Part Two

The first few days that Buffy spent in her new home in San Francisco, she hid out within the limitations of her new bedroom in an evidently worthless attempt at avoiding her new situation. So she scarcely left the small room and spent infinite hours organizing and reorganizing her possessions into some form familiar to her - her own way of regaining some continuity in her life since it had been turned upside down once again. Eventually she gave up the ridiculous task and gathered up the courage to face her unknown cousins.

Buffy did not want to admit to how panicky she was about her recent circumstances; after all she could count on one hand the amount of time that she had spent in her elder cousins company before her mother had died. She could not help but believe; deep down, that she was an unnecessary nuisance - an encumbrance to her family. If only she had been allowed to remain with her brother back in LA, at least then things would have been semi-normal and there would be none of these malevolent qualms arising.

Ultimately she ventured downstairs only to find that her cousins were all out somewhere, apparently at their respective jobs and assorted other commitments. Wandering into the kitchen she found that Piper had left her a note - attached to the large white refrigerator - telling her to help herself to lunch and that they were going to sit down and discuss the circumstances they were all in and what they were going to do about it when they had all returned to the manor.

Reflecting upon her next move with regards to her free day, Buffy was apprehensive when the front door bell rang out unexpectedly. Since Piper's carefully written note had told her nothing about any visitors that may be arriving and since she was still new to the house and area, Buffy was a little nervous about answering the door. Pushing the futile emotions aside and answered it with a composed and controlled manor. Upon opening it she found a redheaded teenaged girl standing there.

"Hi," the girl said bubbly. "I'm Willow Rosenberg - from next door. Your - uh - cousin Prue suggested that I stop by and get to know you since you'll be attending the same high school as me."

"Oh - uh - hi."

Willow looked slightly embarrassed, "They never mentioned me, did they?"

"Well, they might have - if I hadn't spent all of my time hiding up in my room," Buffy confessed. Sensing that the redhead was no threat, that in fact she had a gentle aura; Buffy stepped back out of the way. "Do you want to come in?"

"Sure," Willow answered as she entered her neighbour's home for the first time ever with only a slight case of trepidation.

Drusilla circumspectly crept around the pitch-black passageways of the copious estate that The Master had brought them to, in an endeavour to avoid her daddy and his monstrously abominably violent temper. She knew why her daddy was like this and it was all the mean old Master's fault. If he had not dragged them away from America, mommy and their happy home, then everything would be all right.

Hearing her daddy's intonation echoing down the corridor from nearby, Dru stopped and then all of a sudden doubled back the way that she had come. She had more or less returned to the suite that she and Spike had been sharing, when her head began to swim and stars began to speak to her. As she sank down to the cold stone floor her mind was beleaguered with a barrage of whispered words and images, the most predominant of which was about daddy and the Gem of Amara.

She was still in her position on the floor ten minutes later when Spike stumbled across her. Concerned for his mate's welfare he kneeled down next to her, "Dru? Honey?"

"Spike," Dru answered, her expression never changing from one of dreaminess. "I saw it. Daddy was holding it in his hands and it was the most beautiful thing that I have ever seen."

"What are you taking about?" Spike asked wondering what Peaches had been holding that was so breathtaking - although he could envisage.

"My vision - the stars."

Spike pulled her into his arms and kissed her almost imperceptibly on the forehead, "Tell me what you saw."

"The Gem of Amara," she whispered to him elatedly.

Spike coughed roughly at Dru's news, "Peaches has the gem?"

"He will soon."

"Oh fan-bloody-tastic," Spike muttered sardonically. Every single vampire on the face of the earth - including himself - had been searching for their equivalent of the holy grail for centuries and now for some unknown reason it looked like Peaches was about to go down in history as the next recipient and the first nightwalker to daywalk since it's original owner.

"When daddy gets his gem we can all go home and mommy will be there," Dru rambled on excitedly. "Then daddy will be happy again and everything will be all right once more."

Spike tried hard not to gag at Dru's sentiment and although Peaches may have a better attitude around Fluffy, he didn't need or want the spoiled teenaged bitch around unless he had too.

Taking his silence as an agreement to her thoughts on the matter, Dru stood up slowly and offered Spike her fragile hand. "Come now, my Spike. It is time for a celebration."

