3rd Person's POV

The library at Sunnydale High School. Buffy is crouched over Kendra after finding her dead. Behind her a police officer comes in and aims his gun at her.

Officer#1, "Freeze!"

Buffy faces him.

"Put your hands up. Back away from the girl slowly."

Another officer comes in behind the first, gun drawn and surveying the scene.

Buffy frowns slowly getting to her feet and raising her hands, "Look, I didn't do anything."

Officer#1, "Do it! Now!"

The second officer holsters her gun and crouches down to feel for Kendra's pulse, but can't find one.

Officer#2, "This one's dead."

Officer#1, "What about up there?", nods toward the mezzanine.

Buffy and Officer#2 look up at the stacks and see Xander lying unconscious on the floor behind the railing.

"Xander..." Buffy starts to go to him, but Officer#2 grabs her and pushes her back.

Officer#2, "Get her out of here!"

Buffy glares, "Wait! Just see if he's okay! Please!"

The second officer hands her off to the first, and then goes to check on Xander. Buffy offers no resistance, and lets herself be led out.

Officer#2 crouches down by Xander to check him out.

Officer#1 leads Buffy out the library and into the hallway.

"Please. You don't understand."

Officer#1, "You'd do well to keep your mouth shut, missy."

They turn down the hall and see Snyder coming down followed by two more officers.

"But I didn't do anything."

Snyder scoffs, "Why do I find that so very hard to believe?"

Officer#1 to the other officers, "In there."

He turns to Snyder and frowns, "You know this girl?"

Snyder nods, "Buffy Summers. If there's trouble, she's behind it."

Buffy huffs angrily, "You stupid little troll. You have no idea!"

"Attitude problem. Serious."

Buffy faces the officer, "Look, I just wanna know if my friends are okay."

Officer#1, "All right, that's enough."

He spins her back around and gets out his handcuffs.

Officer#1, "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and..."

Buffy glances over her shoulder, and without warning backhand punches the officer in the face. He grunts in pain and stumbles backward into the lockers. She grabs him by the neck and pushes his head down, flipping him over onto his back. Snyder takes a shocked step back. He is too stunned by what he just saw her do to move, and just lets her run down the hall without even looking. Officer#2 comes out of the library and sees her partner on the floor and Buffy running away. She raises her gun and takes aim at Buffy.

Officer#2, "Stop!"

Now Snyder turns around to see Buffy running away, but he's still too shook up to have the sense to get out of the officer's way.

Officer#2, "Get down!"

Buffy looks back and turns down an adjacent hall, and the officer takes a shot. The bullet shatters the window of the hall door. The other two officers come out of the library, gun drawn and ready, and she waves them in Buffy's direction. They run in pursuit. She grabs the radio mic at her shoulder and puts out a bulletin on Buffy.

Officer#2, "All units, we have a fugitive on foot at the high school. Homicide suspect. Female, blond, approximately sixteen years old. Suspect is very dangerous."

...

The hall outside the Emergency Room at Sunnydale General Hospital is packed at night. Buffy comes into the hall wearing a wool cap and a long, dark coat. She averts her eyes from the doctors and nurses. On the wall she finds a slot with a few patient histories and checks the names on them. There are none she's interested in. She continues slowly down the hall, avoiding the eyes of a passing doctor. She checks another series of slots for names on paperwork, but finds nothing. Further down the hall she turns down the left passageway. Behinds her Xander walks up and touches her on the back. She gasps and spins around, but is very relieved to see him standing there.

"Xander!" She hugs him tightly, "Ohhh..."

He hugs her back, and they hold each other for a long moment, then Buffy lets go.

"I was so worried, I didn't know if you were okay. The cops were..."

Xander nods holding up his arm in a cast, "Yeah, I, I heard them chase you out. I was just coming out of it... Souvenir."

"Well, what about the others?"

Xander sees two police officers come into the hall behind her.

"Are they okay?" Buffy continues not noticing Xander's quick change of emotion.

He grabs her in another tight hug. Buffy goes along with it, but wonders what's up. When she glimpses the cops she hides her face in Xander's shoulder while they head down the hall in the direction that she came in. When the police have gone they separate again.

