Disclaimer: Characters are the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and 20th Century Fox. This fanfic is written without permission or profit and no harm is intended.

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FADE IN: EXT. - NIGHT

A wooded area somewhere just outside Los Angeles, California. Four teens, MIKE, JEN, CARRIE and DAN, are making their way through the trees. All are equipped with flashlights, and MIKE carries a full duffel bag over one shoulder. They are dressed affluently, with a deliberately ratty look. JEN trails behind the other three, looking a bit unsure, while the others chatter excitedly.

DAN drops back to walk beside JEN.

DAN offers his hand and JEN takes it, giving him a thin smile.

The four reach their destination: a clearing in the woods. Moonlight shines over a circle, comprised of small stones, that borders a large section of bare dirt.

MIKE sets down the duffel bag and unzips it, pulling out a large book covered in leather. Runic symbols are engraved on the cover.

He removes more items from the bag: candles, an incense burner, two plastic bowls, a container of Morton's salt, a bottle of mineral water. As he hands the items to JEN and CARRIE, DAN pages through the book. His eyes light up when he reaches a certain page.

MIKE starts checking his pockets.

CARRIE, looking bored, pulls a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from her purse. She lights a cigarette, then tosses the lighter over to MIKE.

MIKE produces some sidewalk chalk and begins to draw on the hard ground, inside the circle. The girls are arranging the other items according to MIKE's instructions.

DAN looks quizzically at MIKE, who shrugs.

JEN gets done filling one of the bowls with water and sets it on the eastern side of the circle, within the rocks. She then sits down on a larger, flat stone and links her hands around her knees. CARRIE sits down next to her, cigarette held between two fingers.

Both girls giggle.

Dan comes up behind the girls and drapes an arm over each of their shoulders, grinning at them.

The four assemble around the circle according to MIKE's instructions; he is reading out of the book. DAN is to the south, MIKE to the north; CARRIE is on the east section, and JEN to the west. A shot from above establishes that one point of the pentagram points north; a star is traced within the pentagram, each point of the star corresponding to a point of the pentagram. In the very center of the star is a small iron cauldron. It appears to have something in it, but just what it is can't be seen. The girls and DAN look to MIKE, who takes off his jacket and tosses it outside the circle. He is wearing all black. He takes a knife from his pocket and cuts his palm, letting the blood drip from his palm into the cauldron. JEN makes a 'yuck' face.

MIKE nods at the others.

Aside from a marked increase in the wind, nothing seems to happen. CARRIE gives MIKE a bored look; JEN's face is a bit more freaked.

He flips pages in the book, and finding a chant, begins to read it. It's Latin, so no one else understands that the chant, combined with all the prepared elements, really is going to work.

Suddenly, the cauldron flares and shines a bright column of light straight up. JEN screams and stumbles back several steps. CARRIE looks impressed. DAN cries out cheerfully, and MIKE looks completely astonished. For a moment, he lapses reading, and then picks up again, furiously, despite the fact that he's mispronouncing every word.

The column of light gets wider and brighter, white in the center, golden around the edges. As MIKE continues the chant, a figure begins to form in the center of it.

JEN gives DAN a scared look and takes off, her fear catching up to her. CARRIE, looking disgusted, goes after her. With the removal of two elements from the whole, the spell begins to falter. The column flickers.

But he can't do anything; neither can MIKE, despite his frantic shouting of the Latin. The column abruptly dies. The figure, however, does not disappear; enough of the chant was completed that he remains, but MIKE didn't get to the binding part of the spell (bad news for them, eh?). The body - human in shape, and completely naked - falls from where it was suspended above the cauldron, landing half-in and half-out of the pentagram.

DAN gives MIKE an ugly look, and steps forward, prodding the 'corpse' with one sneakered foot. Suddenly, the body rolls over, gasping, eyes wide, hands clutched to his belly. It is ANGEL.

ANGEL can't comprehend where he is or what happened. He is too shocked that he's not being tortured anymore. After several moments, he slowly focuses on the two faces peering down at him in fascination.

DAN and MIKE back up, looking at each other.

ANGEL pushes himself to a sitting position.

His features abruptly turn vampiric, and he stares at the blood dripping from MIKE's palm to the ground. The boys see his face, lose their cool, and take off running. ANGEL gazes at the dark pool on the ground for a moment, then reaches out and dips his finger in it. He licks his finger, and sighs, his face reflecting the bitter sweetness of the blood. Then he forces himself to his feet. Finding MIKE's discarded coat, he picks it up, wrapping it around his waist. Vestiges of Catholic upbringing and all that. With a heavy sigh, he trudges down the path the boys took before.

[Titles]

FADE IN - INT. - DAY:

In the school library. GILES, WILLOW, XANDER, CORDELIA, and OZ are assembled around the tables in the main area.

