"Giles! Xander! Cordy! Anyone! GET OVER HERE NOW!" Buffy called out as she burst through the doors to the library. The entire Slayerette brigade sans Willow appeared from various places in the library, all stunned at Buffy's demanding tone.

"What's wrong, Buff?" Oz asked quizzically, tossing his backpack behind a chair. He approached Buffy worriedly, followed by Xander and a half-caring Cordy.

Buffy looked at Oz squarely. "I think Willow's been kidnapped."

***

Things were exploding all over the place. Literally.

Dru cowered in the doorway next to her invalid as vases and stands flew through the air and smashed against the walls and floors. One particularly large statue gracefully soared through the air and landed with a crash at Spike's feet, sending porcelain shards flying at him. Calmly moving his head to avoid them, he waved back at Dru, who was clearly freaking out.

As Angelus saw Spike roll into the room, he put on an angry sneer. "Hey there, meals on wheels, what's wrong? Can't go hunting?" He tossed a nearby vase. "Well, that's just awful, isn't it?" With another look of passionate anger, he kicked Spike's wheels.

Luckily for Spike, he had put on the brake. "Look, mate, we don't know what you've got up your sleeve for the hacker, but she's doing one hell of an opera number on our ears. Why can't you bloody well make her shut up!" Spike exploded calmly at Angelus.

"Because," Angelus looked at him with an evil grin, "that would probably require killing her. And I don't want to do that!"

"Then let me bloody well kill her!" Spike said, angry now. "I'm hungry, y'know, you can't quite live off of pizza boys all day!" Dru, behind him, regained her confidence and danced out into the room.

Nimbly avoiding the pieces of glass and other materials, she waltzed around the two male vampires. "He wants the girl...she's
strong...useful...she's going to help us end the world." She stroke Spike's face with one long fingernail. "It's going to be all red in the end..." The bloody trail left by her painted fingernail emphasized her point.

Spike jerked his face away from the crazy vampire. "Sounds like fun, Dru, but I'm bloody hungry." He stared at Angelus accusingly.

Angelus waved his hand at the young man, now chained in the corner. "I'm not gonna need him, you can eat him," he said distractedly. Stroking his chin again, he stormed out of the room.

Shrugging, Spike wheeled over to the shuddering young man in the corner. "You may not be for Acathla," Spike growled as his face shifted, "but at least I get a bite." He grabbed the man's head, yanked it to the side, and sank his fangs in to feed.

Dru smiled.

***

"So, Wills is gone, her window's open, and nothing was moved? This is totally weirdo," Xander commented in his usual dense-like fashion. He gripped Cordy's hand tighter as he thought. "But why would Wills leave her window open? She's too smart for that...unless she was in some sort of trouble, and had to go outside."

Buffy held up the wooden crucifix she had found outside of Willow's house. "This was outside...I gave it to her a few days after we met. It was for extra protection...because it's big." She stared down at it in her hand. "She'd only use it for a good reason."

"And that good reason is obviously some kind of attack," Cordy piped up.

"...or lure," Oz said out loud. The gang looked at him in surprise. He hadn't really said anything while Buffy had been explaining her search at Willow's. "Why would she leave the house through the window? It doesn't make sense. What if something was out there that needed help?" Now Oz looked even more concerned than before.

Buffy looked at him sadly. "Then let's hope that she helped it, and something didn't help themselves to her."

***

*crash*

Xander calling her name...

*smash*

Angelus slapping her...

*silence*

At the sudden change of noise, Willow awoke from her dreams. She instantly wished that she had stayed asleep, seeing as waking up seemed to put her in a worse predicament. And the situation worsened as she blearily watched a furious Angelus storm into the room.

"Hello, little hacker," he said slyly. "How are we feeling now?" Willow nodded slowly, trying not to do anything that would earn her another slap. A draft blew through the room, and Willow noticed for the first time that she was still in her nightgown. Groaning inwardly, she wished that she had stayed dressed that night.

"Now, little one, how can you answer with a yes?" Angelus asked her, a small sneer apparent on his face. He was provoking her to speak, for some strange reason. Willow swallowed.

"Um...I'm feeling like shit." WHAT?!?!?!?! Why the hell had she said that? Speaking before thinking equaled bad. She was bad. What if she had made him mad? Swallowing again, she shrunk back. It was bad enough that she had said that, but she didn't swear often. It was very interesting...and bad. Naughty. Not Willow, Willow was good.

A bemused smile slowly appeared on Angelus' face. "Well, I'd get you down from there, but you'd probably run. And we can't have that now, can we?" He came up close to Willow again, and against his own mind's protests, he stroked her face gently. He tried to convince himself that he was messing with the girl's mind. He hoped he was right.

Willow winced. The last time he had touched her, he had slapped her. She hung there, not sure what to do. Finally, she spoke.

"What the hell do you want?"