"Okay. That was about equal parts protecting me and copping a feel, right?" She smiles trying to lighten the mood.

Xander doesn't smile back. He turns his face down looking sad and very worried.

"What is it?"

Xander leads Buffy into a room where, Willow lies unconscious in a hospital bed. She has a bandaged cut on her forehead and a black eye, but otherwise seems unhurt.

"The doctor said it was head trauma. She can wake up at any time, but, um... the longer it lasts, the... less likely it is."

Buffy feels her eyes tear up, "I never should've let her try to do that curse. Angel must've known."

She reaches up to Willow's face and brushes back a few stray hairs.

"Where is her mom?"

"With relatives in Phoenix. I gave her a call. She's...she's getting on a plane back."

"Does Oz know?"

Xander realizes his omission, "Oh, man. Um... I didn't even think. Um... I'll call him."

Buffy hears some footsteps behind her and turns quickly to see who it is. Xander looks over his shoulder, too, and they see Cordelia come in.

He goes over to her, "Hey."

Cordelia whispers, "Hey."

They kiss and hold each other close.

Cordelia sighs, "How is she?" They separate and look at Willow, "The doctor told me that..."

"Yeah. We're, uh... still waiting."

"You okay?" Buffy looks at her for any injuries.

Cordelia nods, "I ran. I think I made it through three counties before I realized nobody was chasing me. Not too brave."

"It was the right thing to do." Buffy tries to console her.

Xander bites his lip, "Did Giles keep up with you?"

Cordelia shakes her head frowning, "I didn't see Giles."

Buffy gapes in shock at the new information, "You mean he's not in the hospital?"

"No."

Buffy gives them a very concerned stare. She gasps thinking back to Kendra.

Cordelia looks around at the others and says the one thing that had been on her mind as soon as she walked into the hospital.

"And where the hell is Laney?"

Xander gulps slowly, "Last thing I remember she was fighting the vamps with Kendra."

"Oh shit..."

...

In the large sitting area of Angelus' mansion, Giles lays on the floor knocked out. Angelus lies on the floor facing him and waiting for him to regain consciousness.

"Mm..." Giles stirs a bit and exhales and lifts his head slightly, "Ohhh..."

Angelus smiles, "Hi, Rupert. I wasn't sure you were gonna wake up. You had me worried."

He hops to his feet and looks down at Giles as he slowly begins to stand up.

"What do you want?"

Angelus chuckles rubbing his hands together, "I wanna torture you. I used to love it, and it's been a long time. I mean, the last time I tortured somebody, they didn't even have chainsaws."

He strolls past Giles over to Acathla. Giles turns to watch him and sees the stone demon with the sword protruding from its chest. Angelus notices Giles' stare.

"Oh, yeah. Acathla. He's an even harder guy to wake up than you are. I mean, I performed the rituals, said all the right phrases... blood on my hand. Got nothing. Big doughnut hole for my troubles. I figure you know the ritual. You're pretty up on these things. You could probably... tell me what I'm doing wrong."

He approaches Giles and stops in front of him staring evilly, "But honestly, I sorta hope you don't... 'Cause I really wanna torture you. And when I get bored of that... I always have her."

Giles turns to the side at the sound of a girl struggling. He gasps lowly watching Laney be pulled into the room by two vampires. She had a black eye and busted lip as tears fell down her face.

Angelus walks over to Laney and pulls her out the vamps grip. She fights against him but freezes as his hand wraps around her throat. He stands behind her smirking as he could now feel her heart beat quicken.

"And for her sake, you'd better start talking soon. Don't you agree short stack?"

"Screw you..." Laney quietly spits out.

Angelus leans closer to Laney and whispers into her ear, "That can be arranged."

Laney freezes and peeks over at Giles with a fearful stare. Before they can say anything, she is hit across the back of the head. As her vision turns to black the last thing she sees is Giles yelling her name as he is dragged out the room and down to the basement.

Hey y'all! Super short chapter 🤍 so sorry for the super long wait. Along of stuff in life going on but I'm back in small segments 😂 love y'all for being so patient!! Can't wait to put out more stuff for y'all.

How are we feeling?

Giles and Laney were both taken 😭 this is not good at all.

Future predictions?

Any special requests...