Spike stood himself up, took hold of her offered hand and let her lead him into their bedroom, all without muttering a single word of acceptance or rejection.

After hurriedly checking on his younger charge and finding Buffy gossiping and giggling away with some redhead, Giles headed to Los Angeles to check on how Oz was coping alone. Arriving at Joyce's home - an exceedingly excruciating experience under the circumstances - he found the place to be somewhat trashed, with piles of dirty clothes and dishes scattered around the once pristine living room. Orbing to the location of the wayward witch, Giles found him lying asleep on his bed as though he had not a care in the world.

"Daniel Peter, wake up," Giles said rocking the mattress that the teenager was laying upon.

"Go away," Oz murmured through his pillow at Giles, he just wasn't ready to be awoken yet.

Giles shook his head and orbed back downstairs and started to clean what had once been an immaculate room. He had almost finished the task when Oz finally surfaced and came downstairs, wearing nothing but a pair of striped cotton boxers.

"Hey!"

The cleaning stopped as Giles stared at the young man who was the closest he had ever come to having a son of his own. "Are you all right? Do you need medical attention?"

"No. Why?"

Giles pointed to remaining mess that surrounded him, "Why else would the house be in such a state?"

Oz simply shrugged, "Buffy and mom did all the cleaning."

"You are going to have to do it from now on," Giles chided softly. "It's your responsibility now."

"Sure," Oz replied casually.

Giles turned his full attention to him, "If you do not do this, then most likely Buffy will forsake her own destiny in order to return here to take care of *you*. Now you do not want that on your conscience, do you?"

"No," Oz answered straightforwardly. "I promise I'll shape up."

"Excellent," Giles told him with an intimidating smirk. "Let’s begin by finishing up the cleaning."

When the Charmed Ones at long last returned to the manor from their respective activities, they found their obstinate cousin laughing and gossiping with their redheaded neighbor. It was unquestionably more than they had hoped for when they had prearranged the meeting between the two. Leaving the two teenagers to carry on with whatever they were doing, the three witches walked into the kitchen and sat down at the plain wooden kitchen table that had been there since the home had belonged to their grandmother. They simply sat there eating, drinking and gossiping about their individual love lives until they heard the front door close and Buffy materialized somewhat grudgingly in the doorway.

"Hi," she said visibly nervous, stepping from foot to foot.

"Hey," Phoebe replied smiling.

"Why don't you come over here and sit down and we'll begin our discussion," Prue suggested.

All of their eyes remained upon Buffy as she took a seat next to Piper and close to the door. With patience they waited until she was settled in the seat and staring back at them - admittedly a lot more uncertainly - before the first of them spoke.

"I think that we should lay down some ground rules - to make all of our lives simpler while you live here," Prue said taking charge of the situation.

Buffy cocked her head to the side staring at her eldest cousin with suspicion, "What sort of rules?"

Buffy was shocked; she had on no account before had to deal with rules such as curfews and whom she could date. How would she cope under such restrictions? Besides when Angelus returned - if he ever did, since the possibility grew more unlikely each with each day passed - how would she explain the presence of a Master vampire in her life?

Prue cleared her throat as she tried to remember the restrictions that had been placed upon her and her sisters growing up. "Like doing your homework before dinner and such."

Phoebe rolled her eyes at her older sibling, "Prue all kids know that - it's a no-brainer. What we should be discussing is Buffy's magical training."

"Yeah," Buffy agreed her eyes lighting up with interest at the mention of magic. It had been a hell of a long time since she'd had even the slightest interest in it, maybe it was time to put her secret life back on track.

"Hang on a minute here," Piper interrupted them, ever the practical one. "Before we take this step I think we need to confer with Leo and Giles. After all they would have a better idea of where we need to go with the training and how far - for both ourselves and Buffy's protection."

Prue nodded after some hesitation, "Agreed."

"Fine," Phoebe added.

Sighing Buffy stood up only to be stopped by Prue. "Where do you think you are going? We haven't finished our talk yet."

"What now?" Buffy whined in return. Wasn't the words that they had exchanged enough already? It was after all more words, more conversation than they had exchanged in previous years.

