DISCLAIMER: Willow, Angel, Amy Madison, Buffy, Xander, Giles and everyone else don't belong to me, they belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. No, really, they do...
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The title of this story comes from lyrics from the Elton John song, "The One"

When Stars Collide
By: Serendipity

Part 9

"So she wasn't there?"

"Well, *someone* was there. I heard the door slam upstairs."

"Any sign of who it might've been?"

"No, by the time I got up there, the room was empty. The window was open, though."

"Xander, it could've just been the wind that slammed the door shut. I think you're overreacting."

"I don't. Her room was a disaster area. There were clothes and shoes and makeup all over the place."

"Makeup?"

"Yeah. It's not at all like her."

"Well, if there was makeup and stuff..maybe we *should* go take a look."

"My point exactly, what if she's possessed or something?"

"I think that both of you are overreacting," Giles broke in, looking up from one of his books, "She'll be fine, I saw her running across campus with Amy today. She looked alot happier than I've seen her in a long time. And I can't believe that you simply violated her privacy by barging into her house like that, Xander."

The boy had enough decency to look mildly embarassed, "Well, I was worried about her. She isn't returning my phone calls and Buffy's been emailing her for the past few days and she hasn't been responding. We barely get to see her anymore. That and the fact that she's hanging out with Amy way too much."

"Well, why don't you just call Amy and see what's going on?"

"Don't go there, G-man."

"Oh, please Xander, don't tell me that you're still scared of her after that whole magic spell incident."

"No, I'm not 'scared', I'm just-,"

"Petrified out of your mind," Cordelia finished. She was sick of watching them discuss this. It was Saturday night, they should be out having fun. "I hate to admit it, but I think that I'm going with Giles on this one. Willow's fine. In fact, she's probably at the Bronze right now, dancing the night away. Let's go check," she grabbed Xander's arm and started hauling him out of the library.

"I think that's a wonderful idea. Buffy, you ought to go with them. Everyone has been on edge lately and a break would do us all some good."

Unable to believe her ears, the slayer simply stared at him, "You're kidding, right? No patrols?"

Giles removed his glasses and cleaned them thoughtfully, "No, no patrols for tonight. I think that one night off should be alright, especially since everyone has been so stressed. Vampiric activity has been down recently, and it should be fine as long as you three stay together at all times."

"Great, music to my ears. You heard the man, let's go," With that, Cordelia forceably yanked both Xander and Buffy towards the library door, "Laters Giles!"

"Goodnight, I'll see you all tomorrow morning at 10:30!"

Swallowing their collective groan, the three teens smiled and waved before dashing out the door, into the darkness.

They were sitting so close that their knees were touching.

She stared at him, her green eyes glittering in an almost predatory manner.

He returned her gaze evenly while making a few wild calculations in his head.

"Don't try to stall, fang-boy," she said in the most intimidating voice she could muster.

"I'm *not* stalling," he replied, trying to sound outraged while he stalled some more.

"Uh huh," she snickered, "Don't even *think* about lying to me. I'm a master at this. Now go."

<Damn, she's got me. What am I gonna do.>

"NOW," she urged.

"Fine, fine, seven," he replied in exasperation.

She paused a moment.

<A HA! Gotcha!!> he thought, doing a little victory dance in his head.

Suddenly, the predatory glitter returned to her eyes and his heart fell.

<Uh oh....>

She threw her head back and laughed heartily.

"Damn," he muttered under his breath.

"Angel?" she asked, grinning smugly and relishing every moment of it.

"Yes?" he responded, pouting slightly.

"Go Fish."

It had been a long past few weeks and as embarassed as she would have been to admit it, Amy Madison had gone to bed on a Saturday night before 10:30. She hadn't been able to help it. She was downright exhausted. Between preventing homicidal vampires from killing her friends, early morning phone calls which forced her out of bed and using her powers to conjure up different outfits, she'd been pretty busy.

Hence, she'd fallen asleep almost the instant her head hit the pillow. And now she couldn't wait to wake up.

The frequency of her visions has increased, and these were definately worse. They were still a bit foggy..not quite as vivid as the one she'd had the night Angelus was chasing Willow, but they were just as bad, especially since she didn't know what to make of them. It was the same over and over again. These long metal poles of some kind coming down, beating fiercely, next there was shouting, and finally lots of blood. The scene then shifted to a broken body, face obscured by shadows, lying out on cold cement. Finally, the sequence ended with a glimpse of a hill and a brilliant flash of sunlight. Again and again and again, the images and sounds paraded through her head. Always in the same order, always the same spacing, always the same length. She never got more information or insight than these few snippets.

