I'm started to get a bit of a headache with this story. I just hope I won't rush the ending. This is the first part of setting that one up. I hope it works well.


Lilah had just dismissed the leader of their Special Operations Team to get ready to move out to Sunnydale as quickly as possible when Gavin marched into her office with a smug expression on his face. "I know something you don't," he told her.

"Angel and his Seer are in Sunnydale," replied Lilah coldly, causing the smug expression to vanish from Gavin's face. "See, you're not the only one with contacts."

"Considering the number of demons at that wedding disaster," commented Gavin commented absent-mindedly, and obviously angry.

"I already knew before," Lilah told him. Gavin looked at her in disbelief. "They were seen in the mall two days ago."

"Then why did you wait until now?"

Lilah smirked. "Because sending a Special Ops team to get them while they're at the Slayer's house, attending a wedding with numerous demon guests, is not really the most secure way of getting the baby, if he even had been at the wedding at all. Sometimes I seriously have to wonder how you ever managed to make it through law school."

Gavin groaned. "Whatever. What's your brilliant plan to get them right under the Slayer's nose without her noticing?"

"We create a diversion for her and then take the happy little Angel family."

"What kind of diversion?"

Lilah scoffed at him for even asking that question. "You really think I'd tell you? Now go, I've got work to do before driving up to Sunnydale," she ordered. As she watched the other lawyer leave she hoped that Sahjhan was going to keep his word and attack the Slayer and her vampire boytoy concurrently to their attack on Angel and Cordelia. The only thing they then would have to worry about were the two witches, which could prove to be a problem, but that was a bridge they'd have to cross when it came to it, Lilah decided.

Right now she had more important things to worry about, mainly the identity of the man with the deep voice that Gavin was secretly working with. The last thing she wanted was to attract too much attention while looking into the subject matter. She had spent the last two days wrecking her mind, trying to think up strategies on how to proceed – and had come up empty. The sole thing that she had managed to come up with involved Wesley's knowledge about daemons, which apparently went further than what the Council officially knew about them. She suspected that the man had talked to him and made him give this additional information on these creatures to her. Only problem was that Lilah had no idea why he would do that. It only confirmed what she had already suspected, and that was that this man definitely wasn't working for or with Wolfram & Hart. This knowledge only created more headaches though. If he wasn't working for the firm than why did Gavin take orders from him? And how did he seem to know stuff about daemons that not even the firm or the Council knew? Since she couldn't confront Gavin about him she had to somehow work through Wesley. But for that she needed the Watcher more under her control and watch with less possibility of other people gaining access to him without her knowledge. This man definitely did talk to him and might want to do so again in the future. She needed to know about future meetings, and she needed to question Wesley about the meeting that already happened without anybody finding out about. Her best chance was to have him put under house arrest in one of the apartments owned by the firm and her named his overseer. The information he had given her on daemons might have been enough to excuse his release into house arrest, but it did mean a lot of paperwork.

Since she didn't have any better ideas on how to proceed, Lilah requested the necessary forms and started to work on them as quickly as possible. In all honesty she was even looking forward to having Wesley under her thumb. His resilience had impressed her, she wasn't going to deny that. And he was a more pleasant conversation partner to trade sarcastic jabs with than Gavin. Lilah knew that she had to produce results afterwards to justify keeping Wesley under house arrest and not to put him back into his cell or to kill him, and that would prove to be the most difficult task. A small smile graced her lips as she started to wonder what the former Watcher might want that would make him talk. He was a man after all.


It was noon when Kate and Charles returned to the Hyperion with take-out bags in their hands. "We brought food," announced Gunn as they walked up the reception counter behind which his girlfriend sat at the moment, still working on Wolfram & Hart's system.

"Great, I'm starving," replied the Texan and immediately grabbed one of the bags. "What is it?"

"Chinese. I hope you don't mind," responded Kate.

Fred smiled. "Nope. As long as I get something to eat, I'm happy. Even though I would've preferred tacos."

"Again," asked Kate surprised.

"I told ye," commented Charles with a grin. "Did you find anything new?"

