Grace crashed through the door to the Summer's apartment. Buffy and Spike jumped from the couch from a previously intimate moment.
"I thought you were patrolling?" Buffy questioned pulling her shirt down a little. Spike looked around the room acting like nothing had happened.
"I was, bird took the worm" she replied ignoring the fact she'd just cut into an 'alone moment' between the two "worm kicked birdies ass" she added proudly. Buffy then noticed what she'd dragged in behind her.
"Angel!" she exclaimed, her voice filled when emotion, Spike noticed the change in her voice and sat back down on the couch again.
"So you caught the mighty prancing poof, what do we do when the old boy wakes up hm?" he pointed out and they both fell silent. Willow stepped out from the guest room where she, Giles, Jenny Xander and Anya were staying until the streets were safe again. Besides Buffy didn't want to lose anyone to Angelus again.
"I know a spell," she murmured looking at the face of her lover's murderer, pushing away her own murderous feelings while she was at it. Before long they had Angelus trapped within a cage made entirely of fire, when he came to he frowned.
"Oh now this is just harsh" he spoke to himself when he tried to see past the flames he only saw Willow, who was frowning back at him.
"You're awake…" she noted, knowing the others were upstairs, she'd requested to be alone in the basement so she could talk to Angel.
"You look like you could use a hug," he laughed holding his hands out but keeping a safe distance from the fire "nice cage by the way" he said, trying to taunt her.
"Gee thanks. I made it special, vampires can't touch it, but I can" she said placing her hand in the flame to prove it.
"Gosh I feel very loved" he eyed her darkly; he could practically smell the darkness trying to overtake her.
"Well good, I was so hoping that after killing my girlfriend you'd be feeling good!" she snapped, he grinned as her eyes became black as night and her face seemed to pale.
"Oh no… I woke up the big bad witch" he chuckled as Willows rage caused the flames of the cage to grow larger and leaning very little room for Angelus to move
"Whoa, mamma left the stove on!" he remarked, catching the look of vengeance and bloodlust in her eyes.
"Shut up, swine!" she yelled using her sudden volt of power to lock the door, she did not want to be interrupted. Angel seemed to get that he was in danger; he just didn't seem to care.
"Good to see you can be evil too" he commented, holding in the laugh from Buffy trying to kick open a door that was being held shut by Willows power "by the way, since when were you dating girls" he tilted his head to the side like Angel wouldn't have known.
"Since when did you start killing my girls?" she retorted, the flames turned blue. He grinned so then the rumors of dark Willow were true after all he thought to himself. Then he noticed something wasn't quite right
"I thought you got black hair too?" he inquired; her expression was harder than stone and colder than ice.
"I'm not evil" she replied bluntly "I'm just pissed" she corrected him as the flames returned to their original orange colour.
"You do know this isn't the worst thing that's going to happen to you," he pointed out like he wasn't the bad guy in this situation.
"Yeah" she said, still maintaining her hold on the door "and its not as bad as some other things that have happened to me" she added, thinking back to her last moments with Tara "but you still killed Kennedy and the pain still hurts like hell" she hissed. She then turned to face the wall where the stood a single red bucket. She began chanting and Angel just watched in confusion.
"You killed her with your bare hands" Willow whispered, he voice was heavy with grief.
"That and an axe I stole from a shop downtown" he smirked "its not as fun with only your hands to work with" he spoke as if he were giving a lecture "I've been told weapons are more creative anyway" he laughed. Willow finished chanting, she floated half the contents she'd conjured from the bucket and let it float through the cage bars. The liquid fell onto his hands and started burning away at his flesh. Willow watched for about thirty seconds before using her magicks to put the holy water back into the bucket.
"Now your hands wont hurt anyone else," she growled, her eyes stared flashing back and forth between black and her usual hazel colour
"It'll heal" he assured her, his words had a double meaning that Willow seemed to overlook. She reverted back to normal Willow and then fell to her knees in exhaustion.
"Then I'll be there to…" she reached out for the stairs for something to support her "make sure…" she was breathing heavier as the seconds ticked by "that you don't" she collapsed and the door flew open, Buffy and Spike in the front followed by the rest of the scoobies, Jenny stuck to the back.