Finally clawing her way to consciousness on what must have been the fifth time through, she sat up in bed, her body covered by a cold sweat.

She moaned softly and looked at her alarm clock.

10:47.

It was going to be a long night.

Giles had his jacket on and was halfway to the door before he remembered his umbrella.

Sighing softly, he returned to his office, but couldn't find it. Finally, after an additional 10 minutes of searching, he located it under one of the large library tables. <Xander and his fooling about....>

Grumbling under his breath he tried to get it by reaching one arm under, but it was too far. Finally, he simply gave up and crawled under the table. Grabbing the umbrella, he started to back out, but paused when he saw a book underneath as well. "I am going to have to discuss proper library etiquette with all three of them," he muttered, reaching for it.

As he pulled it away, he was somewhat surprised to find tiny fragments of rope behind it. <Now that's odd...we really need to clean more thoroughly. People could start asking questions.>

After getting out from under the table, he picked up his umbrella and turned to throw the book into the "return" bin. He'd take care of it tomorrow morning. The cover of the book, however, gave him pause. "Scripts and Ancient Curses," he read aloud. Frowning slightly, he noticed that a few of the pages had been marked. Casually flipping through the chosen passages, his frown deepened, "Oh my."

His panic rapidly increasing, he dropped the book on the counter.

With shaking hands he picked up the phone...

It was nearly 3am when a very bleary-eyed Willow finally returned home. "I am going *straight* to bed," she mumbled to herself after she'd locked the door and waved goodnight to Angel. The time they'd spent together had been marvelous. They'd really just hung out and talked for the first few hours but once he'd found a deck of cards in his closet, things had really started swinging. She'd beat him in three straight hands of Go Fish and five of Hearts. He was a bit put out at first and even went so far as to call her a card shark so she let him win the last two games of Hearts. It was bonding. Bonding was good. She felt bonded and now she was exhausted.

Passing through the living room, she noticed the answering machine blinking.

<Wow, 7 messages, I sure am popular tonight.>

The first three were from her parents. Alternately it went, Mom, Dad, Mom. She'd have to remember to call them. The next three were from Xander. She'd have to call him back too at some point. She stretched tiredly and flopped back onto the couch to listen to the last one:

Beeeep...

<After I hear this one, I'm going straight to bed.>

"Willow? Th-this is Giles..."

The hacker grinned to herself, <I can't believe Xander got Giles to call me too...>

"I-I've discovered some rather...disturbing news and we're all at the library right now and..It would be a good idea if you came by as well...It's approximately 2:45am right now and I've sent Buffy over to get you. This is extremely important, Willow, and I look forward to hearing from you soon."

Click

This caused her to sit straight up. <2:45am? Well then, Buffy should be here right...>

As if on cue, the doorbell rang.

<...now>

He walked casually down the street, hands in his pockets, humming softly under his breath. It had been a pretty interesting night. It seemed that the more he got to know her, the more he was surprised by the outwardly meek and quiet Willow Rosenberg. She was an unending series of contradictions. Physically fragile, she was mentally strong and quick. She was sweet and sincere but also knew when to be firm and hard-headed. Like that night he was going to kill himself. He frowned slightly. If she hadn't stopped him...he shook his head. <I owe a lot to her. I owe her my life two times over. Probably even more.> She also had a very strange and unintentional way of making him laugh. He was growing to like her distinct sense of humor almost as quickly as he was growing to like her. Certainly, he'd gotten along with her before. He'd even come to her for help on occasion. But he'd never really gotten to *know* her. Not like he did now. Now, he was just beginning to see the spark and the life which lay just under the shy exterior. The "real" Willow Rosenberg.

Yes, this night had only strengthened his opinion of her. In fact, he couldn't remember a time when he'd been so at ease with another person. He couldn't help but grin at the memory of Willow trying to inconspicuously let him win at cards. <She has a good heart.> he suddenly realized. And above all, that was the one thing Angel respected about the red haired hacker. For someone who had lived on the Hellmouth for so long and had dealt with so many hardships at such a young age, it truly amazed him that she was able to remain as innocent and kind as she had.

