Shooting Stars

Part 3

-----

She turned after seeing the van off, and ran up to her room. She had left the front door unlocked, not wanting to have to dig through her keys. She threw open the trunk by her bed, digging through the contents until she found a big, nicely folded paper bag. Carefully, she removed the contents: thirteen white candles, two bags of herbs, a box of matches, a red crayon, and her Witchcraft book. She took all of it in her arms, moving across the hallway to the bathroom.
Once she had all of her spell ingredients in the bathroom, she grabbed the red crayon. The label read 'Macaroni and Cheese', thanks to her three-year-old cousin who had tried to eat them a few summers ago, and then settled for re-arranging all the labels when he found out how waxy they were.
Willow drew a large pentacle on the floor, making sure there was enough room for her to sit in the center of the star shape. She put the candles on the outer edge of the pentacle, setting the herbs in front of her on a little plate she kept under the sink.
"Okay, I can do this," she said to herself as she moved to the center of the pentagram, the candle flames flickering around her. She'd clicked the light off to make it easier for her to concentrate. She lit a match, dropping it on the plate of herbs, and watching as dark red smoke rose from the plate, barely visible in the dark room. She took a deep breath, and began her spell.
* * *
Buffy was sitting at the island in the kitchen of her house, watching her mother closely. She hadn't been mad at all when the Slayer had shown up at the door. In fact, she had practically pulled her daughter into the room, hugged her, led her to the kitchen, hugged her again, and now she was wiping tears from her eyes as she moved back and forth across the kitchen.
"Okay, who are you, and what have you done with my mother?" she asked, staring at her mother in a mix of surprise and shock. Joyce laughed.
"Oh, Buffy, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to surprise you. I'm just… I'm so glad that you're alright," her mother replied with a smile. "Where were you?"
"I, um… I went up to LA for a while. Got a job, stayed in a little apartment with no heat and bad water," she replied with a forced laugh.
"Oh. Well, I'm glad you came back. If you don't mind my asking, what made you come back all of a sudden?" her mother asked, sitting with her at the island.
"Nothing important," the Slayer replied, not wanting to have to tell her mom that the world was about to end, yet again, and that she had been chased down and dragged back to the Hellmouth by her friends in order to stop it.
"I see. And, um, about the incident before you left-" Buffy interrupted her mother.
"I know. I'm sorry. It's just that… There was a lot going on," she said. Joyce nodded.
"I think we need to discuss this whole Vampire Slayer thing a bit more, though. I don't think I really understand it." This was what Buffy had been afraid of. She didn't want to scare her mother or make her worry or anything. But, she'd found out about her daughter's sacred duty to the world. Since that vampire had attacked Buffy and Spike right outside the Slayer's house, Buffy had needed to explain the whole thing to her mother.
"Well, it's kinda simple, really. See, there's one girl in all the world that has the strength to kill all the vampires and demons and evil monsters that happen to show up," she explained. "And no," she said before her mother could speak again, "I didn't pick this. Some higher power or something chose me. Kind of a birthright, I think."
"Well, it sounds… It's um… Not what I expected in a daughter, but…"
"Look, mom, I'm sorry I can't fix this with a few simple explanations and 'it's not a big deal's. I know that I can't. There's a lot I've done that you still don't know yet, and it'll probably be a long time before I'm ready to tell you. I know that's hard on both of us, but I just can't… I just don't want to feel like we're on different planets or something, okay?"
"Okay." There was a long pause. "If you don't mind, I have one more question."
"What?"
"Well, the night you took off… What was going on?"
"It's a really long story."
"Well, we have plenty of time." Joyce took a seat beside her daughter. "If you don't mind, that is."
"It's really not a…" The Slayer let her words drop of before she finished telling her mother it wasn't a big deal. She took a deep breath, and began to explain. "You remember Angel, right? Um… He's a vampire. Was a vampire. And, well, vampires like to try and end the world, so he was going to suck the Earth into Hell. Then Spike, that guy with the bleach job? He decided to help me so he could get Drusilla, his insane girlfriend back. He was also the only one that could help me find Giles. You know, the librarian?"
