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Part 2
Angel was a bit nervous. He wasn't too sure he wanted to face Fritz again. The last words they had spoken to each other were words of hate. Angel sighed. Fritz was bent on being the Master's favorite, poor fool. Angel remembered when he was competing for the Master's favors. When Fritz left for Germany to raise all chaos he didn't say one word to Angel, he just glared at him; Angel got the feeling that he would be back. With Fritz gone,Angel had gotten good favors from the Master. He had heard that Fritz had found out and sworn revenge on Angel. That was the last Angel had heard of him, it was said that he was killed shortly after the war. Obviously it was true, considering he had been raised from the dead. Angel mused over the possibilities of how those kids could have done it.
"Hello, Rupert Giles speaking," Giles spoke into the phone. He wasn't use to getting calls at this hour, even though it was still early. In fact he wasn't use to receiving calls at all.
"Hi Giles," Cordelia said without much enthusiasm.
"Cordelia?" Giles muttered, "Is that you?"
"Yeah Giles, we have a bit of a problem that we're supposed to give you the 411 on."
"The four what?" Giles stammered, he hadn't the slightest idea what Cordelia was talking about.
"411, you know the information, the in-the-know zone?" Cordelia was now getting a little irritated.
"How about you just tell me why you called." Giles suggested.
Sighing, Cordelia told him about Fritz, and that Angel was now going to Rome, New York to find out what brought him back, and why.
"This is bad. You are saying he is heading towards the Hellmouth?" Giles asked.
"Yeah, it'll take him a while to get there but be prepared, he took lessons from Angelus." Cordelia spoke calmly.
"Lessons from Angelus?" Giles stammered, silently swearing to himself.
"Yeah, this guy Fritz took lessons from Buffy's old boy toy. It could get pretty interesting." Cordelia said.
"Willow and I will get on trying to find out anything we can about him from textbooks. I'll tell Buffy about what is going on and she'll meet up with Angel in Rome." Giles spoke quickly because he had much work to do.
"Oh. Angel made it clear before he left that he was going to be the one tracking him. He didn't want any one else," Cordelia said.
"Well. okay," Giles uttered.
Both exchanged good-byes and hung up the phone to attend to what they would have to do in order to stop this madman that was heading for the Hellmouth.
The Hertz in Rome, New York was a sleazy lot with rundown cars. Angel decided to go with the nice-looking 1969 Camaro Z28, convertible, black as night; the car was shiny-looking, like it was just polished. Angel smiled. Even if he was going after his apprentice he could do it in style. Soon he was off heading towards to the woods. He switched on the radio and let his mind drift.
You let me violate you
You let me desecrate you
You let me penetrate you
You let me complicate you
Help me I broke apart my insides
Help me I've got no soul to sell
Help me the only thing that works for me
Help me get away from myself
I wanna <blurp> you like an animal
I wanna feel you from the inside
I wanna <blurp> you like an animal
My whole existence is flawed you get me closer to god
After the song finished, the radio announcer came on, "That was Nine Inch Nails, 'Closer'. As always this is WIZN 106.7 FM, 'The Wizard that rocks the workforce.'"
Angel smirked; radio stations always had to claim that they were the greatest at what they did. It was amazing sometimes. He clicked the radio off, and drove the rest of the way in silence. When he arrived at the woods a local Ranger greeted him. The Ranger was wearing a light brown uniform with patches and a badge. He almost appeared to blend in with the night.
"Park's closed." Ranger spoke in a heavy New England accent.
Angel had noticed a camping grounds close by. "Could you direct me to the camping grounds then please?"
The Ranger pointed out the way; Angel thanked him and drove off. Getting well out of the way he parked his Camaro in a ditch, and started wandering through the woods. Angel tried to recall how he had gotten to the clearing in his dream; he couldn't remember Angel wandered for hours trying to find it. Finally he realized that the sun was going to rise soon, so he ran back to the car and pulled it further into the woods, finding a cave to wait for the next night.
