As had happened yesterday, the alarm dragged Buffy from sleep just before dawn. She sat up rubbing her eyes and trying to wake all the way up. "No wonder Willow always looks so tired around the full moon. 3 consecutive nights of this would take it out of anyone."

"Tell me about it." Willow's voice came unexpectedly from behind Buffy, who spun around in surprise.

"Willow! When did you get here?"

"About half an hour ago. I wanted to be here when he woke up. Giles, Xander and Cordelia are running late, but on their way. Cordelia was having hair trouble."

"Of course she was," Buffy said, her tone indicating exactly what she thought of Cordelia and her hair trouble. She handed Willow the keys. "Would you like to do the honors?"

Willow took the keys, and considered them for a moment. How many times had she stood in this place with those keys waiting for the long night to end. She came back to reality. "Is that tape still running, Angel?"

"Yes ma'am." At that moment, Cordelia, Xander and Giles came in. Cordelia was stomping around like she always did when she wasn't the center of attention. Giles and Xander appeared to have passed into full ignore stage.

"Okay, we're here. But I take no responsibility for my hair; it just will not behave at this hour of the morning. And who put sunrise so early anyway?" Then she caught sight of the Oz that wasn't Oz. "Eeew. Looks like I'm not the only one having trouble. How much longer?"

"2 minutes," Angel said, and Willow and Buffy entered the cage and knelt beside Oz. Sunlight started to come in through the narrow casement window as he slowly changed back. Once finished, he fluttered his eyelids and sat up with a groan.

"Obviously another fun-filled night. Oh, look, the gang's all here. Who brought the pizza?"

"Pizza? Were we supposed to bring food?" Giles looked momentarily panicked.

"Joke, Giles. Joke," Buffy talked him down. "Are you okay, Oz?"

"I think so. At least I know that's it for the month, and that is most definitely of the good."

"Not exactly. We have something to show you," said Angel, holding up the tape. Oz saw it, and all the color washed from his face as he realized what it was.

10 minutes later, Oz had had a chance to arrange himself, and they were all gathered in the library. Xander had brought the TV and VCR out of Giles' office to the main reading room where it would be more comfortable, and everyone had found seating, with Oz as far as he could get from Angel, Willow next to him, stroking his hand. Giles was standing by the VCR, holding the tape.

"Are you certain you're ready for this, Oz?" he asked, his voice concerned.

Oz nodded. "As I can be."

"Wait," said Willow, stopping Giles as he moved to put the tape into the machine. She turned to Oz, and in a low voice said "Before you watch this, I want you to know I still love you, and I love you no matter what. That's why I didn't tell you about what was on this tape. I wanted to protect you. And all I did was hurt you, so I'm sorry. I just didn't want you to worry."

Oz kissed her delicately on the cheek. "I know. Apology accepted. Let's do this."

"Okay, roll tape," said Xander, and Giles put the tape into the machine and turned on the television.

Buffy narrated. "Okay, this is right as the sun started to set. I got to the camera as fast as possible, so we're only missing maybe the first 5 seconds." They all watched the transformation in silence, Cordelia looking slightly ill and wincing. Oz tried to look away, but couldn't. Willow, having seen it many times, kept her eyes trained on the Oz sitting next to her, rather than the one on the screen, to see how he was taking it. When they reached the end of the transformation, Giles paused the tape.

"Do you remember any of this?"

Oz shook his head in amazement. "Not one minute. All I ever remember is a moment of intense pain, and then waking up in the morning. I think that's a good thing though. I mean, that looks, well, very painful." He turned to Willow. "Is it always like that?"

Willow nodded miserably. "Sometimes you scratch at your skin, like you're trying to claw it off."

"Eeew, gross. Can we move on please?" Oz motioned to Giles to comply with Cordelia's suggestion, and he started the tape again as Buffy resumed her explanations.

"Okay. This is the part Willow was trying to protect you from." They watched for about 15 minutes as the now completely Oz struggled against his restraints, slammed himself against the floor and the walls of the cage, and gnawed at the shackles-- whimpering, growling, and howling the whole time. Finally, Oz jumped up and stopped the tape.

"This is what you've been keeping from me. Three nights a month for the last year. What is wrong with you, Willow? How could you keep putting yourself in this kind of danger? You should know I wouldn't want that for you. What's wrong with you? I mean, did you ever stop to think about what might have happened if I'd gotten loose? I could have killed you, or worse yet, not killed you, and then you'd be stuck with the same curse as me. Why didn't you get help?"

Willow promptly started crying. "Oh, Oz. There were so many times I wanted to tell you, to tell anyone. But I didn't want you to feel self-conscious about it."

Oz knelt down in front of her, putting his hands on her knees. "Willow, a little embarrassment I can live with. Knowing that I could have seriously hurt or killed you, I can't live with. Why didn't you ask someone for help?"

Buffy decided to try interrupting with a little logic. "Oz, there wasn't a whole lot she could do. Think about it. Even if the entire town knew, you'd still be going through the exact same thing every full moon. There's nothing Willow can do to prevent it."

"No, but there is something I can do." Angel spoke quietly, but with such authority that everyone immediately turned to him.

Oz gave him a look that said he wasn't interested in anything he could contribute, but eventually found the sense to ask "You? What could you do?"

"Tell you to calm down." Angel said it as if it was no big thing, a sentiment Oz met with appropriate incredulity.

"Oh, yeah, like a simple suggestion is going to work against that...thing," he scoffed, gesturing to the screen, on which the scene was still paused.

"It will if it comes from me." Again, Angel seemed to sure of himself. Oz was at war inside, his human part telling him to listen to what Angel had to say but his other part frantically warning him away, far away. It was all he could do to keep from running out of the room at top speed. As it was, his heart was racing, and he could feel the cold sweat of fear breaking out all over his body.