"Okay, why does Mister Giles have anything to do with this?" Apparently, the Angel thing hadn't totally sunk in yet. Probably all the better.
"You see, each Slayer has a Watcher that trains her and guides her, and that's why he's always around when something weird happens. But, Drusilla had captured him, so Spike and I made a deal. If he kept Angel from killing Giles, I'd let him and Drusilla leave the country."
"Wait. I thought Angel was that college boy you told me about?"
"He was. Only, not a college student. We were fighting some vampires and he got hurt, so we ran here. I made up the college thing. I guess you could go ahead and call it lying."
"And he's a vampire?"
"Well, he was. He's… Gone."
"So that man, Spike, helped you kill him? Isn't Spike a vampire? The one that attacked the school?" When Spike and Drusilla had first come to town, Spike had attacked the High School on Parent/Teacher night. He'd been fighting Buffy when Joyce hit him on the back of the head with an axe and said, 'get the hell away from my daughter'.
"Yeah. But, he just wanted to get Drusilla out of the country. So, he did help me a bit. But, that's basically the story," Buffy said. Her mother thought for a minute, finally turning to her daughter again.
"So, you knew that Angel was a vampire before you two…" Her mother trailed off. Buffy smiled a little awkwardly, nodding.
"That's another really long story, and I'm really tired. If it's okay, I'm just gonna go get some sleep." Joyce nodded, apparently lost in thought. Buffy sighed, heading up to her room to get some rest.
* * *
After the small whirlwind passed, Willow sat with her eyes squinted shut for a moment. All her candles had gone out, and the room was totally dark. She blinked, then stood up and felt her way to the light. She clicked it on. Slowly, she turned back to her pentacle to see… A wristwatch. It was lying in the middle of the floor, a few feet in front of where she stood. She let out a groan of exasperation, snatching the watch off the tile.
"That's a lot of help," she said, looking up at the ceiling as if she was speaking to it, or whoever was above it. "Well, I got the watch. Now I need the rest of him." She had attempted to bring Angel back from Hell, but all she ended up with was his watch.
Suddenly, Willow had an idea. She'd done the Restoration Ritual before, but she wasn't by any means an experienced witch. This was her second 'big' spell, so she could effectively say that only half her major spells had worked. If she was right about the success of the Restoration Ritual, that was.
However, she did know someone that was better at it than she was. Amy Madison. Willow was down the stairs and on the phone very quickly. It rang twice before someone picked up on the other end.
"Hello?" Amy's voice said on the other end of the line. Willow smiled, glad that she was home.
"Amy! Hi! It's me, Willow," the redhead replied.
"Oh, hi! I was just thinking of calling you! Isn't it weird how that works?" Amy's voice chirped. Good, Willow thought, she's in a good mood.
"Yeah, it is. But, I sorta need your help," Willow said, not really wanting to waste time with small talk. Giles and the others would be calling soon, wanting research results. So, she needed to practice her lying skills some more before that happened.
"Really? What's up?"
"Well… I can't really explain it over the phone. I just need someone that knows this stuff better than I do."
"What stuff?"
"Well, just come over and I'll explain, okay?"
"Okay!" Amy said, hanging up. Willow smiled, hanging up. She thought maybe she should call Giles and tell him it was taking longer to search the 'Net than she expected. That way, she wouldn't have to wait for him to call her and risk that it would be in the middle of the spell. She picked up the phone again, punching in the library number.
"Hello, Giles residence," Xander's voice said into the phone. Willow couldn't help laughing, and she could hear Giles yelling at Xander in the background. Cordelia was laughing as well.
"Xander, it's Willow. Can I talk to Giles?" she asked.
"Yeah, sure. After all, this is the man's home away from home," Xander said. "Or maybe he should just think about living here…" Then, to Giles, "G-man! Willow for ya!" There was a pause, and Willow could hear Giles saying something to Xander, like 'I thought I told you never to call me that'.