Piper spoke up, "Tomorrow morning, Prue is going to take you down to the local high school and enrol you in classes. Don't pull that face at me, Buffy. It won't be so bad, Willow goes there and she'll show you around. Then Phoebe will take you to shop for school supplies - and only school supplies, Pheebs. And hopefully by tomorrow night we should be able to sit down and discuss where to go with the magic training. Anything you would like to add?"

"Oh freakin' joy."

~The blood red silk made her tanned flesh seem sallow in comparison; encouraged by the scintillating moonlight she had never looked so picturesque to her mate. His lust-filled gaze meandered possessively athwart her nude body as a jubilant smirk broke out across his callously charismatic features, making him even more mesmerizing than should have been by any means possible. Slipping out of his orientally designed black silk kimono, he climbed up upon the king-sized bed; ostensibly stalking her - his prey. Leaning over her yearning body, warm flesh brushed against the chilled flesh of his undead body escalating the ache, the need as he kissed her abruptly upon her plump pink lips. Moving away from her pressing grasp, he ran his ice-cold hands down the length of her arousal flushed skin, parting her toned thighs to permit himself complete admittance to her neither regions. As his mouth leisurely descended towards her golden nest of curls...~

Buffy awoke with a jerk as she was bumped and pushed aside by her classmates escaping the horrors of the English Lit class. Hastily extracting herself from her scrumptious dream and gathering her many belongings she exited the virtually vacant classroom and entered the congested hallway, heading towards her locker. As she came within reach of it she saw that her friends, Willow and Gunn, were waiting for her there. It still shocked her, but even after three months of living in San Francisco and attending Bay High, she still found it weird not to see Cordelia and the other Cordettes standing there instead.

"Hey Buffy," Willow acknowledged her with good cheer, moving out of the way so that Buffy could obtain access to her locker.

"Hey," Buffy replied trying disastrously to stifle a yawn and smile at the same time.

Gunn leaned back against the locker bank and chuckled. "Sleep through English again?"

"Like always," Buffy replied knowing that it was really no use in lying to them. She tossed her books and assorted other crap into her messy locker before turning to them. "Mrs. Muller really hates me."

"Ready for lunch?" Willow butted into the tête-à-tête before Gunn could answer back. She did not want to seem like a nerd or anything but she did happen to like Mrs. Muller and the rest of the teachers that Gunn and Buffy consistently ragged on.

Buffy slammed the door of the archaic metal locker shut with a loud bang. "I have never been readier."

The three teenagers headed towards the school's large cafeteria - crammed full with the accustomed suspects - and after buying their respective lunches, the group headed over to the table that Tara had saved for them. Tara was a long time friend of Willow's and Gunn's having grown up with them and Buffy had to admit that she did like her, but she was still a little thrown off balance by the fact that both Willow and Gunn had been involved with Tara - at separate times. A big part of Buffy hoped that the quiet blond did not have her in her sights as her next potential date.

The group ate their lunches and talked about whatever thing that their teenaged brains could come up with. In veracity the most important subject matter that was deliberated was the impending school dance - The Spring Fling - and who was of course going with whom. Surprise, surprise Willow, Gunn and Tara were all going to it together and they did of course invite their new friend to go with them, but Buffy beg to be excused in favour of doing homework.

After lunch the group headed their individual ways and Buffy spent an exceedingly mind-numbing afternoon filled with science, math and an assortment of other pedagogic activities. Since it was Wednesday Buffy dumped her crap in her locker and headed towards the gym for cheerleading practice, still slightly saddened that she would not be able to walk home with her friends. Buffy had no genuine aspiration to be a cheerleader, but Prue had decided it would bring some normalcy into Buffy's bizarre life and had insisted she try-out. Now she was trapped cheering her little lungs out at practice twice per week and at every malodorous game that came along.

When the torment was ultimately over - at least until Friday night's game - Buffy began the lengthy walk back home, wishing that Phoebe had not decided to take that class on superstitions so that there would be someone to pick her up. She had been slogging her way to the manor for a good five minutes when a shiny red sports car pulled up next to her. When the window rolled down the driver's identity was given away to be Jake Huffman, resident football star of Bay High and one of Gunn's other best buddies.

"Hey Buffy," he greeted her with a flirtatious smile. "Do you want a lift home?"

