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The Change (Part 3)
By ras

Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Willow, Xander, Giles, Ms. Calendar, or any of the characters contained in this story. These characters are the copyright of Joss Whedon, the WB, and mutant enemy. No infringement is intended. Don't sue.

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Scene 10

Buffy was sitting in history class. She was suppose to be paying attention. She wanted to pay attention, really, but when the teacher started droning on about the Civil War, all Buffy could think about was Angel. What was he like then? Was he going to be evil forever now? Buffy tried to stop the thoughts, but couldn't. Soon she found herself drifting to sleep.

Another dream haunted Buffy. Again she saw the girl. "Cassandra," Buffy yelled in her dream. "It is Cassandra, isn't it. The girl Angel killed?"

"Yes, I am Cassandra. Don't trust him Buffy. He's evil. He'll kill you and everyone else just like he killed me if you aren't careful. Someone has changed things so that your Angel is no longer in control. The Angelus that killed me is back, but you can change things Buffy. Trust in her, she will find the cure for you."

"What do we have to do? You're talking about Ms. Calendar, right?"

"Trust her. She knows. Trust my great, great granddaughter."

"Your great, great granddaughter? I don't understand. How does she find the key?"

"She already has it. She just has to realize it. She has my key. Calendar, you called her. Yes, Jenny Calendar has the key. Only she can tell you how to avenge me now and save you."

Buffy wanted to ask the dream girl more, but she was quickly awakened.

"Miss Summers? Do we think that sleeping is appropriate in my class? Perhaps you already know the answer to my question." Buffy sighed. Why did everyone expect her to do normal day stuff when the fate of her and everyone else's life was on the line?

Scene 11

After school Buffy went immediately to the library. She had to tell everyone about the rest of her dream. She saw Giles and asked him in a flurry, "where's Ms. Calendar?

"In her classroom I would suspect. Why? What's happened?"

"No time to explain, I have to talk to her," Buffy said running out the door. She ran to Ms. Calendar's room and then remembered to stop and knock. Ms. Calendar was sitting at her desk reading a very old looking manuscript. "Ms. Calendar!" Buffy cried out.

Jenny Calendar jumped. She was so deep in thought she hadn't heard the girl come up. "You startled me, Buffy. What is it?"

"I had another dream with Cassandra."

"What did she say this time? Anything of use?"

"It was really odd. Is there anything you aren't telling us. Something I should know?"

Jenny's heart jumped with that question. How could she respond. The spiritual essence of her ancestor must have told Buffy about her, but how could she explain. "What did she tell you?" Was all Ms. Calendar could manage.

"She told me that you were her great great granddaughter. Is that true?"

Ms. Calendar turned away, slightly ashamed. So she knew. What could she do but tell it all now. "Buffy, please don't repeat that to Giles or anyone else. Yes, it's true, but . . ."

Buffy interrupted, "you've been keeping this from us all this time. Why did you do that? What, what's up with being dishonesty all the sudden?"

Jenny tried to explain. "Buffy, as Cassandra's descendent it is my job to keep the curse in place on Angel, to avenge my great, great grandmother. How could I tell you that I was the one torturing your boyfriend. Think of what kind of danger I would have placed myself in if Angel had found out. And Giles, how could I possibly explain this to him?"

"The same way we trusted you with the knowledge that I am the slayer and that Angel is a vampire and that Giles is my watcher. We all trusted you with our deep secrets, but you lied to us."

"I know you're mad, Buffy, but let's concentrate on what's important here. Angel and fixing things. That's what we both want, right?"

That got right to Buffy's heart. No matter how mad she was at Ms. Calendar it was obvious she needed her to save Angel. Buffy just nodded in acceptance.

"I need to know what else Cassandra said in the dream"

"Umm, I need to trust you. You already have the key, you just don't realize it.. I really didn't get much out of her."

"My great, great grandmother is trying to communicate with us, but she can't explain things the way she wants. Communication through the spiritual plain is tricky business. I have the key; I just don't realize it." Jenny was also becoming frustrated. "I just don't know!"

"What's that book you're reading?"

"It's a book written by my ancestors. It's about casting spells, etc. I can't find anything on how the curse could be broken. I really don't know."

"Well, maybe the curse isn't broken," Buffy said."

"What do you mean, he's acting evil again, killing people. I'd say that was a definite sign of breakage," Ms. Calendar responded.

"Cassandra never said anything about the spell being broken. She just said that my Angel was no longer in control. That the Angelus that killed her was. But Angel didn't even have a soul before the curse, right?"

Jenny nodded.

"Well, maybe she means that Angel's soul is still in there, he's just lost control."

"Maybe, Buffy, but I'd say that's a long shot."

