From: owner-buffyfic@lists.xmission.com (buffyfic-digest) To: buffyfic-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: buffyfic-digest V2 #118 Reply-To: $SENDER Sender: owner-buffyfic@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-buffyfic@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk buffyfic-digest Saturday, April 11 1998 Volume 02 : Number 118 In this issue: BUFFYFIC: Vampires Anonymous, (2/5) by Andrea BUFFYFIC: Vampires Anonymous, (3/5) by Andrea See the end of the digest for information on (un)subscribing to the buffyfic or buffyfic-digest mailing lists and on how to retrieve back issues. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1998 12:42:11 PDT From: "Andrea Newbery" Subject: BUFFYFIC: Vampires Anonymous, (2/5) by Andrea Title: Vampires Anonymous Author: Andrea Newbery e-mail: anewbery@hotmail.com Distribution: sure, as long as I know where. Rating: PG-13 Spoilers: everything up to KbD Summary: I have been spending way too much time thinking about Angel's soul or lack thereof. That is not actually in the story but it is still true. Anyway I was thinking way to much on how Angel will get his soul back and I started thinking that it might be interesting if, say Willow found the ritual and performed it but made a slight mistake and restored the souls of everyone in the factory with Angel. So I decided to see what would happen. 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! Feedback: Please...good, bad, whatever! 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. He still hadn't forgotten about the fish. "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 preformed 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 too. 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. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com - - ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1998 12:44:05 PDT From: "Andrea Newbery" Subject: BUFFYFIC: Vampires Anonymous, (3/5) by Andrea Title: Vampires Anonymous Author: Andrea Newbery e-mail: anewbery@hotmail.com Distribution: sure, as long as I know where. Rating: PG-13 Spoilers: everything up to KbD Summary: I have been spending way too much time thinking about Angel's soul or lack thereof. That is not actually in the story but it is still true. Anyway I was thinking way to much on how Angel will get his soul back and I started thinking that it might be interesting if, say Willow found the ritual and performed it but made a slight mistake and restored the souls of everyone in the factory with Angel. So I decided to see what would happen. 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! Feedback: Please...good, bad, whatever! Meanwhile back at the school the vampires were starting to arrive. They wandered in slowly, still unsure that they would be welcome. They of course were since they were the reason the meeting was being held in the first place. Buffy ushered them all in, asking how their week had been and if anyone wanted to talk tonight. She wrote down the names of the few that did and handed it off to Xander who was running the meeting tonight. "Why am I running this meeting? I am one of the few creatures here who IS NOT a bloodthirsty killer?" Xander was looking hopefully at the gang thinking he may have found a way out. "Uh… Xander, remember the pig?" Xander blushed slightly and stammering something about how he never should have let it slip that he remembered that experience he stomped off to get ready to speak. "It's 8 O'clock Willow, are you sure you told him you needed the cake tonight?" Buffy was starting to get slightly panicked, if Spike and Dru didn't have their cake they would probably assume it was some sort of punishment for past sins and get all Angel-like again. She was pretty sure she didn't want anymore Angel-like people in her life, Angel himself was more than enough. Spike and Dru had come so far in the year since they had started this group; Dru was actually making sense some of the time. Not much sense but at least a little more than she had before. She was also, regrettably, obsessed with rescuing stray animals, so much so that Spike had threatened to move out of their house. Incidentally, the Sunnydale real estate market was enjoying a record year as the re-souled vamps moved above ground and the death rate decreased dramatically. Buffy watched the door anxiously as Xander called the meeting to order; praying that Angel made it back before the end of the meeting. "Hello everyone, I'm Xander, you already know that though, and…well I'm running this meeting tonight, Thomas was supposed to be doing this but sadly, he forgot to close the blinds when he went to sleep the other day…so, I'm sure we'll all miss him." Xander stood there nervously shifting from foot to foot silently cursing Willow for making the boo-boo that got them into this mess in the first place. "Tonight we have our first one year anniversary of the group and of Spike and Dru's joining. Also Sheila and Bobby are going to speak for the first time." Xander stared at Willow trying to cue her to hand out the groups outline sheets that they had finally typed up so that everyone could have a copy. Willow saw him staring at her and waved, she was to worried about the mess Oz was probably making in her basement to figure out that if Xander was staring at her there probably was a reason. Which there was. "Uh…Willow, do you have the hand-outs?" Xander was not totally comfortable yet with the fact that these vampires were not supposed to be considered enemies anymore. They were all playing on the home team now. The scooby gang had grown way to big for his liking. He found it odd that Angel was the only one of them he really liked. It could be that falling in love with one of his biggest enemies had caused him to go soft on the other one. Maybe it just was because Angel didn't like Spike and anyone who didn't like Spike was okay in his books. That vamp was entirely too flippant, entirely too sarcastic. In other words honing in on his territory. But no, he wouldn't think that way, everyone was so nice now, all forgiving, even Giles. It was enough to make a cynical mortal scream. Which he did sometimes in the privacy of his own bedroom. Not because he was cynical but because he had liked being part of a small exclusive clique dedicated to eradicating evil. Now who knew who was evil, a guy had to travel three miles outside of town just to find a one vampire who wasn't re-souled. That's what happens when you get a bunch of re-souled vampires desperate to erase their kind. Buffy would barely ever have to hunt anymore except for the fact that there were about ten times the normal amounts of other demons visiting Sunnydale at any one time. Seemed like the hellmouth had to have a constant amount of evil to keep it happy. Angel slipped quietly into the back of the library thankful for the centuries of practice he had sneaking around. He listened to Xander talk to the group about forgiving yourself for things that you couldn't change and had no control over. Xander of all people, he had been the last person he would have thought would fall for all this crap. Angel felt somewhat betrayed by Xander's turnaround. When he hadn't done anything horrible for over 100 hundred years Xander couldn't stand him and now that he had done horrible stuff to him and their friends Xander was okay with him. They all were okay with him and he couldn't help waiting for the other shoe to drop. No one could possibly understand let alone forgive the things he had done. Buffy kept telling him to accept what they were offering him, accept that they had big enough hearts to let him back into theirs. But even if they could forgive him, who they had known before he had reverted, how come they were so forgiving of Spike, Dru and their gang? They had only known them as monsters, he had known both of them before. He was glad for Dru's sake that they were helping them out. Spike still annoyed him like he had since Dru had first laid eyes on him. Willow handed him the guidelines then; he glanced at it and couldn't help smirking. They were still such innocents in spite of all their good intentions. They still had no idea of the atrocities these creatures had committed, still had the potential to do again. He couldn't picture Spike not giving in to the demons urgings at some point. They would be so disappointed if that happened. He couldn't help but worry for them. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com - - ------------------------------ End of buffyfic-digest V2 #118 ****************************** To subscribe to buffyfic or buffyfic-digest, send the command subscribe buffyfic-digest or subscribe buffy to majordomo@xmission.com. 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