Unenthusiastic about having to haul her cheerleading crap and school books the remainder of the way to the manor, Buffy agreed and climbed into the car next to Jake, giving him straightforward directions to the manor. The ride was bathed in unmitigated silence, not a distressing one but more one of two people who do not know what to say to one another. When they pulled up in front of the manor a few minutes later, Buffy went to climb out was when Jake at long last elected to speak.

"Uh - Buffy?"

She turned to face him, "Yeah?"

"I was just - uh - wondering if - uh - since Gunn said that you weren't going with anyone - uh - maybe we could go to the dance -"

Buffy merely stood there, traumatized into stillness. She and Jake had scarcely exchanged half dozen words since she had arrived at Bay High and consequently his abrupt invitation was an unquestionable bombshell. "I - uh - need to think about it," she answered as candidly as she could. After all she was mated to the exceedingly absent and non-communicative Angelus and that did sort of preclude her from dating anyone else.

Jake nodded in reluctant acceptance, "Okay. I guess that I could - uh - wait for my answer."

Buffy climbed out of the car as hastily as she could and bellowed a speedy goodbye before she dashed inside the manor. Once there she sprinted up to her bedroom (once Grams room) and dumped all of her stuff on to the floor, before she jumped upon her queen-sized bed. Grabbing the phone that was so opportunely placed beside the bed, Buffy dialled an already familiar number.

"Wils," she said as soon as the line was picked up. "You are *so* not going to believe what just happened."

Graduation day came and went without any ceremonies or traditions for Oz, not that he expected or sought after any. He was emphatically thankful that he had gained enough credits to graduate ahead of the rest of his classmates, band buddies and an assortment of other friends. Now of course he had a choice to make, he could join Buffy and the cousins or hang around LA a little longer - Buffy would understand either way.

Oz was sat there upon the couch pondering his predicament when he heard the doorbell ring. When he opened it he found Cordelia standing there with a bottle of champagne in one hand and racy scrap of black lingerie in the other. Having erroneously turned to his little sister's best friend for succour several times before, he knew that he should send her away this time, but instead he merely opened the door wider and let her inside.

It was for the most part due to the events that followed that caused Oz to make an expeditious and irrevocable decision, to move on and join his family. As he laid there in his bed, wide awake with Cordelia lying next to him delicately snoring, a sensation of foreboding settled over him and he could more or less picture how the rest of his life would be in LA. Married to Cordelia with two-point-three kids and some boring job, never again to play his music or use his Goddess-given powers.

He waited until his guest finally departed, playing the part of a dutiful lover until she did so. However the moment she was out of the door - with the promise of an intimate dinner - Oz was on the phone to the first estate agent he could find and arranging an appointment to view the house. It was time to move forward to claim whatever destiny awaited him, far away from LA and Cordelia.

Three Weeks Later...

The door to the penthouse swung open with a groan gesticulating its lack of use over the past eight or so months, but the three travellers were well beyond caring. As Spike and Drusilla without more ado headed towards their private rooms, Angelus took a good look around the place. There was of course something wrong with it, something that he could not quite put his finger on.

As he wandered into the copious master bedroom that he had shared - at least part of the time - with Buffy, he saw that there was a substantial layer of dust covering everything. It was at that precise moment that he knew what was wrong. Despite his lack of communication with her, he had expected her to use the penthouse's facilities in order to feel a connection with him. However from the look of the room, not a single living being had been there since he had left for Europe.

Where the hell was she? Angelus could still feel her and he knew for certain that she was still alive and undamaged, but for some unfathomable raison d'être Buffy still felt far away from him. Agitated and ill at ease with this recent turn of events, Angelus left the penthouse and entered the cold night to hunt his frustration away.

A small amount of sadistic kills later, he still did not feel any better about his circumstances. As an ice-cold breeze hit the coolness of his skin he stalked off in the direction of his mate's family home, indomitably to get to the bottom of it. He used the time that it took him to get there to assure himself that the trepidation raging in the pit of his overfull stomach was unsubstantiated and that Buffy would be there, pissed and waiting for his return.

Regrettably all of his convincing was for nothing because the Summers' household was in unreserved darkness with a 'for sale' sign stuck into the dried-out front lawn. There was not a sign of life anywhere, not even a cricket chirped and Angelus anguish grew into an unmitigated antagonism.