Fred shook her head. "I know where Wesley is, but I've got no idea how we might get him out of there. I mean this holding facility is nearly as well protected as a high security prison. We'd need seriously more manpower and muscle to pull this off."

Kate noted how depressed the Texan girl sounded. "We didn't find anything useful either," she told her. "Just another member of Holtz's group taking the fall for him. I swear the guy has informants within the Department, otherwise he would never know we or the cops are coming to his newest hideout all the time."

Fred groaned in response to this and slammed her food on the desk, surprising the other two. "How are we ever going to find a way to make it safe for Angel, Cordy and Connor to come back here like this?"

Neither one of the other two could respond to this question since they didn't have an answer. Since a week they had tried to hunt down Holtz through Kate's few remaining contacts within the Department and had always come up short. He had somehow always evaded them. They had managed to catch some members of his gang, but none of them were willing to talk to either them or the police. Officially Holtz was a suspect in the breaking and entering that happened at Cordelia's place, and with that also in her disappearance. The group of course knew that this was false but they couldn't really reveal the truth to the police.

"Any word from Lorne," asked Gunn.

Fred shook her head. "He's still trying to find the Groosalugg, I think."

"What is the deal with this Groosalugg anyway," Kate wanted to know.

"He's a half-demon, meaning half-demon and half-human, but he looks perfectly human. He's from the dimension Pylea, the same one that Lorne's from. Humans used to be hold as slaves, even being called cows...," Fred explained.

"What," interrupted Kate when she heard the last part.

"Hey, it's not like your folks treated mine that much better, okay," Gunn reminded her.

Kate rolled her eyes. "I never had any slaves. And only because white people did own slaves in the past doesn't make it right," the former cop argued back. "So this Groosalugg is a half-demon from a dimension in which humans are slaves. What does he have to do with this?"

"Okay, so I was trapped in Pylea for five years until these guys rescued me," said Fred. "They came to Plyea to rescue Cordy after she was taken there as well. She was of course supposed to be a normal slave until they discovered her to have the curse."

"The curse?"

"Visions, the second sight, whatever you wanna call it. Because of that she was made queen since there was a legend about a women suffering from the curse would bring back the monarchy. And the Groosalugg, according to the same legend, was supposed to mate with that woman. It would have led to him getting the visions while she'd have lost them. That's why Cordelia refused to mate with him even though she really liked him. And he liked her too. But then the monks that ran Pylea wanted to force her to mate with the Groosalugg, and sacrifice her. Ahm, at the same time the human rebels wanted to storm the castle, and to distract the guards, and especially the Groosalugg, whom Angel and the others thought was one of the bad guys, Angel challenged him to a fight of mortal combat. Angel nearly won, but he refused to kill the Groosalugg, who then continued to fight until Cordelia broke it up by declaring her love for him, ah, the Groosalugg I mean. After that Cordelia declared that all humans were to be set free and then she made the Groosalugg the new regent of Pylea before we left."

Kate was taken aback by this tale. "So she's together with Angel but in love with the Groosalugg?"

"No," replied Fred. "Ahm, I mean I've seen it before, and so had Lorne, but it took a long while for both Angel and especially Cordelia to admit their true feelings for one another."

"True feelings?"

"Love. They're totally in love with each other. In Pylea we have two words for what they've got, kye-rumption and moira. Put together they more or less mean soulmates."

"You believe Angel and Cordelia are soulmates?"

"Yes, I do."

Kate sighed. It wasn't that she didn't believe it, it was just that a small part of her had hoped for more than rekindling her friendship with Angel. She had been attracted to him at the beginning, even after finding out that he was a vampire she couldn't deny that. It was only after her father died that she had locked away her positive feelings for him until her own epiphany about her life and the supernatural, which of course included him. There had been moments within the last year in which she had thought about driving up to the Hyperion and ask him out for coffee just to talk to him. The idea for more than friendship had played into it, but now she knew that she had to bury it. Angel had seemingly found somebody to love and who loved him back, and that person was Cordelia. She hadn't really gotten to know the young woman Angel had been working with, but she had gotten the idea that she didn't like her. Maybe it had been because of her own feelings for Angel, Kate mused.

"But then why did she claim to love this Groosalugg?"

