Disclaimer: The characters of Angel, Buffy et al. are the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, the WB and whoever else… No copyright infringement intended. Please don’t sue me I’m already up to my neck in debt!
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authors note: This story is based on the idea that Willow finds the disc to restore Angels soul and mistakenly restores the souls of all the vampires in the factory. It is a lighthearted view of the re-souling.
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Part One
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"Angel, if you don't get over this self-pity gig and go to the meeting I may just change my mind on your existence and finish you off" Buffy stood glaring at her morose boyfriend. "That's why we started this group, to help you all deal with what happened to you."
"But..."
"Angel that's it, I'm going to the meeting, I'm in charge of snacks." With that she stomped out of his apartment totally fed up with him...again.
Twenty minutes later she arrived at the library lugging two huge jugs filled with red liquid. She proceeded to slam them onto the table and throw herself into one of the softer chairs in the library.
"Angel still giving you problems?" Giles came into the library carrying extra chairs from the gym.
"Giles, I don't get it, why won't he participate, everyone else is finding it really helpful." Buffy stared at the table as if it knew the answer and wasn't talking. (Incidentally it did know the answer and no it wasn't talking).
"Angel already regained and lost his soul once before, it's probably harder for him to accept that it happened again." With that Giles dropped off his load of chairs and headed out for the next pile.
Buffy sat staring at the table for a while longer then got up and started moving things out of the way for the chairs to be set up. Xander and Cordelia came strolling in carrying stryofoam cups and paper plates. " Hey Buff where's Angel, home sulking?" Buffy just glared at him and continued setting up the chairs. After a quick fight Xander and Cordelia came over to help.
"So, how many are we expecting for tonight, the usual twenty or has Willow resouled more vamps so we can start our own chain of vampire counseling centers and become filthy rich?"
"Xander, do we have to go through this every week, yes the normal twenty will be here, and no of course Willow didn't do the ritual again, you know the disc was bad and she lost half the ritual!" She stood there glaring at him glad to have a focus for her frustration. Cordelia finished putting the chairs in rows and turned back to them.
"Buffy really...you shouldn't get frustrated like that your face gets all wrinkly and before you know it you're going to look way older than you already are. And since your boyfriend is never going to age that is something your going to want to hold off as long as possible."
"Gee thanks Cordy 'cause my day...life isn't already going bad enough." Glaring at the both of them she grabbed the jugs of red liquid and peered curiously at them, "How am I supposed to be able to tell which one is which because I will not be tasting it!"
"I will."
"Angel, you came!" Buffy smiled joyfully at him while Xander and Cordelia stared at him surprised.
"So deadboy comes out of hiding, glad to see you again, which is as much of a surprise to me as I'm sure it is to you."
"Thanks Xander, although I must admit I was counting on you to convince Buffy she should dump me so I could go back to the whole brooding guilt thing."
"I tried man, I tried...I even tried to get her to stake you but no such luck." Xander peered anxiously at Angel to see how he would handle a little teasing and was relieved to see Angel staring at him with his ' I could kill you' look. Xander just smiled at him and went back to arranging the library while Angel taste-tested the jugs.
"Buffy, where did you get this junk?" Angel was staring at her with a very pained look on his face.
"Willie, he said it was fresh stuff" Buffy replied.
"Fresh.... This was fresh when I was human, I'll go get some more, this stuff could cause a vamp to fall off the no human wagon." Angel then did his thing where he wasn't there as they all stood around thinking a joke, did no fun, guilt-ridden Angel actually attempt a joke. Admittedly a lame joke but still a joke. Simultaneously they then decided that no he probably actually meant it. With a group sigh they all went back to what they were doing.
Angel was strolling back to the library with his two bottles of actually fresh cow and pig blood when he ran into Willow, literally. Well not exactly literally since he wasn't actually running, on the other hand she was.
"Hey, Willow, what's the rush?"
"Oz was supposed to get the cake only we didn't notice the time of the month so he's not exactly in a cake sorta mind." Willow panted trying unsuccessfully to catch her breath.
"Cake, what do you need cake for?" Angel was staring at her fairly sure he wasn't going to like the answer.
"Spike and Dru. It's their one-year anniversary tonight and Dru wanted cake so...cake she's getting only Oz.... So now I have to find a bakery still open and I'm supposed to be printing off copies of the steps and..." He was right, he didn't like the answer but for Willow...he owed her.
"Okay Willow, I'll go get a cake, any particular kind?" Willow smiled at him, relieved to get one task off her plate. "Dru wants Angel food cake."
"Angel food cake?" Angel immediately took on his guilt-ridden persona, head down, shoulders rounded.
"Angel don't try to read a guilt inducing reason into that...please."
" Whatever, I'll see you at the meeting."
Angel and Willow took off then in opposite directions, Angel stopping long enough to hide the bottles in a bush. He started back the way he had just come muttering under his breath about Angel Food Cake and why he could never be forgiven and how had he ever ended up involved with these people. It was almost to much for him to comprehend, his life was turning from a tragedy to some sort of black comedy with everyone being way to amused by the horrible things that happened to them. The horrible things he had done to them and they all preached forgiveness, not only for him but for all the vampires Willow had accidentally re-souled when she performed the ritual of restoration on him.
Twenty-five vampires in all had been re-souled on that night. Twenty-five vampires all laying around the factory moaning and crying about what they had done. What a nightmare that had been, he'd been so busy trying to help the others deal with the whole soul issue he'd never had time to deal with his own guilt. Spike and Dru had to be the worst of the lot, both of them falling over him to apologize for things they had done to him. It was enough to make him hope they lost their souls again but no... Willow was very thorough and none of them would ever lose their souls again. He went to see Buffy three weeks after the ritual, to say good-bye and to tell her what had happened to the rest of the vampires in the factory. He'd never expected her to be so forgiving never expected the rest of them to do anything more than kill him on sight. He had actually been looking forward to that so imagine his disappointment at all of them trying so hard to help him feel better about what had happened. Even Giles had tried to help him explaining to him that he did not hold him responsible for the death of his girlfriend. For a while Angel was fairly sure that they were all actually vampires and were just playing some huge trick on him, probably something Drucilla had thought up. He gave up on this idea when he caught Cordelia's reflection in her compact. He then spent the next few weeks trying unsuccessfully to convince Buffy to kill the whole lot of them. He failed at this also, seems the whole gang had decided that the souls were not responsible for the demon actions and all kinds of other garbage that he was not falling for...again. Vampires with souls should always suffer, this was his new motto and no way was he giving it up for the forgiving, second chances junk Buffy and the others were preaching. Spike and Dru sure had fallen for it though, redemption through good deeds. Funny really, those two running around the Hellmouth doing the random acts of kindness thing. He could just picture Spike helping an old lady across the street. It would have made him laugh except he had made a vow to himself not to. He finally found an open bakery and paid way too much for the cakes. Cakes, for vampires, who don't actually need any food other than blood. It was enough to make a vampire want to run away. He headed back towards the school instead.
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