"Willow? Have you found anything?" he asked when he and Xander were done speaking. He sounded slightly annoyed with the teen.
"No. I've been having really bad luck with the computer. I can't seem to find anything on Chaos," she said, hoping it sounded believable. She wasn't stammering, which helped.
"Alright. Keep looking. I'm afraid we haven't come up with much ourselves. Call if there's any change," he said. They said their good-byes and hung up. Willow went to the kitchen table, sitting down to await Amy's arrival…
* * *
The wind raced along the walls, screaming in anger as it ripped through the tiny room. Buffy could feel it pressing against her arms and legs and face as she stood at the doorway, looking into the small area. The wind was whipping past her ears, blowing her hair back away from her face. She could see candles in a circle on the floor, and a pile of burning herbs in the middle of a blurry red shape. Fire. There was heat coming off of the light in the center of the room. The floor was a white and yellow tile. Like at Willow's house…
Suddenly, the wind stopped. There were blurry shapes, possibly people, sitting in the center of the small room. There was a hissing noise, and water all over the floor. It was raining inside the room, but didn't smell like a rainstorm. The Slayer could make out another shape in the corner of her eye. But, she didn't need to turn to see what it was. She already knew.
It was Angel. He was back.
* * *
Buffy sat straight up in her bed, her breath caught in her throat. She glanced around the room, seeing the familiar surroundings of her bedroom. She was safe; nothing was going on. Nice, calm, middle-of-the-night at home.
Then, she remembered her dream. It was so vivid, yet so hazy at the same time. She knew what that meant. It was a prophetic dream. As the Slayer, she could sometimes dream about the future, sort of. It was one of her many 'gifts'. Sometimes what she dreamt would really happen, and sometimes it was just a message.
She climbed out of the bed, not surprised that she hadn't bothered to change. It had been a chaotic day, and she didn't want the added hassle of pajamas. She looked to the clock, somewhat amazed at how long she'd slept. It was two in the morning.
The Slayer paused, thinking of her mother sleeping peacefully in the next room. Buffy was frightened that something might be happening, and didn't want her mother to worry about her. She grabbed a stake just in case, exiting her room quietly through the window.
* * *
Giles awoke to a loud pounding on his door. He didn't bother to look at the clock as he stumbled blindly down the stairs. He hit his toe on the end table by the couch, swearing as he did so. He hopped to the door and opened it. He was still in his clothing from the day before, but there were more serious matters at hand than making sure his shirt was ironed, which it wasn't.
When he swung open the door, he was quickly awakened by the frightened look on Buffy's face. She seemed a little tired, but the statement on her face was generally one of fear.
"Buffy. Um, come in," he said, stepping aside so she could enter the room, leaving him to close the door as she usually did when she was panicking. "What happened?"
"I had a dream. It was way too real to be normal, Giles, something's up. I mean, sure, I've had plenty of dreams since that whole incident, but this one was different. Something's going on," Buffy explained hurriedly. Giles could tell that she was just slightly hysterical, and rambling a bit.
"What happened? I-in the dream?" he asked, trying to get her to calm down a little so that he could figure out what it was she was trying to tell him.
"He was back. Angel. I, um… I had to send him to Hell. You know, that thing with Alfalfa or whatever his name was. Anyway, someone brought him back. Or two someones," Buffy tried to explain. Giles nodded, trying to make sense of the whole thing.
"And, you believe this may have been a type of prophecy?"
"Yeah. It was really windy, and there were candles and herbs all over the floor. You know, like for a spell? And there was…" Her voice suddenly trailed off, as her eyes widened. Giles stared at her in question for a moment.
"What is it?"
"The floor. It was white and yellow tiles. You know, one of those checkerboard patterns from the sixties or whatever. It looked just like the tile at… Oh, god, like at Willow's! That's the tile in her bathroom! Giles, she said she does her spells in there!"
"Buffy, are you absolutely sure? The-the rituals for brining someone back from the demon dimension are terribly dangerous! Do you really think Willow would attempt something like that on her own? And without telling us what she was doing?" Okay, Giles thought, maybe the latter.