"Maybe because she did, or maybe because, I don't know, she loves both but she loves Angel more," guessed Fred.

"Nah, it's way easier than that. Barbie never thought she had a shot with Irish and hence saw this Groo guy as her Prince Charming. Only she then discovered that Angel did actually love her and that was enough for her to ditch the other guy," said Gunn.

"Why would she think...," asked Kate and both Gunn and Fred answered before she got the whole question out: "Buffy."

"Who's Buffy?"

"Angel's ex. He was totally and crazy in love with her. Took him years to get over her. Cordy never thought that he could love anyone like he loved her, let alone her since she ain't a blonde," explained Gunn.

Kate raised an eyebrow. "So Angel normally has a thing for blondes?"

"Used to anyway. Probably has something to do with this Darla chick that sired him," guessed Gunn.

Kate didn't say anything in return but silently had to agree. She had seen Darla. If it was true what she now knew about vampires and their connections to their sires, the fact that she had been a petite blonde probably played a huge reason for Angel to start dating a certain type of women. Kate knew that she kinda fell into the same category, even though she wasn't really that petite.

"So when Angel finally admitted how he felt for her, Cordy totally freaked out and ran away," continued Fred. "Angel was a complete mess after that. And then the Groosalugg showed up a few hours later, wanting to see Lorne. He told him that there had been an uprising in Pylea and that he had been dethroned to create a people's republic, and now he wanted to be with Cordelia. So Lorne called her back to the hotel, and I walked in when she and the Groosalugg were kissing just when suddeny Cordy jumped back, apologised and ran upstairs. Again, totally freaked out."

Kate was starting to get a very good feeling for what had happened next but didn't say anything to get Fred to continue and confirm her suspicions.

"He then asked me why his princess freaked out, and I tried to explain to him some things that had happened, like her becoming a half-demon, and Connor of course, or that she and Angel had gotten really close, without saying anything that might cause some trouble of course. And believe me that was really tough. Then Cordelia came back down and gave Groo the let down speech, more or less making it official that she and Angel were now together."

"More or less," asked Kate.

"The big coming out was the next morning when the two came downstairs holding hands and smiling like idiots," answered Gunn.

"But why did she even kiss the Groosalugg than?"

Fred shrugged. "I don't know. I only know that she said that she just knew it was wrong the moment she did."

Kate nodded in understanding. If Cordelia truly had realised that she belonged with Angel simply by kissing another man than there had to be a deeper connection between the two of them. "And Lorne believes that he's still in Los Angeles?"

"Apparently," answered Gunn. "Not that I've got a better idea, and I seriously doubt that he returned to Pylea, but I also doubt that the guy is that good at hidin'. And if you had seen him you'd agree with that."

Kate didn't say anything in response. She didn't know what to say. Before the silence in the lobby became too depressing Lorne walked in, apparently with great urgency. "Words out," he announced.

"About what," asked Gunn.

"Angelcakes and the Princess have been seen in Sunnydale. They apparently attended a wedding with lots of demons present."

"What," asked the three humans.

"The bride is supposed to be an ex-vengeance demon turned human. And to top it all off, the wedding was hosted by the Slayer herself."

"Slayer," asked Kate.

"Buffy," replied Gunn and Fred.

"The same Buffy as in Angel's ex-girlfriend Buffy?"

"That's the one," answered Fred. "She's the Vampire Slayer, the one girl in the world destined to fight the forces of darkness."

"So Angel, a vampire, dated the one girl in the world destined to kill him and his kind," asked Kate in disbelief.

"It's not like Angel is your everyday vampire," replied Gunn.

"Guess not," admitted Kate. "So, Angel and Cordelia are at her place. Where is it?"

"Sunnydale," the others answered in unison.

"Sunnydale? Moment, I've heard that one before. There was this girl, Faith, Angel had harboured her for awhile while she was on the run and I arrested him for aiding and abetting a fugitive," said Kate.

"Seriously," asked Gunn annoyed.

"What? She was wanted for murder. And she had tortured your friend Wesley. It wasn't like she was innocent and shouldn't have gone to jail."

"What happened," asked Fred.

