tonight, so she expected light slaying duties. After all, vampires weren't
  known to be a workaholic bunch. They would probably just stay in.

  As soon as she got to Giles' house however, her "day off" had taken a
  turn for the more unpleasant. She'd had an argument with Giles about her
  training schedule. And then two vamps, a man and a woman, had given her
  one hell of a fight on her way over to the Bronze. She had managed to
  stake them both, but not before the guy had ripped the sleeve on her new
  shirt. The new pink shirt my Mom bought me last week. The new pink shirt
  she saw me leave the house with before she left for the weekend. She
  sighed. Slaying was hard on a wardrobe. Now she was almost there. She
  could see the small parking lot, and took note that Oz's van was there.
  Good, she thought. Maybe I can get Willow to ask her Mom to repair my
  shirt before MY Mom notices. At least I wore a black tank top underneath,
  she thought, so I don't have to wear a ripped shirt in the Bronze – that
  would just cause too many questions.

  It was when she passed the alley next to the club that her world
  really turned into a disaster. She thought she heard someone moan and
  immediately ducked into the alley to investigate. What she saw alarmed
  her. Willow was lying in an ungainly heap in the middle of the alley, a
  large and dark bruise beginning to form on her face. Oz was also out cold
  on the ground, breathing evenly, but with a gash on the side of his head
  that was bleeding. And near the back of the alley was Cordelia, slowly
  sitting up and shaking her head. Buffy hesitated, trying to decide who
  needed help most, and then rushed to Oz's side, stripping off her ripped
  shirt to use as a bandage and stop the flow of blood.

  "Cordelia, what happened?" she asked.

  Cordy noticed Buffy's presence. "Buffy?" The sound was muffled.

  Buffy saw the gag on Cordy's mouth for the first time and moved away
  from Oz long enough to remove it. "What happened? Where's Xander? Is he
  okay?" The questions tumbled out of Buffy's mouth one after the other.

  "I'm not sure. There was this woman vampire and she grabbed me
  inside. Then she dragged me out the back door to here and gave me to
  Angel. He had the nerve to gag me. Another vampire -- a guy -- came out
  here right after and they decided to knock me out. That's all I remember.."
  Cordelia was getting to her feet shakily.

  No real answers there, Buffy thought. "Willow and Oz are hurt. Go
  call an ambulance." Buffy ordered tersely.

  Cordelia snapped her mouth shut moved as quickly as she could to obey.
  Buffy glanced at Oz. He'd stopped bleeding. She moved over to Willow.
  Feeling gingerly around her head, Buffy felt a large goose-egg bump at the
  back of her skull. "Not good," she mumbled to herself. And Angel was
  involved. Maybe he'd taken Xander. Oh God! If he hurts Xander, I'll
  never forgive myself for not killing him when I had the chance.
  "Definitely not good," she repeated. "Willow," she cooed to the
  unconscious girl in her arms. "Wake up. Please?"

  Oz fought his way back to consciousness slowly, and through a haze
  thought he heard Buffy's voice. He tried to concentrate on it to find his
  way out of the darkness. Then his eyes focussed and he tried to sit up.

  Buffy was distracted from Willow by movement behind her. "Oz! You
  okay? What happened here? Where's Xander?"

  Oz recalled all the evening's events sluggishly, until the reality of
  what happened to Xander crashed down upon him. "Oh God," he whispered,
  seeing that Xander's body was missing. He then noticed that Buffy was
  cradling Willow in her arms. "Will!" he exclaimed, moving closer to them..
  "Is she okay?"

  "She's breathing." Buffy replied. "How long has she been out?"

  Oz glanced at his watch. "Maybe ten minutes."

  "Oz," Buffy said determinedly, grabbing his arm with her free hand to
  make sure she had his attention. "Does Angel have Xander?"

  Buffy's own eyes welled up with tears as she saw Oz fight for control
  of his emotions. He quickly lost the battle and his own eyes filled with
  tears as he relived the horror in his mind. "He.. uh…I think Angelus
  killed him. He was going to make him into a vampire, but then he just –
  drained him. Buffy, we tried to stop him. We really tried. But he was so
  strong and he was gonna kill Willow. Then he got a hold of Xander and
  Willow – " he broke off, unable to tell the slayer how Willow had wanted to
  trade her life for Xander's. "Angel must have him now."

  Buffy's eyes finally spilled over. "No," she whispered. "No, Xander
  can't be dead." If he's dead, it's my fault, she added silently in her
  mind. It's all my fault. It's my fault Angel turned. It's my fault I
  wasn't strong enough to stop him when I could. All the pain in my life…She
  looked down at Willow, she thought of Giles and corrected herself… All the
  pain in our lives – it's all my fault.

  Cordelia returned to the alley and bent down to look at Willow. Buffy
  was crying openly now, shaking and trying not to sob for fear of jostling
  Willow. "Buffy?" Cordelia asked hesitantly. She couldn't remember ever
  seeing the slayer cry like this in any of their situations. And then she
  seemed to realize that Xander wasn't there. "Oh no!" Cordelia cried,
  understanding dawning upon her. "Does Angel have him? Please Buffy, we've
  got to go save him. Oz can wait for the ambulance – " She stood up
  abruptly and was going to pull the slayer to her feet when Oz's soft voice
  stopped her in her tracks.

  "It's too late," he said simply.

  Cordelia stood still momentarily in disbelief. "But -- I love him,"
  she whispered quietly to herself. She loved him. As she finally admitted
  the fact to herself the feeling overwhelmed her. She'd been pretending up
  until now – pretending she could just walk away from Xander when she chose.

  Now, she didn't have the choice anymore. And she loved him. She began
  shaking as her legs gave out. Oz awkwardly caught her and lowered her to
  the ground, holding her trembling form as she cried. He looked at Buffy,
  an obvious wreck with tears running freely on either side of her face.
  The normally strong slayer was replaced by a young woman overwrought with
  anguish and guilt. Willow still showed no signs of consciousness. And
  Cordelia was scream-crying her grief. How could this happen? He thought.
  How could their world, albeit a dangerous and crazy world, be destroyed so
  utterly in a matter of moments?

  Then they heard the sound of an approaching siren.