Title: A Time for Revenge
Author: Angelina
Email: angelina2006@hotmail.com
3rd of '3 R's' Series

Willow sat on her bed trying to regulate her breathing. Her stomach felt like it was trying out for the Olympic gymnastic team and her mouth was as dry as the Sahara desert. She took one last deep breath and stood up. She checked her bag of supplies; a crucifix that she’d put on once she was out of the house even though she wasn’t particularly religious she still felt guilty whenever she wore a cross – like she was disrespecting her parents or something. She also had stakes, a crossbow and plenty of Holy Water. Her main ally would be the sunlight – if she could stay in the sun as much as possible Angel couldn’t get her. Her plan was simple: kill Angel. She wasn’t stupid enough to think it would be easy. He’d managed to survive over 2 centuries without dying. But she reckoned she could work his ego against him – taunt him, attack his pride, force him to make a mistake and give herself the advantage – then do whatever was necessary.

Zipping up the bag she realised her hands were shaking. More than anything she wanted to be with Buffy. But Buffy had suffered enough at the hands of Angelus and Willow was going to end it now. She walked to her dresser and picked up a photo of herself and Buffy. It had been taken at a picnic in the park; Willow was seated on a blanket and Buffy was sprawled across her lap. They looked so happy, so carefree, and very much a couple – Willow wondered why this had never occurred to her before. Willow gently kissed the picture, a solitary tear running down her cheek. She placed it back down and picked up the letter she had written to Buffy. She was going to drop it off at Buffy’s house on the way to the mansion. Buffy would not yet be back from the hospital so she couldn’t try to talk Willow out of her plan. The letter was an explanation of what she was doing and why.

At Buffy’s house Willow rang the doorbell and Joyce answered.

"Oh, hi Willow, Buffy’s not home yet, I’m picking her up later on."

"Yeah, I know, I just wanted to give you this. I might be here when she gets home but I may not be able to make it…so if I’m not here will you give her this for me?" asked Willow holding up a white envelope.

"Sure Willow, but don’t you want to come in and wait? The hospital are going to call to tell me when she’s ready."

Willow felt tears welling up and fought them back valiantly before answering.

"Ummm, no, I have something I have to do first."

Joyce noticed the quiver in Willow’s voice.

"Are you OK Willow?" she asked, concerned.

"Mmm hmm, I’m fine…I…I have to go now."

And with that she turned and fled before allowing her tears to flow freely.

Joyce looked at the envelope in her hand, puzzled by Willow’s strange behaviour. Then the telephone rang.

Meanwhile, Jenny Calendar sat hunched over her computer terminal. Listlessly she searched through pages of text. She now appreciated how punishing the curse really had been for Angel. The guilt she felt over her deception and its consequences was bad enough. She marvelled that Angel had been able to stand the guilt he must have felt. Suddenly a line of writing on the screen caught her eye.

"Oh my God…this is it."

She whispered, afraid that if she spoke too loudly it might disappear. She could barely believe it. She hadn’t thought it possible – a way to reverse the curse. And it wasn’t anything very complicated. Some basic ingredients and a bit of Latin chanting were required….and an Orb of Thessela. She phoned Willow’s house but there was no answer.

< Never mind, I’ll do it as a surprise for all of them >

And she quickly got to work preparing the spell.

Buffy and her mother were in the car on the way home. Buffy was looking forward to seeing Willow so she was surprised when her mother spoke.

"Willow stopped by earlier."

"What? Why?"

"She said she might not be around when you got home and if she’s not there I’ve to give you an envelope."

"Well, where is it?" asked Buffy, a strange feeling of dread was building up within her.

"Let’s wait and see if she’s there or not first" said Joyce, smiling at her daughter’s impatience.

"Mom, I really think I should see it now, it may be important, and if she’s going to give it to me later it won’t matter will it?"

Something in Buffy’s voice touched Joyce’s heart, an urgency that she very rarely heard from her daughter. She handed the envelope to Buffy who grabbed it and ripped it open. She read it, every word weighing her heart down a little more.

'Dear Buffy,

Somehow that beginning doesn’t seem adequate but it’ll have to do because I’m in a hurry. I’m writing this hoping you never have to read it. But in case you do, I’d better get my apology in now. I’m sorry.