The next evening he continued the search. He eventually found the clearing and began looking for the bodies. He found them thrown off to the side; all mauled and mutilated, looking like a wild animal had killed them instead of a vampire. Angel recalled what he was like when he first got out of hell; that wasn't pretty either. Angel had remained in his body however; Fritz was called from the depths of hell to a "sane" mind. It could be that the two minds had merged together, creating a psychopathic killer that looked the age of 15. Either way Angel decided that he had to find him before he got to Sunnydale.
"Here it is." Willow spoke in an excited voice. "Here is the spell on how to raise people from the dead. Interesting." Willow concentrated on reading of the spell, "In order to raise the spirit you -- it -- needs a human host."
"Yes. Th-That is strange," Giles spoke from across the room.
The two had been at it for hours, working out of Giles' apartment. Ever since they had to blow up the school, this had been the keeper of all the supplies until a more secure place could be found. Willow was sitting on the couch eating doughnuts and looking through old books. Giles was over at a computer, looking through limited resources they had through various contacts.
He turned around to look at Willow, "You suppose they found a copy of this spell and decided to use it?"
"Yeah, I guess." Willow said quietly.
"In all my years, I have yet to understand why teenagers have such preposterous ideas." Giles muttered.
"You're looking at the wrong girl. Well, I guess you are looking at the right girl, 'cause I'm 'Wicca Girl,' but I don't know the answer." Willow had a tendency to ramble on when getting to a point, but typically when she made one it was admirable.
Giles took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Now we just need to find out how to reverse it, if we can."
An hour later Willow spoke again "I found it! Oh wait, maybe I didn't. It says we need a certain kind of plant."
Giles spoke softly. "And that kind would be?"
Willow pronounced the name slowly; Giles looked a bit bewildered. "That kind of plant has never grown around here. The only place I know it grows is in Egypt."
Buffy and Xander walked in with Oz shortly behind. Buffy spoke first. "What grows only in Egypt?"
Giles looked up at Buffy. "A plant we need for a spell. A vampire named Fritz is heading towards us to open the Hellmouth. He has taken over the body of fifteen-year-old. We need to vanquish him from the child."
"Let me guess. I'm the one who is going to have to fly to Egypt to get this plant," Xander said, not quite thrilled with the idea.
"Nonsense," Giles said, "Take Spike with you. Someone needs to look after you."
"Great," Xander said sarcastically, "Baby-sat by a vampire."
Buffy smiled. "It's not so bad."
Xander made a face and muttered venomously, "Oh, yeah. you should know."
Buffy glared at Xander, who quickly averted his eyes from the Slayers glare. "So," he said quickly, "When do we leave?"
Giles looked up from the book of the spell requirements, "Now. I hope you have a passport."
Xander offered brightly, "Lucky me. I do. What about Spike, though? What if he doesn't have one?"
Giles looked a bit puzzled, "Have him sneak on for all I care."
Xander nodded and sauntered out the door to go pack and find Spike.
Oz spoke for the first time since he arrived. "What do you want me to do?"
Buffy answered for Giles, "You and Will should go pick up the supplies we can find locally. Giles and I are going to locate the Hellmouth again so we know exactly were this thing would open up. Afterwards, I am going to call Angel's office and see what they know."
Oz said, "Okay." He nodded to Willow and both walked out the door, followed shortly afterwards by Buffy and Giles.
The phone rang at the detective agency. Cordelia picked up the phone and in her most cheerful voice said "Hello?"
"Hello, Cordelia," Giles spoke softly.
"Oh," changing her tone completely, "Hi, Giles."
"Have you heard from Angel recently?" Giles asked.
"Yes, I just got off the phone with him," Cordelia responded. "He's found some bodies, but not Fritz. The bodies look more like an animal killed them than a vampire, but he says that might happen after getting out of hell."
"Yes. It might." Giles muttered. "Great." he thought to himself, "We have another vampire exactly like a wild animal. Might as well call the bloody animal control to clean up after this."
Cordelia asked quietly, "What are you doing on your end?"
Giles told her that he was sending Xander and Spike to Egypt, Willow
and Oz were off getting supplies and he and Buffy had just finished locating
the Hellmouth. After that they exchanged good-byes and hung up.