"After I had arrested Angel and brought him to the station, she was already there, giving a statement and turning herself in."

"So you let Angel go," asked Fred.

"I did," answered Kate. "So what's up with this Sunnydale place?"

"It's a hellmouth," answered Lorne.

"A what?"

"A hellmouth, or better it's build on top of a hellmouth."

"Okay, what is a hellmouth?"

"An opening, a hole in the wall between dimensions that is permanent. It attracts all kinds of supernatural creatures. The hellmouth in Sunnydale is one of the most active in the world. One of the reasons for the big demon population in Los Angeles is our close proximity to it, and that it is easier to hide away in such a big city than a small town like Sunnydale. Cordelicious is actually from there, and our dear dark and broody leader also used to live there."

"Let me guess, they first met there," asked Kate and the others nodded in confirmation. "Why would they go there?"

"For protection," answered Fred.

"You knew they were there all along, didn't you," Kate suddenly asked the group, realising that none of the others were surprised by Lorne's information.

"Yes. I'm sorry we didn't tell you before strudel, but..."

"... you didn't trust me. I understand," said Kate, trying to hide away how hurt she felt. She understood that they hadn't told her on day one, but she had been of way more help than Gunn's old gang at this point and at least Fred seemed to like her, leading her to hope that the young Texan actually trusted her.

"But we trust you now, at least I do," said Fred suddenly, apparently sensing Kate's unease.

The former detective smiled. "Good to know. Now, why would they hide at this Buffy's place for protection?"

"Because she's the Slayer. You know that the monsters we fight are bogeymen for normal people," asked Lorne and Kate nodded. "Well, for them people like Angelus are their bogeyman and for those as bad and evil as Angelus, even those in service of the Senior Partners, the Slayer is the ultimate bogeyman, especially this one."

"Why's that?"

"Because she has killed a god," answered Lorne more seriously than any of the other three had ever seen him.

Kate was completely taken aback by the last statement. "A god? You mean a real god?"

Lorne nodded. "Oh yes. The hell goddess Glorificus was slain by her last year. Her killing two of the most powerful vampire kings of the last centuries with Lothos and the Master already gave her a bit of a nimbus of being undefeatable. Then she managed to defeat Angelus when he was accidentally released, and to top it all off, even his grandchilde Spike, known as the Slayer of Slayers, couldn't kill her. By now most vampires wouldn't dare to challenge her, and there's a growing number of demons, including the very powerful ones, that would rather avoid coming in contact with her."

Kate let out a whistle. "Sounds like a real-life superhero to me, even more so than Angel himself."

"Yeah, I'd so like to meet her," said Fred, sounding like a complete fangirl.

"She might be, but I what were they thinking simply appearing at this wedding gig like that," Gunn asked.

Kate bit her lip and thought about for a moment before coming to the most logical conclusion. "Because they wanted to be seen," she said.

"What? Seriously, that's stupid. They're there to hide, blonde."

Kate rolled her eyes. "And they did, didn't they? They probably have worked out some kind of plan or trap for Holtz and Wolfram & Hart, but for that they've to know where they are."

"So they shown their faces in public so that word would get out where they're," Fred realised. "Should we tell them it worked?"

"How? Barbie left her cell, and Angel barely ever charges his," replied Gunn.

Fred rolled her eyes. "We've got Buffy's home number," she explained and immediately went to fetch the address book to look for it. Once she had it, she dialled Buffy's number and put the phone on speaker, but they only got the answering machine. "What now," asked Fred disappointed after hanging up.

"Try to find the number of the Magic Box, Freddekins," suggested Lorne.

"The Magic Box," asked Kate as Fred did as she was told.

"Trust me," answered Lorne. "If I remember correctly that was the name of the shop Giles used to own."

"Giles?"

"Buffy's Watcher," replied Lorne.

"Watcher?" This inflow of new information was starting to overwhelm Kate.

"The Watcher's Council is an ancient organisation that has its headquarters in England since quite some time. The Watchers train potential Slayers once they're found, and remain by their side once they're called. Giles was, or is, Buffy's Watcher. Wesley used to be Faith's," explained Lorne.