"No, I don't. She wasn't alone; there was someone else. Um, she had blonde hair, kinda short," the Slayer explained, gesturing to her chin to show the length of the blonde girl's hair. "Ohmigosh! Amy!"
"Amy?"
"Yeah, the witch with the psycho cheerleading-obsessive mom? We met her right after I moved here, remember? The bloodstone vengeance spell and-and Cordelia going blind? Anyway, it was her, Giles, I'm sure of it!"
"Alright, let's just stay calm and try to figure out what-"
"Giles we have to stop them. Now!" Buffy was determined to find Willow and Amy before the two of them did something stupid…
* * *
It had taken the two girls almost all day to set up for the ritual, and then half the night to make sure everything was fine. Willow had been to the store four times already; more herbs, new candles, a new box of crayons, and a different book that had the spell in Latin rather than English. Now, they were ready.
Almost.
"Tribuo posco… No, that's not right. Tribuo quas posco? Yeah, that makes more sense. Tribuo quas posco ex mihi, quas demito? No, that can't be right. Is it demetto? No, it's demitto! Tribuo quas posco ex mihi, quas demitto hominis, itaque reverto… Quicumque?" Amy muttered to herself, as Willow fiddled with the watch she'd managed to retrieve earlier. She had to wonder if Angel was wondering what happened to it.
Sighing, she looked to the candles around the room. They weren't lit yet, and the other, totally burned down ones were in the trashcan. Along with the other herbs. She'd spent an hour sweeping them off the carpet, thanks to the stupid wind that had blown them into the middle of the hall.
"Tribuo quas posco ex mihi, quas demitto hominis, itaque reverto quicumque quare Ego oro cum sis… Prot? Pro! That's it! Okay," Amy said, looking to Willow. "We're ready. Willow moved into the circle, watching as Amy lit the candles. The redhead had also purchased a nice lighter so that they didn't have to use matches. "Wait a minute. Willow, is this crayon?" Amy asked, looking at the red makeshift pentacle on the floor of the bathroom.
"Yeah. So?" Willow asked innocently.
"Willow, the pentagram can't be crayon. It doesn't work that way," Amy explained, a sympathetic smile on her face.
"Should I have used a marker?" the redhead asked, not understanding Amy's point.
"No," Amy replied with the slight smile still on her face. "For this type of spell, the pentagram has to be drawn in the blood of the spell caster."
* * *
Within fifteen minutes, Amy and Willow were well into the spell. Amy had finished the initial chant, and was starting the spell when Willow heard the front door open. She suddenly remembered that she had forgotten to lock it. Amy, however, was too deep in the spell to hear, and didn't stop chanting. It was kind of like when Willow had done the Restoration Ritual. She'd begun speaking Rumanian, even though she didn't know the original Rumanian spell. It was like some kind of force had just taken her body over.
"I implore you, Gods of the underworld, hear me. Ego obtesta te Deuses ex quas barathrum, exaudio mihi." Amy recited in English, following it with the Latin translation that made up the actual spell. "Grant the request of me, the lower being, and return that which I plead with you for. Tribuo quas posco ex mihi, quas demitto hominis, itaque reverto quicumque quare Ego oro cum sis pro."
Willow could barely hear the pounding feet coming up the stairs and into the hallway as the wind picked up. It was stronger than last time, and the flames jumped up to lick the ceiling hungrily. The wind was feeding their desire for fresh food. Thick black smoke swirled around the room, rising from the burning herbs and getting caught in the wind.
"Hear the words of the witch and return the devil that walks upon this Earth in shadow. Exaudio quas lacuna ex quas veneficus itaque reverto quas diabolus quicumque ambulos incresco is ea id Terra in umbras," Amy continued, raising her voice to combat the howling wind. "Bring to me the animal being! Affero obviam ire quas bestia hominis! Now! Prope!"