"Oh God, Willow!" Buffy screamed, she and Xander ran over to her body to check for signs of life.
"Houston, we have a pulse" he informed the group while holding tightly onto Willow's wrist. Buffy jumped to her feet, her fear completely overwritten by her brand new anger. Angel looked at her in amusement.
"Hello lover, what's got you down?" he asked looking at her approaching figure with a grin on his lips.
"How'd you do it this time?" she questioned falling into the role of bad-cop in a matter of seconds.
"Care to elaborate?" he asked, Buffy signaled for everyone to leave, they all left the room except for Spike.
"Spike, its okay I wont be long" she assured him. Spike shook his head
"I'm not leaving you alone with this ponce" he replied stubbornly
"Spike please" she smiled warmly, he waited for a moment before going upstairs and slamming the door.
"How'd you lose your soul Angel?" Buffy inquired angrily. Angel moved his eyes around as if searching for an answer.
"Don't know" he answered bluntly. Buffy rolled her eyes at him
"Drop the act" she warned him as she stepped closer to the cage. The flames were hardly there anymore but Angel kept his distance regardless.
"Really Buffy, I'm telling you the truth" he said putting on his most innocent face "but I do know one thing…" he lowered his voice to a whisper and motioned for her to come closer. Carefully she walked even closer to the cage, slipped her hand into her jean pocket. Angel closed the distance between them and leaned forward as if to whisper something in her ear. Without warning he lunged forward and pulled her towards him by her throat. He kept his arm just above the flames but tightly around Buffy's neck.
"Now, be a good girl and let me out of here" he demanded, his ash-like breath making her even more uncomfortable. With her back to him she knew that if she were to attack him she'd have to be quick and accurate. From her pocket she pulled out a mace bottle, which Dawn had suggested they fill with Holy Water as a quick weapon. She flicked her wrist and sprayed frantically until she heard his screams of pain. He let her go and she fell forward, thankful for the fresh air.
"I'm going to get your soul back" she promised while running up the stairs with her hand to her throat
"Yeah" he scoffed, remembering what had happened the last time the scoobies tried to do that "wont that be fun"
Hours passed and still no one dared to go down and check on Angel. Willow was still fast asleep, gaining her energy again and Jenny was distracting herself from the horror by reading cookbooks. When a knock sounded from the door everyone jumped in unison. Dawn ran to open it. She threw the door open and expected to see Faith, Robin and Grace but instead saw someone she hadn't thought would use the front door.
"Nick!" she jumped on him and pulled him into a cozy embrace
"Good to see you" his voice was pleasant and smooth. Dawn grinned then blushed when she realized everyone was watching her.
"Dawn, who's this?" Buffy's voice was thick with accusations and she saw no reason to trust him.
"Hi, I'm Nick, it's nice to meet you" he greeted with a kindly smile. Buffy glared him down. Dawn quickly jumped in before Buffy said something rude.
"We've been seeing each other, we're going out tonight" she explained
"What!" Buffy exclaimed, annoyed that Dawn hadn't told her about this before "Dawn this is so not the time!"
"Why not? It's my life!" she countered reverting back to her whiney voice from so long ago.
"No, you're staying here" Buffy commanded channeling her mother for the courage to say that. Giles watched proudly as Buffy stood up to Dawn. Dawn frowned, aware she was losing, then held onto Nicks arm
"You're not mom" she reminded her as she slammed the door. She then ran off with Nick then drove away quickly in his car. Buffy gaped at the door, then Anya decided to speak up.
"That was odd" she stated as the phone rang, Buffy stomped angrily to the phone. Xander wondered absently why Spike wasn't here to calm her down. While Buffy was on the phone Xander waited until everyone wasn't paying attention then slipped down to the basement. He had something he needed to say to Angelus.
"Hey killer" he greeted Angel as he descended the stairs. He knew exactly what to say and he'd wanted to say it since high school.
"Oh look, its Buffy's white knight, all dressed up with nowhere to go" Angel retorted with an age-old smirk playing on his lips.
