From the front door, Willow followed the screams, ignoring the main hallway and heading right, to the small, unfurnished room where Angelus had stowed Giles.
"Took you long enough," Angelus said. "You've missed one of my favorite parts. The first couple of cuts," he added, holding up a short hunting knife, "really do tell you how someone will handle torture. Rupert here is the stoic type. It'll probably take days to break him." Smiling at Giles, he added, "I'm looking forward to it."
"We've got trouble," Willow told him. "Drusilla told Buffy where we are."
"Did she?" Willow stepped back at the unexpected joy in his voice. "Such a thoughtful Childe Dru is. Knowing I want to kill Buffy, Dru delivers her right to my doorstep." Tilting his head, Angelus looked Giles over. "You know, I've never counted how many cuts it takes to kill a human. Let's see how far we can get before Buffy shows up, shall we? One," he said, slicing through Giles' arm. As the blood soaked into the shirt, Angelus said, "This is why you get them naked first. It's so much more fun to watch blood running down bare skin."
"Shouldn't we prepare, for Buffy I mean?" Willow asked.
Angelus shrugged. "There's nothing to do that hasn't been done. Might as well have some fun while we're waiting. Two," he said, slicing across Giles' chest. "Ah, there's my boy," he added over Giles' screams.
He'd worked his way up to the seventeenth cut when Dru came rushing in. "It's all gone wrong. The Slayer is on her way. She ruins everything."
Giles grinned, a dark uptwisting of the lips, promising pain and death.
"Dru, honey," Angelus said. "It'll be a party, a little mayhem, a little death. Hell, seeing his Slayer's dead body might be what Rupert needs to send him over the edge enough to tell us how to awaken Acathala."
"No, no," Dru wailed.
"What have you Seen?" Angelus asked, suddenly serious.
"It doesn't go the way I planned," Dru said.
"Plans never do," Willow informed her.
"What goes wrong?" Angelus asked.
"The firmament falls away. So many of the puppets die, but for the rest it's worse. They stand alone."
"Dru, that's hardly helpful," Angelus said in a singsong chant.
As Dru backed against the wall, her eyes staring at nothing visible, Willow said, "I don't see why you keep her. It's not like the visions are useful."
Still staring off into space, Dru said, "She's the only one who can do it. The Chosen strikes at the root of the tree, sending it toppling down. Only the vixen who lies in wait, ready to attack, has a chance to survive."
Willow, who had frozen at Dru's words, bolted out the door.
"Dru," Angelus said. "What'd you do?"
Smiling at him, she replied, "Planted a few seeds."
Angelus glanced between Giles and the door, his eyes tracing Willow's path. Finally, pocketing the knife, he said, "Let's go watch the show."