They all give him disgusted looks, except for GILES, who plainly has missed the joke.

They all turn to see BUFFY standing just inside the doorway of the library.

WILLOW, XANDER, CORDELIA and OZ rush over to hug her enthusiastically. GILES comes up behind them. She releases someone (probably XANDER) from a hug and turns to face GILES.

BUFFY nods as the group moves to the tables and takes seats.

WILLOW's gaze tracks to the library door, and her jaw drops. BUFFY is sitting with her back to the door, and notices the look on WILLOW's face.

BUFFY turns in her seat. The camera tracks from her gaze to the library door, where ANGEL is standing, dressed in his usual black & white. A small smile is on his face.

The look in ANGEL's eyes is one of complete love and affection.

He holds his arms open. She leaps from the chair and launches herself into his embrace. The library is silent.

She suddenly pulls back, realizing for the first time that he's standing in a patch of sunlight without any apparent damage.

CUT TO: INT - NIGHT.

The back room of a small truck-stop diner, a classic greasy spoon. BUFFY is laying on an old, beat-up couch in the corner of the room. Around her can be seen a few dingy grey lockers, boxes of stock on steel shelves, and bare (painted) pipes. She is wearing a waitress's outfit - short one-piece dress made from heavy cloth, with an apron; her hair is tied back, and she wears safety shoes.

She wakes abruptly from the dream. For a moment, she looks around, disoriented. Realizing where she is, she sighs, resigning herself to another day at work.

EDNA comes in through the open door. She is an older lady, kind of face and large of body, wearing the same waitress's uniform, with a longer skirt. She smiles when she sees that BUFFY is awake.

The clock over the wall lets us know that it is ten minutes until 10:00, and the back window displays a dark parking lot. Shadows move beyond the semis parked in angular rows.

He had found clothes outside a tent; someone camping in the woods, thankfully, had left them - maybe to dry - there was a stream nearby, speaking of daylight activities and things he had forgotten long ago, aside from the occasional flash of memory. It was a fortunate coincidence that the shirt and pants were his size, so that even though he was still barefoot, at least his once-Catholic conscience was soothed by the covering of nudity. He wanted to apologize to the camper for the theft, but knew that to be an idiotic gesture; more than two hundred years he'd been a vampire, killing and torturing, and he felt guilty over slacks and a shirt?

He had to determine his location somehow; though he knew he'd been sucked into Hell in Sunnydale, that didn't mean he was there now. The trail down which he ran was already giving away from old forest into secondary growth, and he found himself coming up against a chain-link fence, the other side of which appeared to be a concrete parking lot.

Well, there's a start, he decided. I'm in civilization.

Lights from the far corners of the lot gave off a dull orange glow, revealing that the lot was almost empty, save for a few scattered cars. A disturbance between two of them caught his attention. Feminine shape, a larger figure approaching her -- and then the lights picked up the gleam of gold in her short hair as she whirled, gasping in fright, to face her attacker.

"Buffy--?!"

Before he knew what he was doing, he was over the fence and leaping at the other vampire. The other looked up for a moment, gold eyes wide in surprise, and gave a startled yelp as he found himself being torn away from his meal.

The girl scrambled backwards. Her breathing was shallow and fast; Angel could smell the sweet sharp tang of her blood in the dusty night air. Forcing himself to focus on the matter at hand, he grappled with the girl's attacker, shoving him back.

It was all over in moments. He decked the vampire with a solid punch, knelt long enough to grab a piece of wood he'd seen on the ground, broken from who knew where, and stood, bringing the makeshift stake up just as the other vampire leapt at him again. The timing couldn't have been better. Impaling himself on the stake, the vampire screamed, exploding in a cloud of ash.

Angel leaned forward, resting hands on knees, letting his face return to normal. That was one thing he hadn't missed - the constant inner struggle with the demon. But it was worth it, to see her again.

"A--are you okay?" The girl's voice interrupted his thoughts, made him spin abruptly to face her. Even before he saw her face in full, he'd realized it wasn't her. The impact of that knowledge made his heart sink in despair.

"You saved my life," she went on, taking a step towards him. Instinctively, he stepped back. "Who are you?"

"Nobody." He couldn't fight the wave of hopelessness that swamped him, leaving him sprawling, gasping for air in its grasp. Furious, he struggled against it anyway, barely aware of the girl's continued presence.

"Are you an angel?"

That snapped him back to the present. Her innocent query, the unintentional, unknowing use of his name--

He snarled. "Get inside. It's not safe for you to be alone at night."

She was still giving him that stunned stare as he turned and began to run. Belatedly, she yelled after him -- "Hey! HEY!"

But he was already gone.

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this page last updated on 18 january 2003