Whistling, he started to turn a corner and that's when he felt it. An odd tingling sensation which was faint at first and then seized his entire being. <Buffy...> He could sense her. She was coming towards him at a very quick speed. Swiftly stepping backwards into the shrubbery, Angel melted into the shadows in the way which only he could. He watched almost longingly as she ran past him. She was close enough to touch. His heart ached silently as he caught a faint whiff of her perfume. Vanilla.

Sighing softly, he watched her run in the direction he'd just come from. Next, she took a turn down Willow's street. Frowning, he waited. Within a few minutes, both Buffy and Willow emerged walking hurriedly. He caught pieces of their conversation as they flew past him.

"So Giles hasn't said anything to you?"

"Nope, he wanted you to be there before he explained what this was all about. He seems pretty freaked out though. Do you have any ideas about what might be going on?"

"Umm...no?"

By then, they'd moved so far that he couldn't hear anymore. Growling, he started to follow them. <I wonder what's happening?>

"Buffy...Willow. Good," The librarian looked at both girls and nodded briskly.

Cordelia moaned softly, half asleep and sat up from her previous position of leaning against Xander, "Thank God for small favors. It took you people long enough. Do you know what lack of sleep does to a person? Dark circles right under the eyes. Very unattractive."

"Okay Giles, so what's up?" Buffy asked, pointedly ignoring Cordelia and taking a seat at the end of the table. Willow chose to stand, rather nervously, near the door.

"W-well, I was doing a bit of cleaning around here and I found some things which were...disturbing. Then I did some more cleaning and I found some more things..which were just as disturbing."

Willow felt her heart begin to sink as a very unsettled feeling invaded the pit of her stomach.

"It started with this book," he held up the offending object for the rest of the group to see.

<Uh oh.> Willow recognized it almost immediately and could feel the guilty flush start to creep up her neck. <I thought I put that away.>

"And then I found some odd scraps of rope and other books which had been mislaid," Giles continued, "As well as this." He held up a piece of crumpled paper.

<I knew I should have shredded that.> she kicked herself mentally.

"Okay Sherlock, so what's the deal?" Cordelia demanded, "What's on the paper?"

"If I'm not mistaken, this paper is a computer print-out of a restoration spell."

At the mention of the word "computer" all eyes turned to Willow. She fidgeted uncomfortably, fiddling with the bottom of her blouse.

"A restoration spell? As in...to restore a person's soul?" Buffy whispered softly.

"Willow," Giles asked, a serious look in his dark eyes, "Were you planning on using this?"

The library fell silent as everyone waited for an answer.

She shifted, "Well...not exactly..."

"Willow, do you now how dangerous this is? If you had found the spell, you should have come to me first. It's extremely powerful and you don't have the experience or the training to carry out something like this on your own. It's a good thing I caught this in time. We need to thoroughly explore our options. I'm not so sure that using the spell at this point is a good idea."

"Can I see it?" Buffy asked numbly as she took it from his hands.

"It could be outdated for all we know or it could even backfire."

Xander nodded vigorously, "Yup, spells can backfire. It really sucks when that happens. Besides, it's not right to change him back now. Not after he killed Ms. Calendar. I mean, how do we know that it won't happen again? How do we know he won't get happy and then go nuts and start killing people? The guy is dangerous, Willow."

"Well, the restoration is actually designed to *permanently* anchor the soul," she began.

"But we don't know if it would even work in the first place," Giles cut in, "You also have to realize that Angelus would most likely attack once he realized what was going on. If we ultimately failed, we'd have a very dangerous, antagonized vampire on our hands," he shook his head, "No, this is entirely out of the question."

"B-But..."

"Willow, it was a good idea," Buffy looked up sadly from the piece of paper she was holding, "but I'm afraid Giles is right. I've given up on ever getting Angel back the way he was. I think this is for the best. If we tried to restore his soul, it would just complicate things more."

"Y-you don't understand," the red-head stammered, tears starting to fill her eyes.

"Don't understand what?" Giles asked, slightly confused, "My God, Willow...you didn't actually attempt this already did you?" he stared at her in shock.

"No, it's not just that I attempted it...," she replied, her voice sounded pained and hoarse.

"She was successful," said a voice from the door.

From the instant Angel stepped into the library, Willow's world started moving in slow motion.

First there was the collective gasp from her friends. Then there was the look of complete shock on their faces. Finally, the shouting began.

"Angel?" Buffy cried.

"Oh my God." Cordelia yelped, hiding behind Xander. He jumped up and started moving away from the table.

