3rd Person's POV

Buffy rushes into the library and stops short when she sees that the place is a shambles. The center table had been tipped over onto its side. Behind it Xander regains consciousness and gets up, using the table for support.

"Xander!"

She rushes over to him to help, but he shakes her off.

"What happened?"

Xander stands out of breath, "Vampires. The ones you could handle yourself."

Buffy looks around, "Where are the others?"

"I don't know." He looks at her angrily, "I don't know what your problem is, what your issues are. But as of now, I officially don't care. If you'd worked with us for five seconds, you coulda stopped this."

Buffy turns away and sighs, "We, we just have to think. Where would they have taken them

"If they hurt Laney and Willow, I'll kill you." He replies vehemently.

She turns back to him and looks at him seriously.

"Why did they take them and not you?"

Xander shakes his head, "Giles said the ritual was, um... They needed people who were close to the Master. Physically close. When he, uh..."

Buffy nods finally understanding, "The ones who were with the Master when he died."

"Giles, Willow, Cordelia, Laney..."

"Ms. Calendar..."

Xander nods, "Odds are they've got a complete set by now."

"We need to find out where."

Xander squints his eyes in confusion, "How?"

Buffy paves around the Bronze as a female vampire tries to stand up. She quickly reaches for the camp throws her down onto the floor once again.

"I'm gonna ask you one more time... where are they?"

The vamp smiles wickedly, "You're too late. Your friends are dead."

Buffy growls angrily and lifts her back up off the ground, "Tell me where they are!"

She-Vamp laughs, "What are you gonna do? Kill me?"

"As a matter of fact..." Buffy smirks as she grips tightly onto the vamp and throws her onto a pool table.

"... yes."

She yanks off her necklace and holds it up showing the she-vamp the silver cross glimmering in the light, "But since I'm not gonna kill you any time soon, the question becomes..."

She drops the cross into the vampire's mouth and covers it with her hands,"... how are we gonna pass the time till then?"

The cross burns in the she-vamp's mouth, as she shakes her head screaming. After several seconds Buffy pulls the cross back out.

"So. One more time."

Inside a huge empty warehouse, Collin carries a black case past the Master's skeleton, which has been laid out on a table. Absalom takes it from him.

"Begin."

Another vampire starts pulling on a chain, and Willow, Giles, Laney, Cordelia and Jenny are moved along an overhead conveyor to hang upside down and unconscious above the Master's bones.

Absalom stands and recites a resurrection spell, "Behold, these five mortals."

Quietly and slyly, Buffy comes into the warehouse through a side door. Angel and Xander follow her in quickly, trying their hardest not to make a sound.

"Witnesses to our Master's wretched demise. They will breathe their last this night. The blood that pours from their throats will bring NEW LIFE to the old one. We gather for his resurrection. For the dawn of this new hell."

Buffy looks up at five of the closest people in her life, hanging upside down.

Xander whispers in a low voice, "Buffy! Buffy!"

Buffy shakes her head and faces him.

"We gotta do something now!"

Buffy nods and takes a deep breath, "You two get the others out of here."

Angel shakes his head in disagreement, "We need you to distract the vampires."

"Right..."

Xander shrugs, "What are you gonna do?"

Cracking her fingers then her neck she stands up straight, "I'm gonna kill them all. That oughta distract them."

Absalom stands holding a Kuhkri, a long, curved knife, "For the old one. For his pain. For the dark."

The Vampires repeat, "For the dark! Absalom kisses the blade."

A nearby Vampire is guarding until a stake is suddenly thrust through him from behind, and he instantly turns into ashes. Buffy stands there now in a fighting stance. Absalom looks at her in disbelief and then roars. Three vampires begin fighting her. She easily keeps them at bay.

Angel and Xander seize the opportunity to climb the ladder to the platform above to get the others off of the conveyor. Buffy continues to fight the vampires below. Absalom takes Collin and ushers him out of the warehouse. He comes back in and sees Angel and Xander pulling on the chain, bringing the others back over to the platform.

"The sacrifices! Stop them!"

A vampire responds to Absalom's command and runs to the ladder to the platform. Buffy continues to fight below as Angel and Xander keep pulling on the chain. Absalom looks around and then rushes out of the warehouse.

Buffy keeps fighting. She does a flip over some wooden boxes, grabs one on the way and smashes it onto a vampire's head. She kicks the vampire in the face, knocking him down and breaking a few pieces of wood off of the box. She gets tackled by another vampire.

On the platform above Giles, Jenny and Cordelia are already off of the conveyor. Angel and Xander lift Willow off as well. Giles rolls on the floor in semi- consciousness. They lay Willow down then Angel turns to get Laney as Xander turns to tend to them all. A vampire finally makes it up to the platform and growls.

Angel looks at him with his game face on and growls back. The vampire attacks, and Angel rushes to meet him. They fight.

Below one of them is on top of Buffy. She reaches up with a broken piece of wood and jams it into the vampire's back, and gets ash all over herself. The vampire she knocked down before with the box gets up and rushes to attack her.