"I've got some things to say to you pal" he pointed his finger at him "so shut up" he yelled forcefully.
"What a coincidence! I wanted to talk to you too!" Angel smiled as if talking to a friend he hadn't seen in years.
"Yeah, about what?" he growled back leaning against the brick wall.
"It must just eat you up inside that even though you two are so close, she still cares about me more than you" he said watching the flicker of sadness in Xander's eyes "I mean if it were you in this cage she wouldn't be half as worked up as she is over me" he finished and Xander just smiled and chuckled.
"You're surprisingly confident for someone trapped in a cage made of fire" he commented scornfully. Angel shrugged casually.
"Well, you know me" he replied with boredom in his tone.
"No actually I do" Xander said then as Angel raised an eyebrow at him in disbelief "You're a sick and twisted animal who doesn't give a rats ass about anyone else, and yeah Buffy has a problem with hurting you because her former boyfriend is in there somewhere, but you know what?" he asked, not expecting an answer "no one else up there has any problem with shoving a nice thick piece of wood through your sick and twisted heart" he finished then walked back upstairs when he heard Buffy calling out for him.
"Gee, I'm glad you feel comfortable enough to open up to me" Angel said sarcastically as Xander gave him his best death stare then went back upstairs.
"We need to leave now if we want any kind of head start on Darla" Buffy said after explaining what the seer had just told her.
"Can we all get a flight at this late notice?" Giles asked, then noticed Jenny's look of discomfort. She preferred being in the same house as Angel knowing he was trapped than going away and not knowing what was happening at all.
"I've got tickets for all of you, but Giles you and Ms… Jenny are staying here" Willow informed them, still slightly dizzy from her sudden use of magick.
"What? But against Darla you'll need all the help you can…" he stopped himself.
"Sorry Watcher, but three slayers should do the job" Faith said walking through the door with Robin and Grace "besides you're needed here anyway" she added then slammed the door.
"To keep Angelus in check?" Giles questioned but Buffy shook her head
"More like to keep Dawn in check" she corrected
"I'm on vampire-duty" Willow explained
"Well why do I have to look after Da…" he paused again "Ah well I guess this means we'll have some quality time then" he smiled, trying to hide the grimace.
"We'll be back in at least a week Giles" she reassured him. She knew Dawn could be a serious handful, especially now she was running off with that Nick guy. The door flew open again revealing Spike who was cleaning off a very sharp knife covered in blue demon goo.
"What do we know?" Buffy asked right away
"Slime demons are just as disgusting as they sound, and thanks pet I'm just fine" he added then held out a piece of paper "and we have news" Grace snatched the paper from him. Her eyes flew wide and she suddenly looked like she wanted to throw up.
"That's not a very claming expression, what's going on?" Anya asked taking in Grace's pale features. Xander leaned over Grace and took the paper so he could see what was going on too.
"Oh God…" he swallowed "we should hurry" he too looking sickly pale now
"We'll be too late anyway" Spike pointed out as Buffy impatiently took the paper then noticed it was the printed version of an Australian newspaper, and it was the front-page news.
"No way…" she whispered meeting Spikes look of horror with her own.
16 hours ago – Sydney. Australia
"Under the desk, now!" the red haired girl screamed as the younger brown haired girl crawled under a desk. An insane laugh came from the doorway that Darla stepped through wearing a white blood stained dress.
"And I thought this was going to be easy!" she cackled licking fresh blood from around her mouth. Suddenly a small army of newly made vampires stood behind her. The red haired girl looked conflicted as she rose up her favourite longbow and took aim
"Oh my, careful with that!" Darla laughed again
"Not another step!" the girl warned then released her first arrow, it pinned down and dusted three of the army of small vampires.
"Do you know what I love most about this place?" she questioned playing with the curtain chord.
"It's the view, you can see the bridge and everything!" she giggled and then shut the curtains as if that would make this killing a secret.
"Shh, its nap time kiddies" she warned with a deadly smile on lips. She morphed into a vampire face and lunged forward, directly for the red haired one.