Title: The Wolf Is Back
Author: Hanki
Feedback: Send all hate mail to hanki182@yahoo.com (seriously, please send me constructive feedback)
Rating: PG-13 (mild language and some violence)
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters yada yada yada, you know the deal
Distribution: feel free to post this anywhere just tell me first.
Setting: set sometime in season five but pre Tough Love, no specific season five events are mentioned so don't worry about spoilers...
The Wolf Is Back
Part One – Discoveries
Buffy, Willow and Tara crept through the silent graveyard. They were trying to be quiet so any nearby vamps wouldn't know they were coming. It had been a good plan when they thought of it, it had been working too... half an hour earlier.
Willow yawned loudly for the fifth time that evening, she was dead on her feet.
"Will, go home!" Buffy cried exasperated
"Maybe you should," Tara agreed, filled with concern she put her arm around her girlfriend to try and keep her upright.
"No I'm fine," Willow yawned again.
Buffy turned to Tara, "Take her home?"
Tara nodded, "Come on sweetie."
Willow gave up trying to protest, "'Bye Buffy."
"'Bye," Buffy watched Willow's head sunk onto Tara's shoulder as they left. She couldn't believe that a simple binding spell had taken so much out of her, in the grand scheme of witchy things to Willow it was like floating a pencil and getting a heart attack, but then again magic was pretty unpredictable so you never knew how a spell would effect you. This thought was pushed out of her head as she noticed something lurking behind a nearby Mausoleum. She ducked into the shadow of a large gravestone and watched the thing moving about. It's shape looked familiar to her but she didn't remember what it was until the clouds rolled back off a beautiful nearly full moon and the creature howled.
It was a werewolf.
As she crept closer she realised with shock that it looked remarkably like an old friend. She watched as it took off in the same direction as Willow and Tara. Buffy followed wondering if she knocked him out he'd be human again in the morning or if, like last the time, his transformation was due to emotional distress. If it was the latter she thought it would be better to keep him away from Willow. She picked up a loose stone and threw it at him, not hard enough to really hurt him; she just wanted to startle him.
It worked.
He spun around and growled at her.
Uh-oh, there was something different about him; he looked wilder than usual, if that was possible. Buffy suddenly noticed was different, his eyes held a spark of intelligence... they were Oz's eyes it wasn't just the wolf anymore.
It was a pissed off Oz in a wolf's body.
He seemed to recognise her and took off in the opposite direction.
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Giles glanced at the clock on the table in front of him. Nearly midnight. He removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes. He had been researching a demon they had run into the night before and he was utterly worn out. He put his glasses back on and jumped, Buffy was standing about a foot in front of him.
"I thought I had that locked," Giles said glaring at her.
"You did," Buffy agreed.
Giles just stared at her waiting for an explanation.
She sighed and uttered a single work, "Spike."
Muttering about bad influences he got up and locked the door again.
"I saw something weird earlier," Buffy informed him as she sank into a nearby chair.
"Doesn't that happen every night?" Giles asked returning to his book strewn table and current dusty volume.
"What's special about tonight?" Buffy asked him.
Giles sighed, "That's what you're supposed to be telling me," he didn't even look up from his book.
"It's a full moon."
"Yes, they have those every month," Giles replied as if he was talking to a small child.
"Giles, I saw a werewolf," that got his attention she noted as he glanced up.
"It looked like Oz."
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Revenge.
It was all that kept him going these days.
Revenge on the witch bitch that had stolen his Willow and put a spell on his Willow to make her love Tara instead of him.
Oz sat in the bushes; Tara passed by deep in thought not a foot away from him. Oz could almost reach out and touch her.
Not yet, he told himself, not yet.
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Tara was running late, she had to call Willow before she started worrying; Tara smiled to herself as she thought about how cute her girlfriend looked when she worried. She snapped out of her thoughts and crossed the street to a pay phone. She fished around in her pocket for a quarter and eventually found one. She dropped it into the phone and punched in Willow's number. After a few minutes she got the answer phone.
"Hi! This is Will, I'm not here right now so please leave a message and I'll get back to you."
Tara put the phone down.