"Faith is a Slayer," asked Kate surprised before remembering something that Fred had said. "Wait a minute, didn't you say there's only one Slayer in the world? How can there be two?"

"Because once a Slayer dies, a new one gets called. Buffy had died once. As I understand it she was technically dead for about a minute or so, but that was enough for a new Slayer to be activated," explained Lorne.

"And that was Faith," Kate realised. "So now there are two Slayers, and one of them is behind bars?"

"Yes," Lorne answered.

"But if Faith is as strong as this Buffy, why doesn't she just break out?"

Lorne shrugged. "I don't know her. I only know the few things Angel, Wesley and the Princess have told me about her, and according to them she really wants to pay for her past crimes."

Kate didn't comment on this and just hoped that he was right. She didn't know much about Slayers, but if the little bit she had learned from her research about vampires was correct, and if this Faith was only half as good as this Buffy, they'd have a real problem if she ever decided to not longer pay her debt to society.

They all remained silent until Fred had found the number of the Magic Box in Sunnydale online and had dialled the number. "You've reached The Magic Box. This is Anya Jenkins, the owner, do you want to buy something," answered a female voice, apparently belonging to woman named Anya.

"Ahm, no, this is..."

"Well then please don't call again," interrupted the female voice and hang up.

Fred looked at the phone, dumbfounded. "Should I call again," she asked.

"Do it, girl," Gunn encouraged her.

Fred redialled the number. "You've reached The...," began this Anya again but this time it was Fred who interrupted her, "... Magic Box. I know. I want to know if Buffy's there," asked Fred.

"Buffy? No. Who's this?"

"Ahm, my name is Fred, Fred Burkle. Winifried Burkle to be exact. I'm a friend of Angel and Cordelia."

"Hold a moment," replied Anya. After that they could only hear muffled voices before Cordelia's voice came through the aether. "Fred," she asked.

"Thank god, Cordy," replied Fred happily. "Good to hear your voice."

"Good to hear yours too. What's going on?"

"Lorne just told us that word's out on the street that you and Irish have been seen in Sunnydale. Won't be long until the lawyers and Holtz are going to come for you," replied Gunn.

"I'm on speaker, aren't I," asked Cordelia amused.

"Yes, and good greetings from me Cordelicious," answered Lorne.

"Good to hear you Lorne. Should I get Angel," she asked.

"Where is he," Fred asked back.

"In the back room with Connor."

"No, not necessary," replied Fred. "We just wanted to call you to tell you to watch your back, and to ask if you need any help."

"Thanks, and maybe. We're right now working out this Sahjhan issue, and once we're done with that we could probably need every fresh muscle we can get."

"It's good that we've got some reinforcement then," Fred answered.

"Reinforcement? Who?"

"Hello, Cordelia," said Kate, feeling a bit uncomfortable about this situation.

"Kate? Is that you," asked Cordelia.

"Yep. Your friend Lorne had asked me for help in looking for Holtz."

"Any luck?"

"Not so far. But I used my last contacts in the LAPD to more or less frame him for the breaking and entering of your apartment. Oh, and officially you're a missing person and a potentially kidnapping victim with him as the prime suspect."

"Doesn't sound too bad," replied Cordelia. "I better get back to work here, or otherwise Anya is going to throw me out."

"You work," asked Gunn surprised.

"You'd be surprise how much customer traffic a magic shop on top of a hellmouth attracts," countered Cordelia. "So, when are you coming here?"

"Two hours," replied Gunn.

"It's a two hour drive alone," Cordelia reminded him.

"Yeah, and I'll drive," argued Gunn.

"Whatever. I'll tell Angel that you're coming. See you later," said Cordelia and hung up.

Fred was the first one to announce that she was going to go pack her bag. Gunn nodded and followed her. "I think I better get home and get some of my stuff," Kate said to Lorne.

"I think that would be a good idea, honeydunkes," said Lorne in return with a smile on his face.

"Tell them not leave without me," added Kate as she was leaving the hotel.


