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"I think I found something," Willow exclaimed. Buffy and Giles stopped sparring and took a break. Giles went to look over Willow's shoulder and Oz turned his chair to get a better look at Willow's computer. Buffy grabbed a slice of pizza from one of the two almost empty pizza boxes and sat down next to Angel. Angel and Cordy looked up from the books they were reading and Xander continued to eat cheese curls from a bag in his hand. "The Romani are actually a group of clans. I've found a site on Ms. Calendar's clans. Hers is the only one that ever dared to curse a vampire. It says the Romani are total vengeance believers. Some clans have carried a grudge for centuries. They have many practiced in the use of magic. They kind of sound like Angelus's human cousins. They rarely kill their enemies outright. They torture them and let them live with the pain. Some clans will even kill innocent people if it will hurt their enemy. Sending a member of the clan to make sure their enemies stay in pain and torture is actually very common." There is a moment of silence as Willow scrolls down and they all try to deal with the impact of what they've just found. "The clan used to be quite large," Willow continued, "But it's numbers are dwindling. As the children learn about the outside world, they learn how vengeance driven the clan is and see it as wrong and repulsive, so they leave."
"So Ms. Calendar wasn't the only one who was rebelling," Buffy remarked.
"No. Their numbers are dwindling every day," Willow replies.
"The gypsy who lead those men wasn't that old, but the man he was arguing with in my dream was close to 50," Buffy said.
"Yes. It's possible that the young man doesn't agree with torturing Angel, but he doesn't want to rebel. The older man is probably the one at the bottom of all this," Giles said.
"So what do we do now?" Cordy asked. There was a long silence.
"Maybe the gypsy will come to us," Willow suggested hopefully.
"Everyone knows that all the teenagers, hang out at the Bronze. That'll probably be the first place he'll look," Angel said.
"Yeah, besides all work and no play make for a cranky slayer. Let's go," Buffy said. There was a chorus of agreement, as everyone, but Giles, filed out of the Library. Willow went with Oz in his van, Xander went in Cordy's car and Buffy and Angel walked. Angel dropped her off at her house. She said she needed to stop and pick up a few things, since it was well past sunset, and tell her Mom she was going to the Bronze. Angel had to go back to his apartment to change his shirt, because he had a blood stain on the one he was wearing. When one of the gypsies had punched him, their clan ring had cut him. He left her about a half block, before she reached her house. Buffy still hadn't figured out how to tell her mother yet and preferred keeping her in the dark. She kissed him good-bye and he left for his apartment.
It was about a half hour after sunset. Jer and Trisn were walking in the park, when they heard a commotion near by. They came to the edge of the clearing and stopped. In the clearing was a mob of about 20 vampires. They had captures Beshok, Gilt, the two mages and three of the warriors. The two other warriors were lying a ways away on the ground, dead. "You see. I was right, wasn't I Spike? I knew those nasty gypsies were in town," a female vampire said.
"Of course you were right, Luv," said Spike.
"Miss Edith doesn't like gypsies. You're going to pay for what you did to my Daddy," she told the gypsies.
"Of course, Dru, but we've got to get them back to our place or else the slayer might show up," Spike said irritably.
"Yes, come along," Dru said as she danced away. Jer and Trisn were quiet as the group walked off.
"What are we going to do?" Jer asked, fear evident in his voice.
"We've got to get help," Trisn said, determinedly.
"But we don't know anyone who could help us."
"The girl, Buffy. She was really strong and Gilt said he saw her fight vampires. Maybe she can help us," Trisn suggested hopefully.
"But she's the enemy! She's a friend of Angelus. That would be betraying the clan."
"You said yourself she might not know about his past. Besides, she's the only hope we've got," Trisn replied.
"How will we find her?" Jer asked resignedly.
"Well, she dates a vampire. We better check all the places teenagers hang out, and all the places vampires hang out," said Trisn. He'd have smiled at the irony if weren't standing a few feet away from the dead bodies of his friends and fellow warriors.
"Where do vampires hang out?"
"Where they can find people alone."
"Like the park," Jer said, "Come on, lets see if we can find her." Jer and Trisn set off in a random direction to look for one teenage girl.
