have to kill him. She pulled out a stake that was always there in a pocket.
“I think this will be fun. Maybe Spike was right to go after Slayers and kill them. You shouldn’t be much of a challenge. The one good thing Angel did was keep close to you so I won’t have any problem killing you and draining you. I’ve heard about your blood but I’ve never had the pleasure.”
“Are you going to talk me to death or are we going to fight?”
Angelus ran towards her and Buffy ducked out of the way and did a back flip to land behind him. Before she could stake him he grabbed her by the throat and she just dangled there in the air.
“Sad that you’re not a challenge.”
“Wanna bet?” she said as she staked him.
After staking the man she loved she went home needing to be somewhere else to try to process what the hell had happened. She never thought she’d end up killing Angel but she had no choice because she’d taken a peek at the Watcher’s Diaries and found out that he was one bad ass vampire so she couldn’t risk him killing any of her loved ones. She grabbed a bag and took off.
Buffy ended up in LA but didn’t go to her Dad’s place. She didn’t want to deal with parents so she ended up getting a job at a diner and got an apartment. She decided to go by her middle name Anne because she didn’t even want to think about being a Slayer. She needed to get away from that at least for a while.
One day at the diner a girl recognized her and followed her when she left.
“Buffy?”
Buffy turned around when she heard her name?”
“I thought it was you.”
Buffy tried to bluff her way out of it.
“No my name’s Anne.”
“Don’t worry I won’t tell anyone you’re here.”
“What did you want?”
“I wondered if you wanted to go to this party tonight. You look like you could use a little fun.”
Buffy had just been working and going home where she dined on food she brought home from the diner or Spaghetti Os so she agreed to go. She agreed to meet Lily later that evening at her place. She went home and went to her closet to see if she had anything to wear that was partyish.
“It’s been a while but I could use a night of fun.”
She grabbed a pair of jeans and a tank top and took a shower and got ready. Lily came by and they went to the party which was held in an abandoned factory. Next thing she knew there was this big bendy whirly thingie that sucked them along with a few other party goers and sent them through this weird tunnel thing that finally spat them out into a cave.
“Oh great I try to escape weirdness and I get weirdness.”
A red skinned man with horns walked over to them. Buffy wished she’d brought a stake but she hadn’t needed one while she was in LA.
“Toto I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”
“Welcome to my home ladies the name’s Bacchus.”
Someone started playing a strange instrument that sounded like a guitar and all of a sudden Buffy and the other’s felt like dancing. She didn’t notice when someone bit her on the neck turning her into a bacchae. She woke up with fangs and really long black fingernails.
“Oh great I’m a freaking’ vampire.”
“No my dear you’re a bacchae one of my children.”
“Who the hell are you?”
“I’m Bacchus and you’re here to do my bidding along with my other children.”
Buffy didn’t like this one bit. She had to think of a way out of here but there were the others to think about too since it seemed like they’d gone back in time or something. Lily came over to her telling her that they were in the middle of nowhere. She even though she’d seen a giant.
“Oh great.”
Buffy told the others to play along while she tried to figure out a plan. It seemed like all this red skinned God as he called himself liked to party and recruit more people. They were like vampires since the bite turned them. She just had to wait for an opening where Red And Horny wasn’t watching them so closely.
After about a year Buffy finally got her chance although at this point the only ones left that came through that bendy thingie were Lily and Tara another girl from the same time. She wasn’t too sure about what happened to the others but there was a story about this warrior named Xena taking out some bacchae. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to meet this Xena or not because she could end up dead if this person was a stake first, ask questions kind of person.
Another girl was taken a girl with reddish blonde hair and just as she was about to drink the cup. It made Buffy shudder to think she’d drink that thing’s blood this metal round thing zinged on by knocking the cup out of her hand. Buffy decided to stay hidden in the shadows and had Tara and Lily stay back with her.
This warrior chick looked like she knew what she was doing and it turned out the girl was a friend of her’s so Buffy got a little shred of hope that maybe she wouldn’t just go around killing everyone in the room with a pair of fangs. There had to be some way to undo whatever was done to them to turn them into these bacchae creatures. The ones from the twentieth century seemed to be affected differently and didn’t embrace their inner vampire or whatever.