Giles was the first to understand what Angel was getting at. "Of course. The power to control. Why didn't I think of that?"

"Wait, you mean you can do that?" Buffy asked.

"Apparently. I didn't know either until yesterday, when he could smell me. But we've already filled the initial requirements. It should work," Angel replied.

"What should work? What are you talking about?" Oz was starting to panic, and he felt that unless people stopped talking around him, he really would lose control.

Buffy and Angel looked to Giles to supply the explanation. "Well, you see, historically, vampires have held dominion over werewolves. It's an ancient relationship, usually based on a shared hunting strategy."

"Wait, are you saying, deadboy here can tell me what to do, and I'd have to do it?" Oz clutched tightly to Willow's hand, but even so his feet took a couple of involuntary steps to the door. He sat down to try and make it harder to give in and flee.

"Only when in wolf form. The rest of the time, you're the same Oz as always." Giles felt it best to present the silver lining right away. Oz was starting to look very pale.

"That's why I smell so bad to you," Angel elaborated. "Your lycanthropic side is warning you away, because it knows the power I could have over you. It never came up before because you'd never scented me as a wolf while captured. That's how the relationship is traditionally started. A vampire tracks down a werewolf, locks it up and waits for the change. That establishes a dominant/submissive pattern. Then, the vampire forces a joining, sort of like a blood oath ceremony. If I did this, it would seal you to me forever, and then I could keep you under control while in your other form. You could go out and hunt, because I would compel you not to harm humans. You wouldn't need to go through everything you saw on that tape."

"No, no, no, no, no. None of that. The idea of being joined to you, or to anyone... Losing my free will like that. I'd rather stay tied up in the cellar." Oz was starting to hyperventilate. Will wrapped her arms around him to try to calm him down, but it didn't seem to help much.

"You may not have a choice in this, Oz. Think about it. If Angel can do it, some other vampire could do it as well. And another one would compel you in exactly the opposite direction as Angel." Buffy was again choosing to be the voice of reason at a time when Oz wasn't terribly prepared to listen to reason. He tried to turn it around and use logic against the suggestion.

"How would they know what I am? I mean, the rest of the month, I'm as human as the next guy, right?"

"A vampire would know," Angel said. "You are developing a very distinctive odor, apparent only to other supernaturals, that's starting to be noticeable the rest of the month, even. It took me a while to figure out what it was. Now, I can't believe I missed it. Someone else would probably recognize it immediately. And then you'd be in danger, because it's quite a coup for one of us to join with a werewolf. It means strength and status. Any vampire would leap at the opportunity."

"Again with the smelling. Isn't there any other way for you supernatural types to recognize each other? What about you Buffy? What do you smell like?" Xander suddenly felt the need to contribute, with the expected result. Buffy smacked him. "Ow! What is with you people?"

Oz, who was finally getting control over himself and reasserting his humanity against the wolf that had threatened to take over, turned to Willow. "What do you think?"

"Well, you have two choices. You could bind yourself to Angel, and trust that he'll do what he says to keep you from hurting yourself or anyone else. Or you could stay in the basement and hope no one else finds out about you for the rest of your life. So, I guess it comes down to is, how much do you trust Angel?" Willow was as analytical as ever, but she pushed the wrong button in mentioning Angel and trust in the same sentence. Oz stood up again and started pacing.

"Not at all, that's the problem. I mean, Angel, no offense, I was okay with you before. But then a lot of stuff happened, and plus I have this strong feeling of repulsion whenever I look at you that I have no control over. How am I supposed to overcome all this enough to trust you with my entire being?"

Buffy decided to try the more maternal approach. "Oz, remember what I said in the car? You have to let the human in you overpower the wolf, or it'll be the other way round. What does Oz the human have to say about this?"

Oz took three deep breaths, forcing himself to think through the fear. "He thinks...He thinks it's the most logical solution. But he doesn't like it much either."

"I don't blame you," Angel said. "I'd probably feel the same way in your position. But it's the only way to keep you from hurting yourself like that every month, and keep you protected from the rest of the vampires. Buffy had to shoot you with the tranquilizer dart on Saturday because we were afraid you'd break something. You can't keep this up forever."

Oz's shoulders sagged. "Okay, fine. Every bone and fiber in my body is screaming against it, but let's do it. What do we need to do?"

Giles perked up. "I'll piece together the ritual. I know it has to be done at the full moon, so you have a month to prepare."

"Prepare? How?"

"I'm not quite sure yet. I'll work on it and get back to you."

"Are you sure you're okay with this?" Willow asked. She could see the slightly wild look in his eyes that usually came just before the change and knew the battle he was going through.

"No, but find me another way. Listen, don't take this personally, but I really need to be away from all of you right now. Bye." Oz started to leave, but Giles stopped him.

"One moment, Oz."

"What!?" Oz spun, quite obviously now at the end of his rope. And Oz had a very long rope.

"Er, nothing, I just wanted to let you know we found some new material on your, uh, condition. I may have some more information for you once I can get it translated."

"Great, fabulous, thanks. Looking forward to learning more about my misery." The bitter sarcasm in his voice hadn't yet left the air when the library swung shut behind him. Willow ran after him, but returned to the library almost immediately, fighting back tears.

"He, um, wants to be alone."

In a rare sensitive moment, Cordelia put her arm around Willow. "He'll be okay, Willow. Just give him some time."

Oz suddenly came back into the library, marched straight to the VCR and popped the tape. Giles wordlessly handed him the second tape, and without a word Oz left again, leaving behind a tense, unhappy silence.