Buffy stalked through the night. Willow and Cordelia paced beside the clearly angry girl. They waited for her to start, knowing that it wouldn't take her long.

"I can't believe it. There is no way that this is fair. Not only does Dawn get her guy straight away - side bar...I'm seriously wigged by the picture Oz made when he started almost drooling over her. I didn't even know he could make that expression! - where was I? Oh yeah! But she gets to come back as a sixteen year old, to be seventeen before I get to be eighteen, she's on the Honor Roll and Snyder LIKES her. There is something just so wrong about that!" Buffy rambled out her frustrations.

Willow and Cordelia shared a grin before Willow stepped up to the best friend plate. "Spike still being all denial-guy huh?"

Buffy pouted miserably. "Stupid vampire," she grumbled. "He won't even let me massage his legs if Giles isn't in the room. Sheesh! What does he think I'm going to do? Grope him?"

"Oh, and you so wouldn't even think about doing that, would you, Miss Innocent?" Cordelia snorted with a laugh.

"Of course I would, but it's not like he wouldn't do the same," the tiny blonde wined pitifully. "He wigs every time I flirt with him!"

Willow managed to control her giggle and faced her friend with ‘resolve face' firmly in place. "Sweetie, you're gonna have to fight him. As far as he's concerned, you've never seen him in action. His demon has to know you respect him as a warrior."

"I don't want to hurt him, Will. I hurt him so much last time," Buffy whispered in anguish.

"I know, Buffy, but he is a vampire. A little pain can be a good thing."

"Ew," Cordelia spoke lightly. When the other two looked at her askance as she focused on something in front of them.

Buffy and Willow turned to see what the seer was looking at.

"So can a lot of pain." Buffy smirked at Kakistos.

Willow opened her hand to reveal a glowing ball of sunlight. "I've got Mr Tricky."

Cordelia rolled her eyes, "You guys are so lucky I've learned how to aim," she joked as she started to glow.

Buffy used a powerful speed surge to add to the power of her punch and she launched herself at the ancient vampire, who would soon find himself sorely overmatched. Willow let her orb of sunlight engulf the smartly dressed black vampire. Mr Trick went up like a torch as Cordelia's glow decimated the remaining minions.

As one the Witch and the Seer pivoted in time to watch the cloven hooved master vampire turn to dust.

"You could always try chaining him up and declaring your love for him," Willow suggested cheekily as the trio continued on their stroll.

"Please! He'd probably ask Giles to disinvite me from the apartment," Buffy snorted in mock disgust.

~*~*~

Buffy walked into the school library, happy that at least this time around she didn't have to do make up test and see the school councillor.

When Giles called her name she looked up at him smiling only to have the smile fade by the serious expression on his face.

"The badly mauled body of Jeff Orkin was discovered earlier this morning."

"Crap, I'd forgotten all about our Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde wannabe. Poor Jeff." Buffy shook her head in regret. "I have to stop him, Giles. I can't just let him kill Mr. Platt or Debbie. We need a plan."

"Of course, Buffy," Giles readily agreed. After a moments thought an idea struck him. "Do you by any chance remember where he kept his formula?"

"I know where to start looking." Buffy replayed the events of her time through her mind.

"Excellent. You go and find the formula and I'll get Willow and Oz to help me with the analysis once we have it. The first thing we need to do is discover if there is any countering agent we can use."

The Slayer quickly nodded her agreement then darted out of the library to head to the maintenance closet. If her memories were accurate it was the best place to start.

Her search was successful and Buffy handed off her findings to the more scientifically minded members of the group.

Buffy wasn't happy to learn that there was no quick fix it available to counteract Pete's potion. The only good thing about the whole situation was that if he was stopped from taking any more, all effects of the formula should wear off completely and this meant Buffy might be able to save him too.

It took her most of the day to find him. She couldn't really say that she was surprised to discover him as he entered the maintenance closet.

Buffy took the time to explain what his alter ego had been doing. She then went on to give him a general ‘what if' of a possible future. She didn't want to have to explain how she knew exactly what was on the cards, so the generic ‘worse case scenario' seemed like the smartest way to go.

Pete was so horrified by the graphic picture that she painted that he panicked. His words of denial echoed through the hallway. Horror gave way to fear, fear to anger, and anger invited his alter ego to gain control.

As Buffy concentrated on her fight to contain the boy turned monster, not wanting to hurt him, she was surprised by the large hand that shoved her out of the way.

Pete's neck was broken and the boy dead before Buffy had the chance to do more than pick herself off the floor.

"No," she whispered in horror as she stared into the sightless eyes of the boy she had tried so hard to save. Her fury escalated at the sight of the benevolently smiling brunette before her.

"You're okay now, Buffy. I saved you," Angel offered gently as he reached to rub her arms.

"Oh, God, what have you done?" Buffy whimpered as she backed away from him. Barely suppressing her tears, she turned and ran towards the library. She needed Giles.

Angel looked on in shock as she ran from him and he shook his head in confusion. Anger slowly started to burn within him. He was so sick to death of being left in the dark about everything. Not this time. This time he was going to demand some answers. He growled out his displeasure and followed the girl he had saved.