Buffy sat impatiently at her table at the Bronze. Angel had left for his apartment an hour ago. She knew it was near the Bronze and didn't know what was taking him so long. Willow and Oz came in off the dance floor and sat down next to her. Willow took one look at the expression on her best friend's face and knew who she was thinking about. "Where's Angel?" Willow asked.
"He stopped to change his shirt, before he came. It had blood on it," Buffy said distractedly looking around.
"Those are probably killer stains to get out," Oz said.
"Yeah."
"Where's Xander and Cordelia?" Willow asked, trying to get Buffy's attention.
"Probably in a closet somewhere. Cordelia still won't dance with Xander," Buffy said. Buffy caught sight of Angel coming in the door and she smiled. As she was lifting her hand to show Angel where they were sitting, Willow grabbed her hand. Buffy looked over at her astonished to see that two gypsies had just arrived at their table. If she had lifted her hand, they would have known Angel was here.
"Buffy Summers?" one asked.
"That would be me, the girl you attacked this morning," Buffy quipped, "and you would be?"
"My name is Jer and this is Trisn. We are members of the Romani clan of the late Ms. Calendar," he said. Willow quickly whispered something in Oz's ear and he walked off in Angel's direction, as Jer continued, "We are sorry for attacking you earlier, but we didn't consider that you might not know who Angelus is?"
"Is that so?" Buffy said calmly.
"No," Trisn said with a look toward Jer, "You were a friend of Angelus's and according to clan tradition any acquaintance of the enemy can be brought down to hurt the enemy. I-"
"We however disagree with that tradition as do many of the younger members of the tribe," Jer interrupted, "so we came to tell you of Angelus's past. When you hear his past, I am sure you will no longer help him and then the clan won't have to argue about whether we can hurt you or not. After all hurting Angelus is one thing, but hurting an innocent is another.
"We shouldn't be going after Angel either. Even the clan knows that a vampire is a human body with a demon instead of a soul. It's wrong to torture the soul our clan returned to the body for -"
"Shut-up! You're talking treason," Jer hissed, scared by what his friend was saying.
"No," Trisn said firmly, "I'm second-in-command and I'll give the orders. We're not going to hurt the soul for what the demon did and we are not going to make this poor girl think that she's dating a demon instead of a soul."
"It's against all clan beliefs!" Jer said, trying holding to what he had been taught and push away the treasonous and rational thoughts in his own mind.
"Beliefs rooted in vengeance. Now is NOT a time for vengeance. Yanna spoke well of him and that's enough for me. Now be quiet and follow orders!" Trisn ordered Jer, effectively ending the argument as he once again gave Buffy and Willow his full attention. Buffy and Willow had listened to this argument with interest, as had Angel who had snuck up unnoticed behind the two and Oz, who had returned to sit beside Willow. "I'm sorry for my comrade Ms. Summers. I'm afraid most of my clan has a large dislike for your boyfriend. We wouldn't have even come to you, but we need help. The rest of the gypsies in town have been take hostage by a group of vampires. I caught only two names: Spike and Dru. I cannot guarantee you anything in return, but I will try to change the clan's mind, when we return."
Buffy looked both of them in the eye and knew that neither of them was an enemy of hers, but one was Angel's enemy and the one's being held by Spike and Drusilla, were probably all Angel's enemies. Buffy looked up at Angel, who was standing behind the two gypsies and back. "Angel and Angelus are two different people, for lack of a better word. I understand that Angelus hurt you deeply, but Angel has done nothing to you and should not have to pay for Angelus's crimes. If you swear to try and convince your clan of this, and swear that neither of you will try to hurt Angel, I would be willing to help," she told the gypsies, then she looked up at Angel, "but it's you choice. I do this with you, or not at all." The gypsies looked behind them startled. Angel walked over to stand beside Buffy, as the gypsies watched his every move.
He turned and faced the gypsies. "I'm very sorry for what Angelus did to your clan and I want to thank you for putting the first curse on me. I know that it was meant to cause me pain and in that respect the curse succeeded, but it gave me the chance to find love. If you promise me that your clan won't harm Buffy, or our friends in any way, I'll gladly help," Angel told the gypsies.
"I can try to convince them, but I can't promise. But if a gypsy is saved by someone, that someone becomes a friend of the clan and cannot be harmed. If you and your friends help save these gypsies, it is almost guaranteed that they will become friends of the clan, but I cannot say how they will react to you," Trisn told Angel.
Angel nodded, "Then I'll help you."