Willow winced at the horrible screeching that was caused by the door tearing off its hinges, but it could be fixed easily. It fell on its side in the hallway. The herbs and the plate were ripped off the floor and thrown out the doorway, the plate shattering in the hall, and the still burning herbs scattering across the carpet.
"Prope!" Amy screamed, as the wind stole the breath right out of Willow's lungs. The candle flames made a fiery wall around them, and the redhead could hear someone screaming her name. But, she couldn't see them through the fire. It was beginning to burn the ceiling, filling the room with the smell of burning wood. The wind threw the smoke back in Willow's face, and she had to struggle to get a breath. Both girls began choking on the smoke. There was a crashing sound and a loud hissing as the tremendous air pressure in the room broke the pipes that brought water into the bathroom, and said water gushed out across the floor. A piece of pipe flew into the air with the force of the burst, pushing it's way through the fire and sailing past Willow's head.
Suddenly, it all stopped. There was water raining down on them. Good old fire sprinkler, she thought, as the wind stopped and the fire and smoke was gone. Then, Willow fell to the floor, unconscious.
* * *
Buffy had to shield her eyes from the heat of the flames and the flying herbs that came after the door was ripped off. It would be easy to put back if they had enough people to lift it, but that was the least of her concerns. She could see the figures of Willow and Amy silhouetted in the middle of the fire, which rose to meet and tear at the ceiling.
Then, it all stopped. The fire was gone, the faucets weren't spraying wildly anymore, the smoke evaporated, and the wind had just up and stopped. The fire sprinkler clicked on for a moment, washing the red liquid that Buffy guessed was blood across the floor. The sprinkler clicked off with the disappearance of the smoke, leaving the floor covered in a coat of murky, reddened water. Both of the girls were unconscious in the middle of the mess. The Slayer could hear Giles after calling her as she walked into the room, but her attention was focused elsewhere.
There was another shape that she could see in the corner of her eye. The room looked just like it had in her dream. She was afraid to look, and she knew that she didn't have to in order to find out what had happened. She already knew who the other person in the room was.
"Giles," she muttered, turning back to face her Watcher. He was looking directly at the other person, a look of shock on his face.
"Dear God," he whispered, just as shocked as she was, if that was even remotely possible. Willow and Amy's spell had succeeded.
Angel was back.
* * *
Slowly, Willow's eyes fluttered open. She didn't know how long she'd been out for, but it couldn't have been very long. She could feel water all around her on the floor of her bathroom. As she moved her head to the side, she could see two more people standing in the room. One was Giles, and the other was… Buffy. Willow sat up quickly, feeling the blood pound in her head.
"Buffy, I-" she started to explain, but Giles interrupted her.
"What in the hell did you think you were doing?" he asked, his gaze cold and hard. If looks could kill, Willow thought, I'd be dead. She swallowed thickly, squirming a little under Giles's harsh gaze. "This is a very dangerous spell, Willow! These things can not be taken lightly!"
"Well, it worked, didn't it?" Willow asked defensively. Giles looked like he was going to start laughing hysterically any moment. Willow looked to the ground again, already feeling extremely guilty about what she had done.
"Yes, it did. And what about him, hmm? Did you ever think of what he might do when he wakes up?" Giles asked. There was madness in his eyes that led her to think he'd gone briefly insane. So, she thought to herself as she wondered about Giles's 'alter-ego', so to speak, this would be 'Ripper', then? "This is the most irresponsible thing you could've possibly done! You-you've just brought back the most threatening opponent we've ever faced!"
"Giles?" Buffy said, looking to him. "Back off."
"Buffy, don't you see? When he wakes up, we'll all be killed!" Giles said. Willow had never seen him so mad and panicked before. No wonder I didn't wanna tell him, she thought absently.
"No. We won't," Buffy said, looking back to Angel. "Willow's spell worked. The Restoration Ritual, I mean. It worked just a second before… I killed him. He, um… He didn't remember anything that had happened. But, it was too late. The portal had already opened, and I had to kill him to close it."