His temper ran out of control at his beloved mate's non-appearance, more than ever since it was obvious that she would not be returning to there. Was this some sort of perverted retribution? Where could she have gone? There was only one thing that he knew for certain, that he was going to - needed to - find her and soon, because there was no way he was going to exist without her for much longer.

Time flew by ever so swiftly, much to Angelus' exasperation and dissatisfaction. The innumerable amount of demon private detectives - not to mention Spike and some of his minions - that he had tracking down one elusive little witch was astonishing and still none of them had been able to find even the slightest clue leading to her whereabouts. Needing a diversion from his anguish, Angelus headed off to Sunnydale, a small town a few hours outside of Los Angeles of which the entire population was more or less exclusively vampire. One of his childer, Penn, was in charge there and had been begging him to visit - plus there was the added fascination of the rumour.

The gem of Amara, the vampire's translation of the Holy Grail and the one item that would make him beyond doubt immortal, was believed to be concealed somewhere beneath the cursed town. He was confident - well round about convinced - that the gem was going to be his. After all amid the exceedingly erotic dreams of his mate and he intertwined, he had been dreaming of the gem. If he added his dreams to Dru's visions then he was about to become the most prominent vampire of all time.

After the prolific welcome party that Penn had thrown in his honour, Angelus retired to the outsized bedchamber that Penn had, had equipped for him. He flopped down naked onto the black silk dressed king-sized bed and closed his eyes to begin his gratifying dreams of Buffy. His dream became so real that he could feel the wetness of her mouth upon him, but the wetness alone - without the heat - confused him to no end.

Opening his heavy lidded eyes he saw that in fact a blond was in his bed endeavouring to gratify him, sorry to say it was not his mate and was instead one of Penn's vapid little playthings. Pushing the blond viciously away from his nude body, he grabbed his blood red silk kimono and stalked off in the direction of his childe's rooms. He did not even bother to knock on the closed door, choosing instead to simply barge in. Angelus cared little about the scene that greeted him, Penn in the bed with five of his playthings, - he had in his vampiric early days done much more - and simply concentrated on his purpose.

"Penn!"

Penn removed his concentration from his many companions, "Yes, sire?"

"The blonde -"

"Was she not to your liking? I can of course arrange another - or you could of course join us," Penn suggested as he resumed full interest in his prior activity.

"Remove her or she will be dust," Angelus threatened as his fragile reign on his temper reached breaking point.

Heaving a sigh Penn eventually complied with his sire's wishes. "Rashta, go collect Harmony. She can join us instead of entertaining our company."

Angelus watched in silence as Penn's first childe - a slinky, sensual brunette - strolled past him with a seductive smile. "I did not come here to fuck your cast offs, Penn. I came for a specific purpose."

"And that would be?"

The lie slipped naturally over his lips, "To visit my favourite childe."

Penn laughter was acerbic in nature, "I had no idea that Dru was in Sunnydale."

"Penn -"

"Don't look so worried sire. The truth is I learned to accept my place in your life a very long time ago."

Angelus elaborately produced his trademark smirk, "I wasn't worried. I was merely visualizing cleaving out your spine for bitch-like whining." Without even a glimpse back at Penn's distressed face, Angelus headed back to his room to sleep and to dream of his mate and bona fide immortality.

In Buffy's estimation her study gathering was going fantastic. The gang and Jake were all behaving like well-behaved teenagers and for once nothing bizarre was going on with her cousins. She could more or less envision being able to invite people over on a recurrent basis, like any other teenager could.

The five teenagers had almost finished the group project that they had been assigned in history class and were starting to goof off a small amount with relief of the burden. Jake, being affectionate with his new girlfriend, pushed Buffy's hair back from her shoulder and leaned in to lay a quick kiss there when he noticed something that he had not noticed before.

"What's that on your neck?" Jake asked at full volume forgetting that they were not alone.

"What's what?" Buffy replied, turning away from the gossip that Willow was telling her about Melody Martin her new arch enemy.

Without a verbal explanation, Jake took a hold of her hand and placed it over the area in question. "That!"

"You - uh - mean the scar?" At Jake's nod and her other friends’ sudden fascination, Buffy continued with her explanation, totally unaware of Prue's silent scrutiny. "You see there was this puppy - an angry puppy -"

"And it bit you." Willow finished for her friend.

"Exactly!"