"How could you? Are you insane?" Willow started slightly when she realized that the question was directed at her.

"X-Xander, please..."

"NO, I can't believe you'd do this!! How could you do this to everyone, Willow?" The intense look of utter betrayal in his eyes was worse than anything she could have ever imagined.

Giles stared blankly at the whole scene before silently stalking off into his office.

"Xander, I didn-,"

"I can never trust you again," he hissed through clenched teeth, angrier than she'd ever seen him.

Unable to stand it, Willow looked past him, to where Angel had walked over to Buffy and was talking to her in a muted voice. The slayer looked to be near tears and was shaking her head slowly. He reached out to touch her arm and she flinched away from him.

"I can't believe you brought that bastard back in here," Xander growled, drawing her attention back to him, "How dare you?? How dare you endanger ALL of us? How dare you...disgrace Ms. Calendar's memory like this?"

"Xander..." she choked out, trying to get away from him.

He took ahold of her arm harshly, "Willow, I can't BEL-,"

"Xander! Stop!!" Cordelia insisted, grabbing him and trying to pull him away.

"Get the bloody hell out of my way," Giles bellowed, coming out of his office with a crossbow in hand.

That's when the real pandimonium broke loose.

Cordelia stopped struggling with Xander almost instantly and looked up in horror.

Angel paled slightly but didn't say anything as Giles roughly grabbed Buffy and shoved her away. He lifted the crossbow and aimed it directly at the vampire's heart.

"No!" Willow screamed, breaking away from Xander, and rushing to scramble over the table.

"Willow," Xander flew after her, grabbing her ankle just as she launched herself upwards.

"You killed her, you bastard, you killed the only woman I ever loved and you deserve to die for it," Giles snarled, a dull and icy look in his eyes as his fingers gripped the trigger.

Angel made no attempt to move.

Buffy sat a few feet away, stunned.

Cordelia quickly reganed her senses and ran over to where Willow and Xander were still fighting.

"I'm sending you to hell."

With a vicious kick to the mouth, Willow forced Xander to drop her foot and launched him tumbling backwards into Cordy. Crawling on her hands and knees, she crossed the table and shot off the other side, falling face first. Her arms reached out and encircled Angel's waist, pulling them down together.

As they spiraled downwards, Willow heard a faint wooshing noise just as the arrow flew past, nicking the side of her face. She landed heavily on his chest.

Shaking, she sat up and lightly touched the cut the arrow's near miss had made, just under her eye.

"Willow, get out of the bloody way," Giles ground out, his voice barely recognizeable to her ears.

She looked up to see him standing over them. Breathing hard and perspiring profusely, he was reloading the crossbow without taking his gaze off of the pair below. His eyes were vacant yet wild. He looked almost as if he'd lost his mind.

"No," she whispered defiantly.

He held up the crossbow, "I said get out of my way."

She stood up, suddenly getting very angry herself, "I said, NO goddammit."

The librarian faltered slightly.

"Put that thing down," she demanded, "Before you hurt someone."

"Willow, get out of the way. I'm not going to ask you again," he was almost pleading.

"If you want to kill him, you'll have to kill me first," she said softly, deliberately walking directly up to the tip of the arrow, "Put the crossbow DOWN, Giles. You don't know what you're doing. Please."

There was a moment when she was sure her heart stopped beating. One brief moment when she thought he might actually shoot through her to get to the vampire below. Luckily, he didn't.

With a look of bitter sorrow and grief, Giles slowly lowered the weapon.

Willow let out the breath she hadn't even known she'd been holding. Over his shoulder, she saw Buffy starting to walk towards them. She looked on as a very shaken Cordelia helped up Xander who was nursing his injured jaw.

"Giles, I-I'm so sorry-," she moved towards him shakily, suddenly switching from an angry, stubborn fighter back to a frightened sixteen year old.

He shook his head and drew away from her, "Get out," he whispered.

"What?" she asked, not quite comprehending.

He turned his full attention to his young protégé, "Get..the..bloody hell...OUT OF MY LIBRARY," he shouted at her, his face contorted in fury.

She gasped and paled slightly, her chin starting to tremble. Backing away, she felt the tears springing into her eyes again. She turned and bumped into Angel who had, at some point during the confrontation, gotten up to stand behind her. She pushed past him blindly and ran out the doors, top speed. Dead silence fell throughout the room and they could hear her sobbing loudly down the hall.

Wordlessly, Angel turned and ran after her.