"You're saying the curse succeeded?" Giles asked. Buffy just nodded, not turning to face him. Her eyes were locked on Angel. "Oh." After a short pause, he turned to Willow. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah," she replied, figuring he was asking it more from instinct than real concern. He was very angry with her, and she'd hear more about the whole mess later. She turned to Amy, who was just starting to wake up. "What happened?"
"I had to give them my power in exchange. My spell casting ability, I guess you could say. I'll get it back, slowly, but at least it wasn't a powerful enough spell to have taken my life," the blonde girl replied, sitting up painfully. "That's why I passed out."
"You never mentioned an offering, Amy," Willow scolded. "I would've given them fruit or something." Amy laughed, shaking her head.
"Willow, you have a lot to learn about powerful magick. Did it work, though?" Amy asked, finally seeing Buffy and Giles in the room with them. "Oh. Hi guys."
"I think it did," Willow replied, looking back at Angel. He'd probably be unconscious for a long time. If he'd even survived at all…
* * *
Xander could hear a loud ringing noise somewhere near him. He ignored it, thinking it was unimportant, until he heard his own voice on the answering machine. He lifted his head, seeing that it was the phone. He yawned and let his head fall back to the pillow sleepily. It was around three in the morning, and he'd just gotten home a few hours ago. Then, he heard Giles on the answering machine.
"Xander, i-if you're there, pick up the phone. Willow's, um, done something that I think we should all discuss. She says you know her number, so whenever you get the message, call back," he said. Xander jumped up, grabbing the receiver before Giles hung up. The Watcher sounded slightly panicked.
"Giles!" he almost screamed into the phone, suddenly wide-awake and wondering what was going on. He accidentally tugged on the phone cord, wincing as the base crashed to the ground. "What's up?"
"W-well, it seems that… Willow and Amy have managed to bring Angel back from Hell," Giles said. Xander's jaw nearly hit the floor. He forgot to breathe for a long moment. "We all need to gather here and discuss it. Figure out what she has planned."
"Come again?" Xander asked. He was beginning to think that Giles was either crazy, or… Well, crazy was really the only option he could come up with on the fly. "Willow brought the psycho vampire back, and you want me to go over there?"
"I'll explain, but there's nothing to worry about."
"Okay, I'll trust you on that, because you're obviously not dead yet. But, if he kills us all, put me down for the mother of all 'I told you so's'," Xander said. "I'm gonna call Cordy." With that he hung up on Giles, quickly dialing Cordelia's phone number. If he were going to get to Willow's safely at this hour and in a vampire-infested Hellmouth town, he'd need transportation…
* * *
Cordelia sat straight up in bed to the loud ringing of the telephone. She let out a disgusted groan, figuring it was a prank call or something of the like. She snatched the phone up out of the cradle so that it wouldn't wake her parents. They had really begun to hate her new habit of receiving middle-of-the-night calls.
"What?" she hissed into the phone, still thinking that the call had better be for a good reason, or she'd find the person calling her and personally kill them.
"Cordy? It's Xander. We've got a problem," Xander's voice told her from the other end of the line. "No, change that to big problem." Her eyes widened and she was sort of inwardly surprised that she was no longer angry for the caller waking her up.
"Xander? What on Earth is going on? It's two-thirty in the morning!" she said, millions of possibilities racing through her head. When one lived on the Hellmouth, they did not like to hear the words 'We've got a problem'. Or 'We've got a big problem', for that matter. Big problems usually equaled very bad things and lots of horror and possible death.
"Look, pick me up here in ten minutes. We have to get to Willow's house. She kinda pulled a stunt on us," Xander said. Cordelia didn't even bother to yell at him for cracking jokes. It was his way of dealing with tense situations. It was sort of one of the things that she liked about him. She nodded, suddenly remembering that he couldn't see her.