"Well, if Angel still is in there . . . "

"I'll start looking for ways to change who's in control, or something like that. In the mean time, don't get your hopes up."

"Do you have anything that belonged to Cassandra?" Buffy asked.

"Like what?"

"Anything, anything at all. She said something about you having her key. Maybe that means it's something that belonged to her."

"I have a box of her things at home. They were handed down to me. I'll go through them right now. Any idea what I'm looking for?"

"Nope, just something of hers that's a key that you don't realize is."

"Helpful. I'll try my best."

"Great, thanks Ms. Calendar," Buffy said heading out the door.

"Oh, um, Buffy. Could you not tell Giles about this right now? I'd like to tell him myself."

Buffy thought Giles deserved to know, but decided to trust Ms. Calendar as the spirit girl had suggested. "Okay, but you have to tell him."

Ms. Calendar agreed.

Scene 12

Jenny Calendar rushed home to search through her ancestor's belongings. She had no clue what she was looking for, but she knew she had to restore the curse somehow.

Going into her closet she pulled out a false floor and lifted out a dusty old box. She sat down and removed the lid. She pulled out a lovely locket necklace. She looked it over. Definitely not a key. She sifted through a few more things. She sighed out of frustration.

Then Ms. Calendar saw Cassandra's diary. " Maybe there's something in there. " She thought. She opened the book and began leafing through the pages. There really wasn't anything of much interest. Entries about the people in her clan, a few special occasions, but no key. Then she saw. "That's it!!! That's it!!! " Jenny was relieved to see the answer sitting right there in front of her. She ran over to her book of spells, she knew what she was looking for now.

Scene 13

Willow Rosenberg sat on her bed brushing her hair. It was almost midnight and she was extremely tired, and worried. She was worried that Angel might try and hurt Buffy tonight. She was worried that Buffy might not be able to handle what was coming.

Willow suddenly became aware of the presence of someone else in the room. She swung her head around and was stricken with fear.

"I hope you don't mind me just dropping by like this, but after all, I was invited," the evil Angelus said in a sarcastic tone as he approached her.

Willow backed away from him and reached for the phone. Angelus grabbed the line and pulled it right out of the wall. "I wouldn't do that. It might make me mad. You don't want that," Angelus said, reaching for Willow.

"What do you want Angel?" Willow asked, her voice barely audible.

"Don't worry, you aren't dinner, at least not yet. I just want to surprise Buffy with a little party at her place." Angelus grabbed Willow and carried her out the door. Willow wanted to scream, wanted to kick but was too afraid of the evil monster carrying her.

Scene 14

Buffy sat at the bar in her kitchen drinking a cup of coffee. "I really should go hunting tonight," she thought to herself. Her heart just wasn't into it. All she could think of was Angel. "It won't be long before Ms. Calendar finds a way to fix things," Buffy tried to comfort herself.

BANG! Buffy jumped to the loud pounding on the door. The door flew in and revealed Angel, in game face, holding Willow.

Buffy's heart sank. "Angel!" She exclaimed. 'Willow!"She screamed looking at the body of her friend. Willow had passed out on the way to Buffy's. The slayer's eyes bulged. "What are you doing, Angel?"

"I wanted to show you there are no hard feelings from last night, so I brought you a present," Angelus responded in a cool, calculating voice. "I wasn't really sure how you like your friends though, so I thought I'd leave that part up to you."

"Angel!!!" Buffy screamed, still in complete shock over the situation.

"Here are your choices. Now I could just kill her. I'm sure she'd be delicious," Angelus said rubbing Willow's neck longingly. "Or I could try and make her a vampire if you want. I think she'd drink." Buffy turned her face away. She couldn't stand to see this. "Of course I could just chop her to pieces for you."

"Angel, stop it. Why are you doing this???"

Angel's face changed slightly. He seemed concerned. He stepped closer and said, "It doesn't have to be like this, Buffy. All you have to do is agree to drink my blood after I drain yours." Even Angel's tone had changed.

"Listen to what you're saying," Buffy said, crying.

"It will be so much better this way. Just agree," he said. Then completely changing again he asked her, "Do you really want to stand there and watch me kill Willow, Xander, all of your friends when you know that you can stop it? Maybe I should try your mother. I've wanted her ever since Darla gave her to me that night."

"Stay away from my mom!"

"Enough, make your decision now. Either you agree, or I kill her now. What"s it going to be?" Angel revealed his fangs and began to stick them into Willow's neck slowly.

Buffy just began weeping. She had completely lost her boyfriend, and now he was going to murder her best friend. She thought of their happy times together and just couldn't bear it. Then a strange calmness came over Buffy. She heard Cassandra's voice, "You know what to do, Buffy. Trust your gut." Buffy did know what to do. "You won't do it," she said shaking her head.

Angel pulled back from Willow's neck. "What do you mean I won't do it? I've already killed 6 girls. I'm not going to stop with this one."

"You aren't going to kill her or any of the rest of my friends and I'll tell you why. Deep in there somewhere you still care about me. You could have very easily killed me by now, but you haven't. You could have killed Willow, too, but you're hesitating. Why?"

"I killed all of my family, all of Dru's. What makes you think you're so special I'm not going to kill your family off too?"

"But you didn't do those things. Angelus the demon did."

"Who do you think I am?"

"I know Angelus is in there. He's in control right now, but somewhere deep inside you the soul of my Angel is in there, too. And he's stopping you from truly hurting me."

"That's ridiculous!" Angel yelled.

"Is it? Then go ahead, I'm waiting," Buffy said hoping he didn't call her bluff. Angel gave her a strange look. He kept switching his glance from Buffy to Willow and back again. Angel growled infuriated and pushed Willow towards Buffy. He ran out of the room.

Gently lying Willow on the floor, Buffy decided to chase after him. She had been right about this so far, and she wasn't stopping now. She grabbed Angel's arm.

"Enough of this, I'm killing you now and ending it!" Angelus yelled.

"I love you, Angel. My Angel that's hearing this," Buffy whispered.

Again Angel changed, his face softened. "Run, Buffy. Stay away from me, I can't control him any more."

Angel jerked his arm away and ran off. She was satisfied knowing that she had been right and there was some hope to the situation. Buffy stood there watching him go, praying that she would get her Angel back permanently.

Scene 15

Buffy ran back into the house to look after her friend. Willow was still unconscious, but didn't appear to be hurt too badly. Buffy opened the kitchen drawer and pulled out the first aid kit , the same kit she had used on Angel. That seemed like so long ago.

Pulling herself back to reality, she rushed to her friends side. Buffy examined Willow's neck. It didn't look too bad. She cut a piece of gauze and was about to tape it down when Willow came to.

"Buffy, Angel . . .bad . . . and he's going to . . . and he wants to hurt you and . . .,"a very confused Willow shouted out.

Buffy nodded, "I know. He's gone now. Let's just worry about you right now, okay?"

Willow felt her neck. "Angel bit me?" she asked. "I'm so sorry Willow. I should never have exposed you to this kind of danger. Let's just get you to the hospital and . . ."

"Oh no, no hospital. I'm fine, Buffy. I don't feel weak." Willow pulled the gauze from her neck and saw how little blood was actually on it. "See," she said. "It's just a little."

Buffy looked away. "He didn't really drink anything. He just broke the surface."

"That's good, isn't it?"

Buffy shrugged. Both girls were startled by the sound of the telephone ringing. Wondering who it could be, Buffy jumped up and answered it.

"Hello," she said.

"Buffy, it's Jenny."

"Ms. Calendar, did you find something?"

"Yes, you had better get over here right away."

"I'm on my way."

Buffy hung up the phone and turned her attention to Willow. "That was Ms. Calendar. She has something on how to help Angel. Are you sure you're going to be okay?"

Willow nodded, but then she said, "Buffy, I know you don't want to hear this but maybe you shouldn't go alone."

"I can take care of myself, Willow."

"Against Angel?" she asked. "He is still out there, you know."

Buffy shook her head sinking to the floor. "You're right. I can't fight Angel. I'd rather let him kill me than hurt him."

"Well, then you have to take someone with you. Why don't you call Xander?"

"Oh yeah. Let's see how that conversation would go. "Hey, Xander. Um Angel was just here feeding on Willow but now I need you to take me to Ms. Calendar so I can help him, okay? That's happening."

"Yeah, Xander does kinda have a problem with Angel."

"And I can't involve any of you guys any more. I mean if I took somebody with me, I'd just be putting them in greater danger. I'll just have to take my chances alone."

"What about Oz?" Willow asked as she smiled.

"Oz, do you think he'd walk me over?"

"Oz has a van, a very nice van, and he's really really nice, and helpful and . . ."

"You like Oz's van huh? He would probably help without saying too much."

"Yeah, and see Oz would understand you wanting to help not hurt Angel, on account of you helped not hurt him when he was a werewolf, and Angel doesn't know that Oz is your friend, so you wouldn't be putting him in any danger."

"You got it bad, girl. But you're right. It would be a good idea to have Oz drive me over. What's his number?" Buffy asked.

"555-3769," Willow responded. "I know it by heart. And backwards, it's 9673555."

Buffy smiled at this. At least someone had a semi-normal relationship. Picking up the phone again Buffy dialed the number and asked Oz to come pick her up and drop her and Ms. Calendar's. Then he could take Willow home too.

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