I’ve gone to kill Angel and if you’re reading this it means I haven’t come back. I want you to understand that I love you more than I thought humanly possible and I don’t want to ever leave you. But I have to do this. I have to stop him from hurting you any more. You probably think I should have told you this first huh? But you would have stopped me. You’ve saved my live countless times. Let me do this one thing for you.

If the worst has happened and I can’t be with you in person, please know that I’ll always be by your side. I know we’ll be together again, someday. I want you to be strong, like you always are. And keep fighting the good fight. For me.

I’ll love you forever.

W'

"Mom, when did you speak to Willow?"

"I don’t know, just a little while ago…"

"Drop me off here."

"What? Buffy, you’re just out of hospital, you need your rest…"

"Mom please, just trust me on this, I think Willow’s in trouble…she’s going to…do something I don’t want her to do."

"Well honey, you can’t run Willow’s life for her"

"Please mom, I won’t be long, I promise, I’ll find Willow and we’ll come straight home"

Joyce stopped the car reluctantly and Buffy sprang out of the door, ignoring her mother’s shouts of

"One hour, no longer!"

Jenny prepared to begin the ritual. The Orb was in place. She looked over the Latin again to get in straight in her head. Then she began.

In her weakened state Buffy was tiring quickly but she could not allow herself to slow down. All her attention was focussed on getting to the mansion in time. If she was too late….

Willow stepped into the darkened mansion. Drapes covered every window. Now that she was actually there, her earlier fears were multiplying. She decided that the first thing to do would be to shed some light on the situation. She started to walk towards one of the large windows when a voice from the shadows stopped her in her tracks.

"Hello Willow."

Her insides froze as she turned to see a fully awake and alert Angel stepping out of the corner.

"So nice of you to drop by. Very considerate of you to save me the trouble of coming to find you. Although I always did like the chase."

He was walking slowly towards her, enjoying her fear. Willow realised that she had to act fast and she dived for the window and pulled down the heavy black sheet, bathing herself and a large portion of the floor in sunlight. She stood in the centre of the pool of light, shaking.

"Hmm, so I see you’ve prepared a battle plan? You always were the thinker weren’t you Willow? The brains of the operation."

Angel was walking around the edge of Willow’s safe haven, circling like a shark.

"Pity that when in comes to action you have to rely on someone else. Where is your lady in shining armour anyway?"

He paused, pretending to remember something.

"Oh that’s right, I stuck a stake through her belly."

He smiled at the memory. The smile made all the rage Willow had felt since the attack come bubbling back up to the surface. She reached into her bag and brought out the crossbow. She pointed it directly at Angel.

"And I’m going to kill you before you can hurt her anymore."

Her calm voice did not betray the fear she was feeling.

"Ah, so you’re here to avenge her? It’s only right I suppose. It was your fault that I hurt her after all."

Willow faltered, this wasn’t going according to plan. She was supposed to be playing with his mind, not the other way around. Angel continued.

"But I suppose you’ve had a big heart to heart and she’s told you that it wasn’t your fault. Buffy’s a very forgiving girl. But then, she’s always had some weird thing for you."

Willow looked up; this was something she could use.

"Weird thing? That would be love – not that you’d understand anything about that."

"Love? You think she loves you? She pities you, you stupid little girl."

"I know she loves me. Guess you weren’t satisfying her Angel, coz the whole time she was with you she was thinking of me."

Willow wasn’t entirely sure this was true but it sounded good nonetheless. When Angel turned back to look at her he was wearing his vampire face.

"Taunting a vampire? You’re not as bright as I thought."

Angel was pacing like a caged tiger.

"I could snap you like a twig. And if Buffy ‘loves’ you as much as you say then I think that finding your lifeless body might just be enough to break her."

He stood still in front of Willow, facing off with her. Seizing her opportunity Willow fired the crossbow at his chest. He dodged easily.

"That your best shot, bitch?" He laughed. "You know what? I’m bored with this conversation now."

And without further warning he lunged at Willow tackling her to the ground. Together they slid out of the shaft of light. Angel was smoking slightly but was otherwise unharmed. Willow struggled but her efforts were futile against Angel’s far superior strength. He pinned her arms above her head and straddled her waist. She continued to fight but Angel barely noticed. He was looking at her intently, like he’d never seen her before. He reached out and touched her face. She tried to squirm away but he held on to her tightly. He grabbed her chin and squeezed it until she cried out in pain.