Holtz was sitting in an abandoned factory and about to explode. They had barely escaped another raid by the police and Angelus's crew. They had somehow managed to frame him for kidnapping that Chase woman, and he had no idea how to circumvent that. It wasn't like he hadn't planned to kidnap her. Nor was it like he could easily go to the police without them checking him out and discovering that he legally didn't exist. To make matters worse some members of his crew had been caught. He did manage to make an ally within the unit that was working this case, and he had informed him that they all kept quiet. Which was a good thing, of course, but it was only a matter of time until somebody broke.

"Hey boss," shouted one of the young men he had recruited as he entered the factory. "I've just got word from some of my sources that the vamp and his broad have been seen in some town called Sunnydale."

"Sunnydale," asked Holtz interested.

"Yep, some dullsville up north. Apparently he and this gal of his used to live there before coming to L.A.," the young man reported.

Holtz stood up from the crate he had been using as a chair and started to pace, rubbing his chin while thinking about his next move. "Any idea what he had been doing there?"

"Attending a wedding or somethin' like that."

"A wedding?"

"Yeah. The bride used to be some kind of demon or something. There were a lot of demon guests because of that."

Holtz just nodded. The woman probably had been an old associate of Angelus, he guessed. "Anything else?"

"Yeah. The dude told me that going after the vamp there was insanity."

"Oh really," commented Holtz amused.

"Yeah. He said that this demon chick that got married is friends with the Slayer, and that this Angel guy and his girl were also friendly with her."

Holtz spat on the floor in disgust. "The Slayer? It's her duty to kill vampires, not to make friends with them," he cursed hotly. "I think I'll have to teach that girl a lesson about her sacred duty."

"Hey, what's the Slayer anyway?"

"A young woman, or girl, that has the strength of a vampire, destined to kill vampires and demons. In her case her Watcher must have done a terrible job teaching her how to fulfil that task," explained Holtz full of hatred both for Angelus and this Slayer that associated herself with scum like him.

"Oh, okay," was the response of the young man. "What are we gonna do now, boss?"

Holtz didn't answer immediately. Instead he continued to pace and to rub his chin, going through his options in his head. He now knew where the vampire was, and he'd definitely find the child there. The biggest problem was going to be that he had made friends with the Slayer. A Slayer could a powerful ally, Holtz knew that. He never had the fortune of meeting one before, and he disliked the idea that the one he was going to meet had apparently broken her oath to fight the forces of darkness and instead allied herself with them. Her protecting Angelus was going to be a problem. But maybe she could be reasoned with, Holtz hoped. And if not, it wasn't like Slayer's had a long life expectancy anyway.

But there were other problems Holtz was keenly aware of. Wolfram & Hart, and of course Sahjhan. His former demon ally had made it clear that he wanted the baby dead. That wasn't Holtz's plan though. He wanted to use the kid as a weapon. To take him from Angelus, leaving the vampire miserable, and then one day have the boy return to his biological father only to kill him once and for all. It would be the sweetest revenge in the history of revenge, mused Holtz to himself. As long as Sahjhan or these lawyers didn't get in his way that was. Sahjhan wanting Connor dead was one thing. If that were to happen, Holtz would have had to kill Angelus on his own. But the lawyers wanted Angelus to behave like the monster he truly was. They had no idea how really dangerous that was, Holtz was certain about that. That was an event that had to be avoided at all costs.

"Daniel," asked Justine, waking the vampire hunter out of his train of thought. "What are we going to do," she asked.

"We two are going to go to Sunnydale," he announced. "You," he turned to the young man that brought him the information, "I want you and the others to go out on the street, to get information about this Slayer and what these lawyers are up to. And get in contact with the group that this Gunn used to be a member of, try to feed them some false information about my movements to get him and his friends off our trail, understood?"

The young man nodded and immediately left.

"Are you sure the two of use will be enough," asked Justine concerned.

"The more we take with us, the harder it will be to escape. And as long as it's only us we'll have an easier time to sneak around town without getting caught. Once we've the baby the two of us will be on our own anyway," reasoned Holtz and then left to pack his weapons. He didn't really care that much about Justine, but every boy needed a mother and she was going to be Connor's once he had him. Suddenly he felt an evil, satisfied grin overwhelming his face. He could feel that this was it. He was finally going to enact the revenge he had been planning for all these years.