The warrior fought and ended up staking the very large red horned God. Buffy thought it was over since that’s often the case when you dust a vampire but he rose up and oh shit he wasn’t dead after all. She was on a ledge and her friend went up to her biting her on the neck turning her into a bacchae and next they jumped and staked Bacchus with that bone thingie and thankfully everyone was turned back to their regular selves.
“Ok girls come with me we’ll get you home.”
The girls were thanking the woman warrior for saving them. Buffy, Lily, and Tara went over when the other girls were walking over to the cave and Buffy decided to ask if they knew of a witch they could get some help from.
“Why do you need a witch?”
“We went through this bendy swirly thingie and ended up here but we’re from another time.”
“You mean like that?”
Buffy turned around and saw the same thing that sucked them back was now back and pulling them towards it.
“Thanks Xena.”
The three waved at the two while they were sucked back in and spit out in a graveyard.
“Hey I know this graveyard.”
“Buffy is that you?”
A man in tweed along with a guy and girl were in the graveyard. Buffy ran over to Willow and Xander hugging them because she’d missed them so much. Even though it was kind of weird she even hugged Giles.
“Giles can we go to your place while I explain what happened?”
“Sure I brought my car.”
“Are we all going to fit?”
“Ooh I know a spell where I can make the inside bigger than the outside so we should all be able to fit.”
“Cool Will.”
The other two girls just stood there not saying a word.
“These are my friends Willow, Xander, and Mr. Tweed there is Giles. Guys these are my friends Lily and Tara.”
Tara gave a shy smile and Lily just waved. They got into the car and went to Giles’ place. Once there he called Joyce and told her to come straight away.
‘So Buffy where have you been?”
“Do you have anything to eat? Time travel really makes for a hungry girl. I’m sure Lily and Tara are hungry too.”
Willow went into the kitchen to make something to eat and Xander sat on the couch next to Tara and Lily. Buffy was still standing but she went over to a bar stool and sat down.
They were eating when Joyce finally stopped by. She came in wondering what Giles wanted and found her daughter eating with two other girls she’d never laid eyes on.
“Buffy?”
Buffy ran over to her mom and hugged her. They both started crying.
“What happened to you? Do you know have worried I was about you?”
“Mom sit down there’s something I need to tell you.”
Joyce sat down.
“Is this about being a Slayer? Mr. Giles already told me about that.”
“Well that’s something but that’s not everything. You see right before I left town I ended up staking Angel. Remember you met him that one time?”
“Yes .”
“Long story not so long I ended up having to stake him when he went all evil out of the blue.”
At this Xander started squirming and Willow looked down.
“Do you know something about this?”
“Xander made me do a spell but I was about to reensoul him when you left town. So you staked him?”
“Yes I had no choice.”
Buffy walked up to Xander who couldn’t look Buffy in the face and grabbed him by the chin forcing him to look into her eyes.
“Why Xander?”
“Buffy he was sure to turn evil again so I was saving you the trouble of killing him later on.”
She slapped him hard and told him he was lucky that she wasn’t at her full strength. Xander left and went home regretting what he’d done. He wondered if there might be a way to bring Angel back to make things up to Buffy otherwise she’d never forgive him or speak to him again and he just couldn’t bear that. If they could only be friends he would accept that. Walking home he walked into Dru.
“Hello Kitten.”
“Oh great now she’s going to eat me.”
“The stars are lovely tonight aren’t they?”
Xander looked up at the sky but it was cloudy with not a star in sight.
“They sure are so I’ll leave you to enjoy them.”
“Oh what’s wrong my pretty boy?”
“I need to find a way to bring Angel back?”
“Where did he go?”
“Into Dustville?
“Rayne is the man to be to cast the spell so we can see.”
The girl was crazy but if anyone knew how to do something like raising the dead it would be that guy Ethan Rayne. He knew it was insane but he kissed Dru on the cheek and ran off hoping to find Ethan. What surprised him was that Dru let him go without turning him into a vampire or a corpse. He thought he’d try Willies to see if he might know something.
By Barbara Desmond