Jake kissed the scar quickly, mistaking Buffy's shiver as one of delight and not one of immense guilt. "Yikes!"

Gunn stood up and hovered over Buffy to get a good look. "I know you said this was a dog bite, but it looks sort of like one of those vampire bites - like out of the movies."

A couple of hours later after everyone had departed and all Buffy wanted to do was soak in a hot, vanilla scented bubble bath for hours; she instead found herself facing her three cousins. "What did I do now?"

Prue was the one to step forward to speak and Buffy guessed that since Prue was the oldest that this was just another duty she had inherited. "Where *did* you get that scar?"

Buffy sighed and rolled her eyes at them and their more or less predictably parental gang-up move. "Since you were *apparently* eavesdropping, then you know how it happened."

"No, we know the bullshit account that you told your friends," Phoebe chimed in. "Now we want the truth."

"Was it a vampire?" Piper asked calmly.

Buffy thrashed about on the inside with the disbelief that accompanied their guess, she was not about to come clean to her cousins about Angelus. After all it had taken her mother and Oz long enough to grow accustomed to their untraditional liaison, never mind her cousins who she still barely knew being in on it. Besides it wasn't like he was around anymore anyway, she rationalized.

"Guys, don't you think that if a vampire had been the one to leave this scar - to bite me - that I would not be here talking to you today. Let's face it I would be *long* dead if that had happened. I know that the puppy-thing sounds exceedingly lame, but it's the truth."

Prue eyed her suspiciously, but eventually seemed to accept her blatant lie as being the truth. "All right. Why don't you clean up the living room and then finish off your homework upstairs."

Appreciative of the unanticipated amnesty, Buffy rushed away and did not observe the looks that her cousins were exchanging behind her back. Looks which spoke louder than mere words ever could, each one resonating with scepticism and the need for added investigation of Buffy's rationalization.

The cavern was damp, shadowy and reeked of a concoction of rodents, blood and mortality; which of course was emblematic of most of the places veiled underneath the streets of Sunnydale. However Angelus had long gone beyond caring about it, his mind was sharply focused on the task at hand - finding and laying claim to the Gem of Amara. Hours and hours of endless searching had netted him nothing in the way of results, but had earned him a tag-along in the form of Penn's moronic childe, Harmony. She was slowly driving him into the evils of madness with her incessant chatter about nothing and he almost prayed for a ray of sunlight to burst into the chamber and destroy him.

Deciding to check out just one more of the numerous passage ways before heading back to Penn's for the evening's festivities, Angelus found himself in a generously proportioned room that had been ornamentally decorated - somewhat like a throne room. A feeling that began to coil in the pit of his stomach told him that this was the moment that he would find the gem. He commenced to tear the place apart searching for what he had imagined the gem to look like and paying little or no consideration to the aggravating vampiress dancing around the room, playing with the bits and baubles that she had found scattered about the room.

When more or less a half dozen hours later he had still found naught, his temper - which he was renowned for - began to boil. Angelus' patience was long ended and his childe's exasperating bitch would just not shut the hell up. Pulling a wooden chair apart, he picked up one of the legs which had conveniently broken off at a point and came up behind Harmony. Using the advantage of surprise he spun the bimbo around and plunged the make-shift stake into her unbeating heart. Unfortunately for him, Angelus was the one who got the surprise. Harmony - who for all intents and purposes should be dust - was simply standing there staring at him, the stake still protruding from her amply padded chest.

At his shocked expression, Harmony unknowingly asked, "What?"

"This cannot be happening," Angelus muttered to himself. Then suddenly without a word of warning, he pulled the stake out of her chest and plunged it back in and once again the bitch did not turn to dust.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?" she began to shriek. "I have holes in my shirt. I love this shirt!"

"Shut the fuck up all ready," he told her forcefully. "I cannot believe that I staked you twice and yet you are still talking."

A sudden flash of inspiration hit him and he grabbed hold of her and scrutinized the jewellery that she was wearing. Only one item - a ring - contained a jewel and as you would expect it was nothing like he had imagined. He with brute force pulled the ring from her finger and chuckled evilly as Harmony ultimately turned to dust. The gem was at long last his, he was invulnerable and now he could take his plan to the next level, but first he had one more thing left to do - reclaim his mate.