"So, have you given it up yet? To the little red-haired punk? I bet you haven’t, you’re not as easy as Buffy I’m guessing. Uncharted territory? This should be interesting."

He leaned down and kissed her hard on the mouth, if it could even be described as a kiss. It was the most horrific experience of her life. His fangs hurt her tongue and her lips, he was so rough. She could taste blood and she hoped to God that it was only her own. He broke the kiss and sat up again. His free hand went to Willow’s breast. He grabbed her nipple through the fabric of her shirt and twisted it until she screamed. Then she finally realised what his intentions were for her. She felt nausea well up in her throat.

"Please, please don’t…please don’t do this…no Angel…please…"

Angel smiled and ripped Willow’s shirt open exposing her bra.

"I love it when you beg."

He ran the tip of his finger over the swell of her breasts.

Suddenly the door burst open and a very breathless Buffy skidded to a halt. The sight before her enraged her more than anything she had ever faced.

"Get your fucking hands off her!" she screamed, launching herself at Angel.

The momentum threw him off Willow and he had no time to react before he was subjected to a flurry of blows.

"Buffy…Buffy please…please be careful." Willow pleaded between sobs.

"Get me a stake." was Buffy’s only response.

She was vaguely aware of a pain in her side, indicating that her wound had reopened but she ignored it. Willow collected herself enough to get a stake from the bag. She tossed it to Buffy who caught it deftly and raised it. A millisecond before she brought it down, a strange yellow light flashed in Angel’s eyes and she felt all the fight go out of him. She managed to stop the stake’s descent before it pierced his chest.

Angel blinked a few times.

"Buffy? Buffy what’s happening?"

The tone of his voice, the look in his eyes – this was Angel, not Angelus. And he had no idea what he had done. Buffy found no words to tell him. Slowly she stood up, letting him absorb his surroundings. What he saw broke his heart. He saw Willow, sweet little Willow trying to cover herself up with the remains of a torn shirt. She was crying and a line of blood from her lip was drying on her chin. Buffy was standing above him, her expression unreadable, so many emotions were contained in it. A large patch of red spreading on her top showed that she was badly wounded.

"Did I…was this…Oh God no."

He scrambled to his feet and stood before Buffy.

"Stake me."

"What?"

"Do it now, I deserve it."

"No."

"Then I’ll do it myself," he said, reaching for the stake in her hand.

"Stop."

Buffy and Angel both looked over at Willow.

"It wasn’t you. We know that. It was Angelus."

"But I…"

"But nothing, you survived this once, you can do it again, you have friends this time."

She approached him and took his hand. Buffy dropped her stake and wrapped her arms tightly around Willow who accepted the embrace gratefully. But she did not break eye contact with Angel; she tried to show him that she trusted him. And she did trust him. She knew the man before her bore no relation to the monster that had attacked her. He would never harm her. She also knew that he and Buffy needed time to talk. But not today. Today she needed Buffy to be with her.

"We’re gonna go now Angel. Promise me that you’re not going to do anything silly."

He looked at her with tears in his eyes.

"I promise."

She nodded.

"We’ll talk tomorrow OK?" asked Buffy.

"Tomorrow."

Willow took Buffy’s hand and together they walked out into the warm sunshine, leaving Angel to sink to the floor and weep into his cold hands.

Outside Buffy pulled Willow to a stop. She took off her jacket and held it up for Willow to put on. She then fastened it for her to cover the ripped shirt. Willow leaned into Buffy. Buffy held her tightly.

"Don’t ever do that again." Buffy said through a suddenly constricted throat.

"I’ll try not to." The response was slightly muffled by Buffy’s shoulder.

"I’d better get cleaned up before my mom sees me."

"Let’s go to my house."

Willow pulled back and kissed Buffy softly on the lips. Buffy responded tenderly so as not to hurt Willow’s bruised mouth.

"We’re OK."

This was said as a reassurance herself as well as Buffy.

"Yeah, we’re OK."

And with that they headed off to Willow’s house, knowing that they had a lot to face in the future. But after that day, they knew that they could make it through anything, as long as they were together.