I managed to wolf down the pizza before the questions started. The first one atypically came from Kathryn.
"Alright, Harris. What's going on?"
"Maybe you guys would like to sit down? No, I guess not." I sighed. This wasn't going to be easy.
"Remember about a-"
"Xander." Angel interrupted me. "It's my story, I should tell it."
I slowly nodded. He was right. It was his story to tell.
"I was born and raised in Galway, Ireland. Came from a large family of farmers. A few days before my nineteenth birthday, I went out drinking with a few of my friends. I met this beautiful noble woman named Darla. She seemed... Willing to accept advances. So, I made a few.
"My body was found the next day, and I was buried on my birthday. Darla was waiting for me when I arose. She had given me eternal life. Made me into a demon. The year was 1753.
"That night, I visited my family. Killed every one of them. When they were all gone, I attacked their friends. Even the children. Irish families at the time were known for having lots of children at any given time. Only half of them normally made it to adulthood. I remember thinking at the time that a baby's blood was sweeter than anything."
He was looking at the floor between his legs. This was obviously hard for him to do, but I realized he needed to do it. It was a cleansing of sorts. The others had all sat down by then, probably horrified by Angel's story. Buffy and I remained standing.
"Darla and I roamed Great Britain together for almost a hundred years. Then, she decided to come to the Colonies. She said there was a great new power there, and it was calling to her.
"For a few years, I was alone. Then, in 1850, I met this particularly vicious human. He was a street punk in London, ruled the underworld there. I made him into a vampire within a week after I had discovered him. He became nick-named Spike due to a little trick he came up with. After he would drain a victim, he would drive railroad spikes into them, usually in a crusifiction.
"In 1860 he found this innocent little Catholic girl who claimed to have visions of evil. A beautiful girl, Drusilla was. He wasn't strong enough to transform her yet, so I did it for him. I decided to have my own fun first, and killed her family in front of her. It made her crazy. The only thing more evil than a vampire is a psychotic vampire.
"We stayed together for thirty years, then I got restless and left them after we had transferred to the continent. In 1898 I fed off a beautiful but stupid Gypsy girl. She was a favorite of her clan, the Romani's. The elders placed a curse on me that gave me back my soul. I had all the memories of what I had done and the conscience to feel guilt about it.
"I moved to America to try to escape the memories. It didn't work. I ended up feeding on the odd rodent on city streets. I avoided everyone, even others of my kind. Darla found me and tried to convince me that feeding off a human would cure me. I didn't believe her.
"In 1996, I was in New York. A demon by the name of Whistler found me and told me that I could redeem myself by helping humanity. He taught me how to enter the real world, to get blood from butcher shops and how to live above ground and avoid the sun at the same time.
"He also sent me to L.A. to watch the new Slayer be called." He looked up at Buffy. "You were so young, so innocent. I wanted to protect you with all my being. The only thing I couldn't protect you from was myself."
"Oh, Angel..." He smiled briefly, then returned his gaze to the floor and continued with his story.
"In 1997 I moved from L.A. to Sunnydale, because that's where Buffy was going. Imagine my surprise when I found out the Darla and her new Master were here. I gave Buffy all the help I could, and tried to stay away from her. It became impossible, though, and she discovered what I was.
"Darla attacked you, Mrs. Summers, and Buffy thought I was the one who had did it. Darla convinced me to kill Buffy, and we fought at the Bronze. I didn't even give it half a try, you know. I think I wanted Buffy to kill me. But, she couldn't. Just like I couldn't kill her.
"That didn't float with Darla, though. She had promised the Master that the Slayer would die that night. She came at Buffy with a set of guns. She never expected me to choose Buffy over my own kind. Not until I stuck a crossbow bolt in her heart.
"I avoided her even more after that. Or tried to. I helped out from the sidelines, doing things like bringing Giles a copy of the Codex. Then, I found out about the prophecy. Buffy would go up against the Master and die. On the night of her Spring Fling, no less.
"When she found out, I was secretly relieved. She would run away and avoid the prophecy. Then, Xander came to my apartment, telling me she had went after the Master. I was terrified. I couldn't go up against the Master, he was too strong. But, if she died... I think I would have too.
"When we found her, face down in a pool of water, my heart felt like it had broken in two. If it wasn't for Xander doing CPR... " There were tears in his voice, and in almost everyone else's eyes.
"For awhile, every thing was fine. Well, there was her little problem with her own death, but she worked that out. She even beat the Order of Teraka, and saved me in the process. Then, an awful thing occurred.
"Dru had found the pieces of the judge, and had put him together. We went to see how many pieces they had, and almost lost our lives. I couldn't stand being apart from her a second longer. We made love, and I did the one thing that would break the curse. I didn't have guilt over something for one moment, and that's all it took.
"I remember laying in bed that night, sleeping, when the pain hit. It hurt worse than anything I had ever felt before. It scared me, but I knew it would scare Buffy even more, so I managed to dress and leave the apartment. Outside, I collapsed. When I came to, my soul was gone. Angelus was back.
"I did a lot of horrible things then. I killed two members of the Romani clan that were there to keep an eye on me. To make sure I continued to suffer. One... One was Jenny Calendar. She was the computer teacher here at the school... And Giles' girlfriend. She had found a translation of the spell to restore my soul, and I didn't want that.
"I did a lot of other terrible things. But, worst of all was distracting Buffy so that Dru could kidnap Giles. See, we had this demon named Acathla who would swallow the world. We just needed Giles because he knew how to free him.
"The next night, Buffy came after me, but not before we had tricked Giles into telling us what I wanted to know. When Buffy attacked, I laughed. One little Slayer against so many vampires? It was ridiculous. But, she had a hidden ally, Spike, my own creation. He incapacitated Dru, and ran off with her, leaving Buffy with only me to deal with.
"I managed to complete the ritual, and freed Acathla, all I had to do was kill Buffy, or at least distract her, until he woke up. At one point, Buffy was right beneath my sword, I was so close to killing her. Then the tables turned. I remember kneeling on the floor, waiting for her to kill me when I felt the pain again. Someone had recast the curse, and I had a soul again.
"At first, I didn't remember what I had done. I just saw Buffy, standing in front of me, sword raised. She was hurt, and crying. We kissed, and she told me to close my eyes. Then, I felt the sword enter my stomach. I was shocked, but then, I remembered. Everything I had done, the death, the violence...
"Then, blackness. After that, more pain, then brightness. I was in so much pain.
"When I opened my eyes, I saw Whistler. He said a few months had passed since the mansion. I couldn't go back to Sunnydale, but I knew I wanted to help the people I had hurt. Whistler suggested maybe creating a group of people who could take some of the strain off her. So, I contacted a friend I had in the government. Convinced them that vampires and demons do exist. They finally believed me, but didn't have the money to fund the project. I did.
"For five years now I have been helping both the Team and Buffy in any way possible. I always stayed in the background, letting almost no one know of my existence. Then, I found out Buffy had killed Dru. I knew Spike would go ballistic. I gathered the most experienced members of the Team and flew them here."
Angel once again looked up from the floor. I could see the determination in his eyes, and knew what was coming next.
"So, that's my story. The whole gory thing glossed over in ten minutes. Now, it's up to you to decide what you are going to do about it."
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