All the while during the fighting no one noticed that Absalom had pulled the chain that had Laney attached still back to him. He picks up her unconscious body and hurries over to the master's bones.

Above, Angel and his opponent fall through a poorly covered hole in the platform. Jenny is awake now and crawls over to Giles, who is also awake now and trying to sit up.

Giles sighs holding his head, "Are you alright?"

Jenny nods with a slight shrug, "Yeah, I'm okay."

"Where's Buffy?"

Xander is at the edge of the platform holding a still unconscious Willow with his arm and watching the fight below.

"Uh, she's working out her issues. But we may kind of have a problem..."

Xander freaks out mentally as he sees Absalom with an unconscious Laney but tries to recover when he sees Buffy and Angel kill the last vamps.

Underneath the platform Angel's attacker tries to jam a piece of wood into his chest, but Angel stops him and jams it into his instead. Buffy kicks the vampire she's fighting into a storage rack, and he goes down with it.

Absalom drops Laney on the ground and disappears for a second as Angel and Buffy are distracted. He shows up again in the doorway with a large sledgehammer.

"ENOUGH!"

Buffy turns to look at him. The other vampire gets back up. Laney slowly sits up from the ground groaning to herself. Angel slowly makes his way over and holds a hand out to her. She takes it and he helps her to her feet.

Absalom breathes angrily as he watches Buffy roll her eyes, "Your day is done, girl. I'll grind you into a *sticky* paste, and hear you beg before I smash in your face."

Buffy glances over at Laney and Angel making sure they were okay. She watches Laney's facial expression and her eyes as she gestures towards something. Buffy quickly looks over and sees a torch she can use as a weapon. Nodding a thanks to Laney she smirks at Absalom's frustrated face.

"So, are you gonna kill me or are we just making small talk?"

Absalom raises the sledgehammer in indignation and yells as he begins his attack. The other vampire rushes at her from the other side. Buffy calmly looks at the tall wooden torch post in front of her, breaks it off and turns it a few times in her hands.

The vampire impales himself on the broken end and crumbles into ash. Absalom runs into the burning end and is set ablaze. He backs up and screams as the flames spread over him. He makes a last desperate attempt to get Buffy and raises the sledgehammer over his head, but is too late as the flames engulf him and instantly burn him up. The sledgehammer falls to the floor with a loud clang.

Buffy drops the post and looks over at the Master's skeleton. On the platform above, Willow and Cordelia are finally awake. Willow stands beside Xander looking down at the mess below.

"It's over."

Xander sighs, "No, it's not."

Buffy bends down and picks up the sledgehammer. She slowly walks over to the Master's skeleton and looks at it for a moment. Then she swings the hammer back behind her and arcs it directly into the Master's skull, shattering it to pieces. She keeps whaling on the Master's skeleton as Willow, Xander and Giles look down from above. Laney stands awkwardly as Angel comes up behind her and watches her continue until there's nothing left on the table. Buffy stops and bursts into tears, dropping the sledgehammer to the floor.

Angel bends down and sits beside her, "It's okay. It's okay."

Buffy turns around and leans into him, crying into his shoulder. Angel gently holds on to her as she cries. Xander, Willow and Giles continue to watch from above. Willow briefly looks up at Xander then they both look down at Laney who holds a blank face.

"I know they expect me to instantly forgive her... but is it wrong to not want to. She hurt me, badly. I'm supposed to just forgive and forget and have everything be all rainbows and unicorns again just because she was upset that she couldn't stop the master by herself the first time and died."

Silence.

"You know if you keep staring at me like that one day I may actually set on fire."

Angel chuckles as Laney paces throughout her room.

"Oh come on you freaking man of stone. Help me out here. Give me something."

Angel looks over at a picture of Laney and Buffy and frowns. Laney has been ranting to him for an hour now. School was tomorrow and they hadn't seen each other over the whole weekend. Laney was still mad at Buffy but also missed her.

"Are you more upset or angry?"

Laney pauses where she is and puts a finger on her chin thinking.

"I guess I would have to say upset."

"Why?"

"Well because... and she... and he... Ugh you're good at this."

Angel shrugs. Laney sits and sinks down into her bed as Angel stays across the room in her computer desk chair.

"I guess at first I was pissed because she came back and she made it seem like I didn't know what I was doing, even though I had helped her with slaying plenty times. But I get it, she literally died because of a quick prideful mistake. I can't get too cocky and I need to be more careful especially because I'm not the slayer."

Angel nods, "What else?"

Laney rolls her eyes knowing exactly what he wanted her to talk about next, "I guess I shouldn't have been a pissy bitch when it came to Buffy kissing Xander. Xander and I weren't together. We never were. There is no reason for me to be mad. Sure it hurt my feelings because I liked him but if they both like each other than fine. But also shame on her for using him to make you jealous, I mean-"

Mmmhmm.

Laney looks up and smiles sheepishly as she hears Angel clear his throat.

