Life Changing: Weakness
by Sinister


Patrolling was harder these days. Buffy constantly had to worry about what she would do if she came up against Angel. She had already come up against him once. It was in the mall and water was rushing from the sprinkler system. They were beating the crap out of each other and when Buffy finally got the upper hand…she could do it. She just couldn’t bring herself to kill the demon that was wearing her lovers face.

It was a weakness, a huge weakness and she knew it. She hadn’t come up against Angel since that night but that only worried her even more then she already was worrying. The fact that he hadn’t shown himself could only mean that he was up to something…something not good.

As she walked through the graveyard Buffy’s body ached. She couldn’t figure out why. She hadn’t been overdoing it during training and she hadn’t really been in a really painful fight since the mall with Angel. It almost didn’t even feel like the same kind of ache that she got from fighting. It was more of a tired ache. She hadn’t exactly been sleeping like a baby lately. That must be it. I’m just tired.

She had been out for a few hours now and hadn’t come up with much. She found one vamp that was just rising, he was extremely easy to take care of. She had also found a trio of fairly young looking vampires about to pounce on a young couple. They must have been newly sired because none of them even knew what a slayer was when she caught them off guard from an alley.

Overall it was a pretty easy night. She definitely wasn’t complaining about that. It was nice to take it easy. She decided to finish sweeping this graveyard and then go back home and maybe try and get a full night sleep for once. Like that’s really gonna happen.


* * * *


Angelus watched the slayer from the shadows with a giant grin on his face. “Looking a little…weak Buffy,” he said to himself. She didn’t look herself. She was tired and it almost looked as if she might have the flu to boot. It would have been the perfect opportunity for Angelus to strike.

She was already vulnerable enough because of his resent trip to the dark side but if she was sick that would make things all the more easy. That wasn’t what Angelus wanted though. He didn’t want to kill her…not yet.

No. Angelus wanted to do so much more then just kill her. For a hundred years he had been trapped in the souled body of Angel and during those hundred years the worst had been the time he spent with Buffy. She had made him feel, made him love. Every time Angelus thought about it he wanted to vomit. He would make her pay. He would kill everyone she loved, everyone she was close to. Then he would torture her, and then finally, he would kill her. He smiled at the thought.

Although Angelus would not take up the opportunity to kill Buffy tonight he could still use her weakness to his advantage. It was time to put the first stage of his plan into action. He noticed Buffy walk away in the direction of her house which was just where he needed her to be.

Angelus left his place in the shadows and headed towards the bronze. He was going to pay Buffy’s friends a little visit.


* * * *


Willow was still getting used to the face that Xander and Cordelia were an item. They had just gone public with the fact recently but Willow had found out about them before. She had been pretty upset about it when she found out but then she came to the conclusion that it was Xander’s lose. She would make a much better girlfriend then Cordelia, she was sure of that.

She was getting over it though. It mattered to her less and less the more time she spent with Oz. He was amazing. They had only been dating for a short time and Willow had just recently found out that Oz was a werewolf, but she could tell that he was going to be a special person in her life. Every time she saw him smile her own lips would automatically perk up as well.

Yup, things were actually going pretty well in Willow’s life which to her surprise made her feel extremely guilty. Here she was at the Bronze sitting on the couch hand in hand with her wonderful boyfriend while Buffy was out patrolling graveyards possibly having to kill her own boyfriend. How could she not feel guilty? Buffy had been through so much pain these past few weeks and Willow had no idea what she could do to make it better.

Surprisingly that was actually what she was currently discussing with Oz, and then Xander and Cordelia who were seated together in a chair to Willow’s left. All four of them had been feeling like pretty bad friends for not being able to do something to help Buffy. Even Cordelia seemed to genuinely feel bad and want to help.

“I just don’t know what we can do for her,” Willow said helplessly, “But I feel like we need to do something. I mean she’s been through so much.”

“I know,” Xander agreed. “We all know that I’ve never been a big Angel fan but she did love him.”

“A lot,” Cordelia chimed in.

“She just seems so hallow now,” Xander continued. “Sometimes I even wonder if there’s anybody home up there.”

“We have to do something for her,” Willow pleaded. “I mean there has to be something we can do right?”

Cordelia’s eyes lit up with an idea. “Oh! We could set her up with another guy. That would get her mind off of Angel. Despite Buffy’s fashion sense I’m sure there a few cute guys from school that would go out with her.”

Willow grimaced. “It’s a nice thought, but I don’t think it would be such a good idea. Angel was the love her life. She’s not going to be able to just forget about that and move on to another guy.”

“Good point,” Oz supported.

“I have an idea,” Xander offered, “But no one’s going to like it.”

Willow looked at him intriguingly. “Well what is it?”

“We kill Angel. What better present then handing her the ashes of the demon that took over her boyfriend’s body. That way, she wouldn’t have to go through the pain of doing it herself.”

“Great idea Xander,” Cordelia responded sarcastically, “Because the four of us will be able to take him out no problem.”

“Ok so I haven’t worked out all of the details of this plan yet,” Xander defended.

“We couldn’t do that,” Willow replied. “Angel was our friend. I just can’t…I just couldn’t do that, even though he is evil now.”

“I told you you weren’t going to like it.”

Willow knew that Xander did have a point. No one wanted to say it but sooner or later Buffy was going to have to kill Angel. There was no getting around that. He wasn’t Angel anymore. He no longer had a soul and was killing freely again like he had about a hundred years ago before the gypsies cursed him.

As much as she hated to admit it, it probably would be easier on Buffy if someone else would just kill Angel and get it over with. That way, like Xander said, Buffy wouldn’t have to deal with the pain of doing it herself. But that was pretty much out of the question. None of them were capable of taking out Angel, and Willow didn’t think she would be able to do it even if she was capable. This whole situation was of the extremely bad variety.

After a few moments of silence had gone by between the four friends Willow finally spoke up. “I’m suddenly not so much in the clubbing mood,” she sulked.

“I second that,” Xander added with a raise of his hand.

Willow, Oz, Xander and Cordelia all stood up and headed for the exit. They all looked as if they had just lost a really important football game. That’s exactly how Willow felt. She felt defeated. She wanted so badly to help her friend but she just didn’t know how.

The four friends walked away from the club in silence. Willow and Oz were hand in hand and Xander had his arm around Cordelia’s shoulder with her arm around his waist. None of them had any idea that Angel was stalking along right behind them.


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