Author's Note: I knew that the moment the Mayor found out the Doctor was in town, he'd send Faith after him. But for a while, my reaction was the same as Buffy's. I knew the Doctor would do something really smart, but I didn't know what. A lot of this scene is exactly a mirror of the conversation I had with myself when I was writing this scene. When I came up with the answer, I was like, "Oh, that's brilliant!"

Enjoy this, because I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to post the next chapter. I'm going to Randsburg.

Buffy raced down the hall, and almost ran into Angel.

"Why aren't you in the libr…?" she asked. Then she sighed. "No, don't tell me. You two got into a fight, and you stormed out."

Angel didn't answer.

"What happened?" asked Buffy.

"Faith."

"Did you stop her?"

"She was already crawling out the window by the time I arrived," said Angel. "The Doctor was already gone."

"And you didn't follow him?" Buffy cried.

"He used the window," said Angel. "If he'd wanted me to know he was leaving, he'd have used the door."

Buffy ran into the library, and looked around. Oh, this was just great. The Doctor had run off, with a plan, and left Buffy in the dark. The best way to find him was to figure out what his plan was, but aside from the fact that Buffy knew it would be incredibly clever, she didn't have a clue what it was.

Buffy glanced out the window, but of course, the Doctor and Faith were long gone.

"We have to find him before Faith kills him," said Buffy.

"Anyone else here confused about why Faith is trying to kill an unbeatable alien who happens to be on her side?" asked Xander.

Willow and Oz raised their hands. Wesley and Giles looked at one another, then raised their hands as well.

"I'm guessing that the Mayor found out there was someone around who could stop the Ascension, and didn't want to take any chances," said Buffy. "Listen. We have to find the Doctor. You all know what he looks like now, but if we're too late — if Faith actually kills him — we're looking for a skinny guy, a bit younger-looking, with floppy brown hair and green eyes. And you're not allowed to tell the Doctor I know that."

"What are you talking about?" asked Willow.

"Nothing! It shouldn't matter," said Buffy. "Because we're not going to let him die." She turned to Angel. "You. Sit this one out."

Angel stood his ground.

"If the Doctor regenerates, you turn to ash," said Buffy. "I'm not letting that happen."

"Then I'll find him before he regenerates," said Angel.

"You're not going!" Buffy insisted.

Angel stood his ground.

"Buffy, there's no use arguing," said Giles. "As we've seen earlier today, the Doctor is more than capable of taking care of himself — even faced with a Slayer."

"Only when he's actually trying to cause physical harm," Buffy muttered. She knew that most of the time, the Doctor didn't fight. He didn't like fighting.

"Our primary objective is to recapture him," said Wesley. "To do that, we must find some way to discover where he went."

"I have no idea where he could have gone," said Buffy.

"Maybe he went to your house?" Oz suggested.

"No," said Buffy. "He wouldn't. He's afraid of my mom."

"Hang on," said Xander. "Evil alien boy is afraid of Buffy's mom?"

"Well, maybe he went to a really populated place," said Willow. "Like the Bronze. There are a lot of spots to hide, there, and he can use the humans as shields."

"No," said Buffy. "He would never do that. He wouldn't risk letting anyone else get hurt."

"Buffy's mom?" continued Xander. "Buffy's not-even-remotely-scary likes-to-make-milk-and-cookies mom?"

"If he's trying to distract Faith, he'd go for the cemetery," said Giles. "There's no better place to distract a Slayer than the cemetery."

"There's no way a smart alien would go into vampire central," Willow said.

"He's not afraid of vampires," Buffy said. "But I don't think he'd risk letting any of them get hurt, either. He sort of has this weird obsession with wanting to save them."

"Once again," said Xander. "Not afraid of vampires, but afraid of Buffy's mom?"

"You don't think… he wouldn't go to the Mayor's office, would he?" asked Angel. "See the man in charge?"

"Yeah, if Faith wanted to kill him," said Willow, "he'd probably try to go over her head. Convince the top guy that he'd be a valuable asset. I mean, he does want to work for the Mayor."

And that was when Buffy had a startling revelation. "Except he doesn't," said Buffy. "He's not working for the Ascension. He's working against the Concurrence. And the one way to make sure he takes out the Concurrence is…" Buffy began to run, full pelt.

"Is what?" asked Willow, trying to keep up.

"Is for the Mayor to find out about it!" shouted Buffy. "He's leading Faith to the Concurrence!"

Buffy ran. Why hadn't she thought of this right away? It was an absolutely ingenious plan, with the one fallback of causing the Doctor extreme physical pain and quite possibly death. The Doctor would lead Faith to the Concurrence. The Concurrence, needing the knowledge inside the Doctor's head, wouldn't let Faith kill him. They'd rescue him from Faith, at which point Faith would either try to fight all the Concurrence at once, or would retreat and ask for backup. Either way, the Mayor would find out about the Concurrence, and come in with his armies and get rid of them. In the meantime, the Concurrence would continue to torture the Doctor. Still, in the Doctor's brain, that was not so much a problem as an advantage. If the Concurrence tortured and caged him, he'd have plenty of time to think of an escape plan before the Mayor could find him. And if the Mayor found him, and he didn't have a plan, then the Doctor would die.

Angel caught up with Buffy, and stopped her. "Buffy, you can't just run off. You need a plan."

Buffy hesitated, but Angel was right. She couldn't just run to the Concurrence, with Faith around. She turned back to Wesley, Giles, Willow, Oz, and Xander. "Okay," she said. "Giles, Willow, and Wesley. You three try to find some way to open the portal to the pocket dimension where the Concurrence meets. If I do wind up needing to go in, I'll need a way out again." She turned to Oz. "You're good with tracking scents. You can make sure we're heading in the right direction." She turned to Angel. "And you. If the Doctor starts to regenerate, you run for the hills. Got that?"

Angel nodded.

"Good," said Buffy. "Let's go."