Part Eight

“If all of the strength and all of the courage/come and lift me from this place/I know I could love you much better than this/full of grace.”

“Xander. It’s me, Buffy. Guess what? I’m back.”
“Cordelia? Hi. It’s Buffy. Um, you wanna come back to Sunnydale?” The last of her messages was left on Cordy’s answering machine, which was how the Slayer had planned it all along. She sighed, then turned toward the door, where the young lycanthropic musician stood.
“Hi, Oz. Welcome home!” It had been a month since that week of surprises. It was summer at last. Willow had been in town for a few days, and Buffy had no idea what was going on between Willow and Oz, so she invited him to stay with her.
“Hey, Buff. Where’s your vampire?”
“It’s daytime, Spike’s…asleep. The others are supposed to be here in a few minutes.” Just then, the doorbell rang, and the blonde girl opened the door to see Cordelia and Xander, followed by a jittery Willow.
“Hey, guys. Come on in.” Xander abruptly hugged Buffy, then let go as she squeaked in surprise.
“Buff, we missed you.”
“I missed you too.” Buffy replied, a smile on her face. “Hey, Spike’s asleep upstairs, so don’t get too loud.” Oz walked into the room then, and Willow turned red.
“Hey, everyone.” He greeted.
“Hey, Wolf-boy.”
“Hi, Oz,” the redheaded hacker quietly answered.
“Hi, Oz, Buffy.” Cordelia said finally, stepping into the house carefully. As Oz and Xander began to talk like old times, Willow pulled Buffy aside.
“Why did you invite Oz? I don’t need him.”
“You said, everybody, so I thought…” Buffy said, looking at her flustered friend. “Is something wrong? I can wake up Spike to keep him distracted…”
“Um, okay… just… keep him… away.” Saddened, Willow looked down at the floor. “We… aren’t the same anymore.” Buffy left to pull Oz away, and Willow went back to Xander and Cordelia. “Hey, soon as Buffy gets back we’ll start, okay? I have to get something from the car.” She said, leaving for a second. Oz ran upstairs and Buffy and Willow met the other 2 in the kitchen.
“Hey, Will, why’d you get us to come here?” asked a curious Xander as they all reassembled.
“I…I want to give Angel back his mortality.” Willow replied, trying to get the news out as quickly as possible. “I found a spell to cure him, to…exorcise the demon.”
“You can do that?” Buffy sounded worried. “It won’t hurt him, will it?” Willow shook her head hesitantly.
“So, why do you need us?” Xander broke in.
“The spell calls for 4 people with love in their hearts.”
“Can’t you use Oz?” Cordelia asked.
“No. He holds…a dislike for Angel.” She sounded nervous and no one questioned her. “And I can’t use Spike because he’s not human.”
“Well, can we do it tomorrow? I mean, do you have everything?”
“Yeah. All we need is Angel.”

“Well. We’re all here, right?” Willow said, looking around Angel’s apartment the next day. “I think I’m ready.”
“What are we doing, Will?” Angel asked, confused.
“SHH!” Cordelia said. “She has to concentrate!”
“Heart, mind, body, soul. We stand before thee, mother. We implore thee to heal this body, make it whole, cast out all impurities, make mortal. Return this unholy one to his roots, restore him to his former self. So we ask. We wait for you, mother, to hear our plea.” The Wiccan chanted, the candle smoke around her swirling strangely.
The others, minus Angel, chanted, “Heart, mind, body, soul.”
“Make him holy once more, make him human once more. Cast the demon away, no more to wreak havoc on his mind. So we ask. So we wait. Mother, hear our plea.”
Angel’s body glowed with both unholy and holy light, and he let out a horrific cry before falling to the ground. Thunder boomed outside, and all the candles were snuffed immediately. Someone screamed, and it took a few minutes for Willow to realize it was herself.
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