"Sure," she said, hanging up before Xander could reply. She quickly went to the closet, grabbing the outfit she'd planned to wear to school that day, assuming that it was actually in session for once. She quickly pulled off her nightgown, putting on her clothes. She remained as quiet as she could, not wanting to wake her parents and have to explain why she was leaving the house at such an ungodly hour. There was no time for her makeup, so she threw it in her purse and went to get the car, all the while wondering what Xander was talking about…
* * *
Giles was pacing back and forth across Willow's kitchen, his jacket draped over one of her chairs. Willow had Amy sitting on the counter and was patching a burn on her arm. After all the incidents they'd had in Sunnydale since coming to know the Slayer, they all kept a good supply of gauze, tape, Band-Aids, and antiseptic around the house. Buffy was, as far as he knew, waiting to see if Angel woke up. With the type of ritual that Willow and Amy had preformed, the vampire could've been killed, even though his body would still be there. The Slayer was also in a somewhat expected state of shock. Giles couldn't blame her.
There was a quiet knock on the kitchen door. Giles moved to open it, aware that it had also caught the attention of both of the girls in the room. When Giles opened the door, he saw Xander and Cordelia standing outside.
"Hello Xander, Cordelia," he said to each of the teens with a nod hello, letting them step in.
"So, what's going on? I heard Willow did something stupid," Cordelia said, finally noticing Willow standing off to the side of the room, as Amy hopped off the counter. "Oh. Hi Willow."
"Hi Cordelia," Willow replied, not bothering to argue about the 'stupid' part. With Giles standing right there, silently agreeing with Cordelia, it would surely be a loosing argument for the redhead.
"Um, Willow brought Angel back from Hell," Giles said, as Cordelia's eyes widened. "Don't worry, he won't attack us. Apparently her other spell had succeeded before Buffy managed to kill him and she had to send him to Hell, regardless."
"Oh. Well, why'd she bring him back?" Cordelia said, looking curiously to Willow, who looked at the ground.
"We're not quite sure of that," Giles replied, looking to the redhead as well. She looked back up at him, looking like she was already sort of sorry that she'd done it. After all, she did have a right. Giles had been extremely angry with her, and he still was.
"Well, with Chaos coming and everything, I figured we'd need all the help we could get. You know, since we don't know how strong he is. So, I tried to bring Angel back, and with Amy's help, I did it. I think," Willow explained, looking back to Amy.
"What happened to you?" Xander asked, nodding at her arm. There was gauze wrapped around it where Willow had been bandaging it.
"Oh, this? Well, when the wind started, the flames picked up really fast. I didn't expect them to get so high so fast. In other words, 'oops'," Amy explained. Xander looked like he felt sorry for her, but he also seemed amazed.
"How in the world can you make jokes at three o'clock in the morning? Even I can't do that," he said after a pause, making Amy laugh. "That wasn't supposed to be funny."
"I know, but I thought it was," Amy replied.
"So, now what do we do?" Xander asked Giles.
"Well, I suppose we wait," Giles replied. Knowing Xander would make a smart comment, Cordelia came over to stand beside him.
"And we hope Buffy and Angel don't get all touch-feely up there, and he comes down to rip our throats out, right?" Xander said. Cordelia rolled her eyes and smacked him on the arm. "Ow! What was that for?"
"You deserved it," Cordelia replied sharply.
"Sheesh, sorry!" Xander shot back, wide-eyed. Willow was trying not to laugh while Amy sighed and shook her head as if to call Xander a pathetic wimp.
"Hey, Giles? Did you call Oz?" Willow asked. Giles shook his head, wondering why it didn't cross his mind to call Oz. Probably because there was so much going on. "Okay. I'll call him. He's probably still awake anyway."
"Yeah, let's have a party! I can bring the Twinkies!" Xander joked, a smile on his face as he looked around the room. "Huh? Twinkies! Big fun!" At this, Cordelia smacked him on the arm again in the same place as last time. After his look of shock, she replied somewhat simply.
"You deserved it."
* * *

Part 4

| Main Page | Updates | Galleries | Episode Guide | News | E-Zines | Upcoming Episodes | Willow's Witchcraft |
| Makeup Counter | Original Artwork | Tattoos | Filmographies | Character Quiz | Episode Quizzes |
| Fanfic | The Library | Obsession List | Links | My Banners | Site Info |