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disclaimer on first part.

Vera couldn't help herself. All of the memories she had suffocated in the very back of her mind, the ones she remembered when she dreamed, the ones she had tried so hard to forget came flooding back. She couldnt stop them now, no, not now that she knew it was him. Angel.

She laughed. He looked a little hurt. His girlfriend looked extremely confused.

Leaning in closer to Angel, Buffy whispered, "Angel? Care to share?" Here was some pretty girl looking at Angel like he was the most incredible thing in the world (He is, she added to herself), and Angel knew exactly who she was.

It was Drusilla all over again.

Angel noticed the worry on the Slayer's face, and realized what she must be thinking. "It's okay, Buffy. Vera is a part of my very long ago past. We were *never* involved"

Buffy relaxed a bit, until she noticed Vera laughing, now hysterically.

"Oh, Angel, it is you! You're still the same person you were back then! You know, before you changed." She turned to Buffy. "Angel and me involved!? That would have been wrong in more ways than one. We were the best of friends, and known as the village scoundrels. I can just see old Mrs. Cathen now, shaking her finger at us. I'm his sister. Not one of those horrible women he was involved with." Buffy looked momentarily relieved, and then very, very confused. That is, if she could have possibly been more confused. Highly unlikely. But Vera had turned back to Angel. "Glad to see that you've graduated to much more appropriate women. So...the Slayer?"

By then Buffy had composed her thoughts enough to really make sense out of Vera's statement. Then it hit her that she had known she was the Slayer. "What?"

Vera looked a bit sheepish. "Oh. I learned to read auras when I was very young. You just have a Slayer aura." She turned back to Angel. "Look, the Powers That Be have sent me to help you. Don't ask, they just gave me my assignment and pictures of the four people that I'm supposed to help." She held up the four pictures, and started to continue, but Angel and Buffy cut her off, taking the pictures.

"It's us," Buffy breathed, staring at the two pictures Angel held in his hand. Then she looked at the ones she held. A very scared, and very worried sensation went through her body. She felt suddenly cold, even in the heat of the Bronze. "And Willow and Xander.'

Angel couldn't stop staring at the pictures, as well. Buffy was right, these were drawings of their friends. He didn't even stop to remind himself that Xander hated him, he was so worried. He looked from the pictures to Vera, to his very worried love. "We have to help them." He didn't mention the nagging feeling in him that was continuing to grow. The one that said he was forgetting something important.

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Willow and Xander walked to the Bronze, stakes in hand. There seemed to be a whole lot less vampy activity lately, but they didn't even consider it.

Willow thought about how close she and Xander were as they walked hand in hand. Then her thoughts turned to Oz, who was cute and normal. She smiled and kept walking.

Xander thought about his recent encounters with Cordelia. They were becoming so much more passionate, but he refused to admit that he had fallen for her. He smiled, too, and kept walking.

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Giles was hurriedly flipping pages, looking for something. He had gotten a lead in one of the Watchers Diaries, and was now searching for the same person in his other books.

"Vera..." He muttered under his breath. There had been a reference made to a "Vera" in the diaries near the same time that Angel had been turned. It told of her powers as a Wiccan, and how she had traveled all over assisting those in need. It told of how The Powers That Be worked through her to assist others.

Perhaps he could contact her and gain assistance against the newest Evil rising here in Sunnydale. He was thoroughly scared by what they did to people, and was sure he would need help. Buffy and Angel alone couldnt take them on, he was sure.

But how to contact her? Was she even still alive?

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Camilla screamed as loud as ever when the guards unchained her. It was a wonder she hadn't lost her voice in the past few days. But, even though she could scream, she didn't have enough strength to fight against the inhumanly strong guards.

Inhuman. That's what they were. They both had faces creased with fury. And she knew what they were, too. Vampires. She wasn't the teacher of Demonology and Mythology over at Sunnydale U. for nothing. She wasn't one of the Demon Hunter Council's favorite newbies for nothing. She hadn't been recently promoted to Commander of the Freshman class's hunters because she was a pretty face.

He father had been a Watcher. Her mother had been a Demon Hunter. Now she was one of the newest, and youngest, heads of the Hellmouth Center for Demon control.

There was a mysterious girl that roamed the streets at night. Camilla knew of her only as the "Slayer". No one knew where Camilla had gone to. No one knew she had been captured. She hoped that the Slayer and her Watcher found out about this one who was going to be killing her momentarily soon. The less people to die, the better.

She screamed again as the vampires dragged her away to her certain death.