Maybe she went to meet me, Tara had been in a study group that Willow had persuaded her to join. Apparently to help her get over her shyness she had to go and sit in a room with a bunch of strangers for almost two hours a week. Tara didn't mind really it had helped her a little so she wasn't complaining... well not to Willow anyway.
Tara turned and headed back towards The Espresso Pump where the rest of her group were.
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Oz watched her pass in front of him again, but that was all he did.
He was biding his time.
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"Oz?!" Giles looked shocked, "Are you sure?"
"It was him Giles, remember all the night watches we did? I'd recognise him anywhere!" Buffy paused as she if she wanted to say something else.
"Is there... something else you want to tell me?" Giles prodded gently.
"What do I tell Will? Remember what happened last time?" Buffy said pointedly referring to the time when Oz had gone wild after he found out Willow and Tara were more than friends, "A-and he-he... in his eyes... it was Oz's eyes..." Buffy broke off not sure is she was explaining herself properly.
"What do you mean?" Giles asked sounding incredibly confused.
"The wolf had Oz's eyes. He isn't just a wild dog anymore... Oz is in control," Buffy said remembering the spark of intelligence and recognition in his eyes, "We'll have to tell Willow something," she continued, "I wonder why he's here?"
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As the sun rose the next morning Oz felt his werewolf side trying to bury itself deep inside him. He didn't want it to go, things were easier when he was the wolf, his thoughts were less complex. When he was human he had to deal with all he had done in the past six months.
He remembered leaving Willow after he found out about her new... friend and he remembered how it had eaten away at him for the next month or so until he couldn't stand to think about it and his thoughts turned to ways of getting rid of her so he could get back with his Willow. It turned into an obsession and pretty soon it was all he thought about he had spent months working on a way to finally control his wolf and he had found it in a little Italian village. He had managed to get back to Sunnydale and tonight was the full moon when his powers were strongest, nothing could stop him.
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"Ugh, it's too early in the morning," Willow complained as she awoke to the sound of the phone ringing.
Tara sat up next to her and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
Willow picked the phone up from her bedside table, "Hello?"
"Hey, it's Buffy I didn't wake you did I?"
"No, of course not," Willow lied quickly.
Tara mimed a quick 'who is it?' to which Willow mouthed back 'Buffy.' Tara sighed and sank back down into the bed, Willow knew what she was thinking and it was true Buffy did live in her own time zone.
"What's up?" Willow said into the phone.
"I kinda, sorta ran into someone last night."
"Who?" Willow asked, genuinely interested despite it being so early and she being so tired.
Buffy was silent on the other end.
"Inquiring minds wanna know!"
"Oz," Buffy said quietly.
Willow thought she had misheard for a moment but realised she hadn't, she sat there stunned and silent.
"Will?"
Willow had a lump in her throat as she spoke his name; she was surprised he still had the power to do that, "Oz?"
Tara froze when she heard the name. He was back again? She hoped it wouldn't be like the last time.
Willow was quiet for a long time while Buffy explained the events of the night before, "What do you think he wants?" she asked finally.
"I don't know but I'm gonna have to go, Dawn wants to use the phone, we're assembling at The Magic Box later might be helpful if you were there," with that she hung up.
"Oz is b-back?" Tara asked her old stutter returning as she spoke the words.
Willow just nodded distantly she didn't know if she was happy about that or not.
"H-has Buffy spoken to him?" Tara asked wondering if they knew what he wanted.
"Not as such no," Willow replied, meeting Tara's confused gaze she quickly filled her in.
"He was following us?"
"Buffy says so," Willow replied.
"He still wants you," Tara realised suddenly, there was an unspoken question in that statement: do you want him?
Willow caught it, "I love you and yes I do love him but it's not the same now, I found you and I'm never gonna lose you," Willow said taking Tara's hands in hers and looking into her eyes willing her to believe.
Tara did her cute little half smile thing and Willow grinned at her, "Come on, we gotta get to The Magic Box everyone else will be there," Willow climbed out of bed and rooted around in her wardrobe for something to wear.
[This message has been edited by Hanki (edited September 16, 2001).]