Furiously slamming through the door to the library Angel ignored the presence of Willow and Oz, focusing solely on the miserable girl being comforted by her watcher. "What the hell is wrong with you?" he roared. "I just saved you from a monster that you were obviously struggling with. I'm trying with everything I am to be what you need and you keep pushing me away; saying I don't understand. Well, I'm sick of it. Make me understand, Buffy. Make it clear to me why nothing I do is good enough and that even a soulless monster deserves better treatment than I get. Explain to me in small words if you have to why Spike, a creature you're supposed to slay, gets not only your blood but your personal attention while I, the only souled vampire in existence, the being specifically chosen to protect you, has to go through other people just to get a message to you? Can you explain that to me, Buffy? Can you?"

Buffy felt the snap of her temper like it was a physical thing as she pulled away from her equally furious watcher. With ice cold deliberation, she stalked towards the blustering brunette. "The boy whose neck you just snapped like a twig was under the influence of a potion. I wasn't trying to beat him, just subdue him until the formula wore off. I was trying to save him and if you hadn't interfered in a situation you knew nothing about, I would have succeeded.

"You really want to know why I keep you at a distance, Angel? Well, fine. I do it because you are a liability. Your ego is so large that you actually think you know what's best even when you don't know what's going on. You don't save people, you endanger them. You have enough trouble controlling your demon that you can't be trusted with any more responsibility than you have now. You're so busy trying to play hero that you don't bother to find out what's going on and when you do that - people die. You got involved in something that was none of your business and because of it Pete is dead. You shouldn't even be here. You've been told not to come to the school. Cordelia told you that you were no longer my protector last year. As to that soul you keep spouting about- it's a curse. You didn't earn it and honestly what did you do with it for a hundred years? It didn't stop you from staying with the Scourge for two years, it didn't save that sailor you turned in the forties, and how exactly did it help you do the right thing when you ate that gunshot victim rather than call him an ambulance?" Buffy crossed her arms and curled her lip up in distaste. "Oh, don't look so shocked! Did you think I wouldn't find out ALL there is to know about you, Angel?"

"Well, then, if I'm such a loser, maybe I shouldn't be working so hard for redemption, should I?" he snapped back defensively.

"You don't get redemption if you're only doing what's right because you think you'll be rewarded," Buffy shouted in exasperation.

"You were supposed to be my reward," he snarled before storming out through the swinging doors.

Buffy turned tiredly to her mentor and gave a heavy but resigned sigh. "We need to do something about Pete's body."

The end of the school year couldn't come quickly enough for any of them, they needed Angel gone.

~*~*~

With the demise of Trick, the group had nothing to concern themselves with in relation to Homecoming as Slayerfest '98 in their time was the brainchild of the dusted vampire. Neither Buffy nor Cordelia had any plans of running for Homecoming Queen after their last experience, and Buffy was finally able to experience a school activity with no interference from her slayer duties at all.

It almost bored her to tears.

By the time the gang realised that there was magically enhanced chocolate bars being distributed throughout the town under the harmless cover of being a fund raising tool for the school band, they were almost too late to save the babies. None of the group had been cornered by Snyder to sell it this time, so their first clue was when they arrived at the adult infested Bronze. Xander, Oz, and Dawn joined Giles and Joyce as they made their way to the factory to deal with Ethan. Buffy, Willow, and Cordelia headed directly to the sewers.

On arrival at the factory Ethan cowered from a furious Joyce and was then knocked out cold by Giles. They then moved far enough away from the chaos mage so that, on waking, he honestly thought he was escaping them while they seemed to be distracted by their conversation.

When the girls arrived at the sacrificial site for Lurconis, Willow immediately placed a barrier spell on all the exits and froze the Mayor in place as Buffy sped round the small enclosure dusting each vampire while Cordelia moved the babies away from the dais in the centre of the pool under the opening to the demon's lair. With all threats gone and the babies safe, Buffy impassively ordered Willow to move the statue-like body of the Mayor to the centre of the sacrificial alter. The girls waited and watched as the mayor was swallowed whole. They then waited for the demon to return before Cordelia disposed of Lurconis with a little glow-y action. They returned the unharmed babies to the hospital before they had even been missed.

With the demise of the Mayor, the high school seniors happily sat for their S.A.T.'s.

The arrival of Gwendolyn Post was dealt with by Buffy and Giles with some amusement. They happily informed the autocratic woman that not only were they aware that she wasn't visiting them under secret orders from the Council as she suggested, but that they knew that she no longer worked for the council. They also let her know that the Glove of Myhnegon, which she was seeking, had been destroyed the previous summer. Buffy had no doubts that the woman would still probably die in some other lame attempt to control a power she was not entitled to, but as long as it wasn't in Sunnydale, she couldn't bring herself to care.

~*~*~

After weeks of denial, Spike was finally bordering on the realm of maybe accepting that the care and concern that he had been shown by the group, Buffy in particular, may be genuine and not some insidious plan to lull him into a false sense of security before knocking his legs out from under him. It helped that he was finally walking again.

He looked up as Buffy walked into the training room and grinned at him.

"You think you're up for a little sparing, blood breath?"

Spike smirked and his demon had him bouncing on his heels in anticipation. "I'm always up for it, Slayer," he purred seductively.

"Don't I wish," Buffy muttered darkly. If the unresolved sexual tension between them didn't get some resolution soon, she was seriously thinking of taking the bull by the horns and following Willow's suggested strategy. At least if she had him chained, he couldn't hide behind her watcher!

"What was that, pet?" Spike asked, still far in denial land in regards to the heat between them. "You're not worried are you? I promise it won't hurt...much," he snarked with an eyebrow wiggle.

"Oh, Spikey, you're wrong there. It's gonna hurt...a lot!"

Spike chuckled in response. "Okay, Slayer, let's dance."