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Then it hit Angel. He knew these people, not as Willow and Xander, but as people he had tried to forget. He *had* forgotten, for a while. Almost a year since he met them.

Vera realized it at the same time, and all of the pent up memories refused to be contained anymore. She remembered how close theyd been, and the look on his face when he fed from her. She remembered everything about that night...and the people there.

Buffy was sobered by the fact that the people in the pictures were her and her friends, and to add to it, Angel and his *sister* were both having emotional breakdowns. So, she did the only thing she could think of. She took Angel in her arms and held him there for a few minutes.

Vera recovered a bit before Angel. That made sense, she thought. The look on his face told her that something had changed. She was pretty sure it was the whole soul-thing. Hadn't she been the one to come up with that curse with Rosellen and given it to the Romani elders? Of course, she had written it with out the clause, but that is a different story for a different time. She snapped back to attention and noticed that Angel was getting better.

"It's Aileen and Cedric." He announced. Buffy looked perplexed again. Again because she had not been confused when she was holding him. And now she was. Again. Getting the theme here?

Vera nodded. She couldn't even bring herself to say their names now, not with out crying.

"Who...?" Buffy asked gently, curious and wanting to be in on the whole bonding period.

Angel looked straight at her, into her eyes. They were big and scared, which wasn't a common thing for him to see. Vera knew he couldn't say it either, but he had more of a reason than she.

With a deep breath, she said quietly, "Our younger brother and sister."

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The vampire guards dragged Camilla to what seemed to be the central room in the underground maze of passages and small rooms.

At the end of the room the dropped her. She was struggling to breathe, much less stand.

And then she heard it, a voice so horrible that she had to cover her ears, and it still hurt.

"Bring her to me."

The vampires seemed scared by their master, even slightly reverent in his presence. The dragged Camilla up the step to the tall chair with it's back to her. She fell on her hands and knees, sobbing with fright. She had been a thin person prior to her days spent in the vampire's lair, and now, after not eating but a small bite of food and a sip of water a day, she was reduced to skin and bones.

The voice spoke again, and she saw the chair turn towards her. His face was contorted into that of a vampiric visage, and it scared her more than any of the others. His eyes were not yellow like his children's. They were pure black, deep, and soulless. He was terrifying to behold, having many scars, some from battle, some from rituals. "Camilla...what an appropriate name. An attendant at a sacrifice. And so you shall be. Brice!" He ordered a vampire who had probably been very handsome in life. Camilla did not have the strength or the energy to spare to consider it, though.

Brice came hopping up the steps, bouncy and full of energy, probably having fed very recently. Camilla failed to notice that, too. Her only thoughts were of the Slayer and if she would save others from this horrible fate.

She did not hear the Head Vampire's orders to Brice, or see his sickening grin. He slung the near dead Camilla, exhausted from her screaming and weeping, and starving besides that, over his shoulder and carried her off to a separate room.

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Giles picked up the book that had fallen off the shelf when he had pulled the Watcher's Diary with Vera in it out. Looking at the cover, he noticed the title: "The Ravages of Galway, Ireland: The story of Angelus's Terror from the Two Survivors."

He breathed deeply, somewhat alarmed, but greatly intrigued. He had not known that when Angel had changed he had left two in his village alive. He was very curious to see who they were, and so he opened the book.

It was handwritten, as were most of his books, but this handwriting seemed unsure of itself, like the person writing had not been completely literate. The first page had the title written again, but he didn't notice. He was staring at the author's name.

"Vera O'Leary. O'Leary...why do I know that name?" Then it hit him. It was Angel's last name. And then the fact that the author's first name was Vera stuck out in his mind.

And everything clicked.

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Just as Willow and Xander got to the Bronze, Buffy, Angel, and some other girl came bursting out. Buffy sighed, obviously relieved. Angel still looked worried. The girl looked, if it was possible, more worried than Angel when she saw Xander and Willow.

Without words, they two other members of the Scooby Gang knew that something was up. The obediently walked with the other three, knowing they were probably going to the Library again.

Buffy thought about how much Angel's face had fallen when Vera had said the words he could not. The ones that hurt him so much, he couldn't even say them. She knew it had been hard for him to say their names.

And so they had decided to find Willow/Aileen and Xander/Cedric immediately, and found their job very easy.

So now they walked, all hand in hand. Vera held Angel's hand, who held Buffy's, who held Willow's , who held Xander's. And they all knew that, though some knew less than others, there was a big honkin' evil stirring here in Sunnydale, and they were they keys to stopping it.

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