"Right forgiving and forgetting. I shouldn't have been mad when she insulted Cordelia. Cordy insults them all the time. Sometimes she takes it too far so what Buffy said wasn't too harsh. And lastly she did save me... again. That's what she does. She's Buffy the bestest pal who will always be there when you're in need of a friend and a savior."

Angel nods as Laney sighs and falls back onto her bed.

"So since school is tomorrow I gotta look my part. As part of the popular group I need to keep my status and to do that I need to stay in style. So wanna help me pick out an outfit?"

Whoosh.

Laney quickly sits up and gasps. Her mouth drops as she looks around her empty room. Her curtains sway lightly by her now opened window.

"How rude. A simple no would've been fine."

At school the next day, Jenny and Cordelia walk across the quad.

Cordelia sighs, "What an ordeal. And you know what the worst part is?"

Jenny shrugs, "What?"

"It stays with you forever. No matter what they tell you, none of that rust and blood and grime comes out. I mean, you can dry clean till judgment day, you are living with those stains."

Jenny chuckles. Cordelia has her the first half. She thought Cordelia would've said something actually somewhat intelligent and related to the other day.

"Yeah that's the worst part of being hung upside down by a vampire who wants to slit your throat: the stains."

Cordelia nods quickly, "I hear ya!"

Giles and Buffy come walking the other way on the other side of the quad.

"I don't think I can face them."

Buffy twists her hands together in hopes of releasing some nervousness.

"Hmm? Of course, you can."

Buffy shakes her head and holds onto Giles' arm, making him come to a stop, "I can't! What am I supposed say? 'Sorry I almost got your throat slit. What's the homework?'..."

"Punishing yourself like this is pointless."

"It's entirely pointy. I was a moron. I put my best friends in mortal danger on the second day of school."

Giles fixes his glasses, "What are you gonna do? Crawl inside a cave for the rest of your life?"

Buffy grimaces, "Would it have cable?"

Giles sighs, "Buffy, you acted wrongly, I admit that. But believe me, that was hardly the, the worst mistake you'll ever make. Uh, that wasn't quite as comforting as it was meant to be."

"Well, points for effort."

The bell rings making Buffy frown and then take a deep breath.

"Guess that's my cue... See ya."

In study hall, Willow and Xander are sitting at a round table that can hold five people. Cordelia and Laney walk in then split up as Cordy heads to Harmony and Laney to Willow and Xander.

She sits and smiles lightly as the two do the same. The teacher announces its a free day today to use phones then leaves the room for who knows what reason.

"Welp thank goodness. I did not feel like being told to do my homework that I didn't want to do at home."

Willow shakes her head with a small smile, "Laney how do you have good grades if you don't do your work at all."

"Oh no I do. I just do it right before I turn it in. Like ten minutes before."

"So girls are we gonna ignore the fact that a certain someone is about to walk through those doors. Do we need to do the I'm sick take me to the nurse act?"

Laney laughs and swats Xander's arm, "Let's just see when she gets here."

After almost ten minutes, Buffy comes in, sees Willow, Xander, and Laney then stops. Willow sees her come in. Xander, facing Willow, notices her look up and looks over, too, but goes back to what he's doing on Willow's desk. Laney doesn't even turn or move as she notices her sister's suddenly frozen body.

Buffy walks over to an empty desk next to Willow.

Willow smiles lightly, "Hey, Buffy."

Buffy's eyebrows furrow in confusion. She had thought her friends would be so mad at her that they wouldn't say a work to her. But here was Willow saying hi. But then again neither Xander nor Laney had even looked up.

"Hey."

Willow pats a chair beside her, "We saved you a seat."

Buffy looks at the three and sits down.

Xander sighs then laughs lowly to himself, "There's a rumor going around that, uh, Mr. Cox is the most boring teacher in the entire world. Like, I think he won a belt or something."

Buffy giggles, "Like, yes."

Willow smiles, "Well, I hear he nods off a lot. So that's a plus."

Buffy nods in agreement then glances at Laney who had been looking down the table. Xander lightly nudges Laney's arm with his elbow. She looks over at him and he nods towards Buffy with an encouraging smile.

Laney closes her eyes and breathes in slowly then lets it out.

"So, we Bronzin' it tonight?"

Willow shrugs, "Wednesday, it's kinda beat."

Xander bursts out into a loud laugh, "Well, we could grind our enemies into talcum powder with a sledgehammer, but, gosh, we did that the other night."

The three of them give Buffy big smiles. She smiles back widely knowing everything was okay.

"Hey, I got a plan: how 'bout miniature golf."

Willow shrugs looking at Xander, "There's no course here."

"Okay, uh, miniature tennis! A very tiny form of tennis that we could invent..."

"And how exactly would that even work Alex?"

"The beauty is in the mystery Laney, it's in the mystery."

𝐻𝑜𝑤 𝑑𝑜 𝑤𝑒 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝐴𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑙 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐿𝑎𝑛𝑒𝑦'𝑠 𝑓𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝?

𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘 𝐿𝑎𝑛𝑒𝑦 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑠𝑜 𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑙𝑦?