Giles had called the parents of Amber's students one by one and told each one a believable lie as to why his or her child had disappeared for a short time. After all the parents were called and were calmed down, Giles called for multiple cabs in order for Sheila and Amber's students to get home.
At the gallery, everything was the same as when Sam had left it with the four unconscious police officers inside.
After Xander parked the van near the squad cars, Buffy and the others quickly got out. Sam immediately looked around before saying, "Things looked like how we had left them."
Jocelyn reached out her mind as she did before, before saying, "The three men and the woman are still the only ones here and they are still unconscious."
"Those four were police officers," Sam pointed out.
"And how do you know that since you are out here?" Buffy asked Jocelyn.
"One of the abilities that I developed over the years is reaching out my mind and sensing people's presence," Jocelyn said. "I can't sense emotions though like Valerie though."
"How far can you reach out your mind?" Valerie asked.
"Three times the distance of that building," Jocelyn said while meaning the art gallery.
"Wow," Valerie said. "That's further than I can sense people. Did you develop that ability from an incantation?"
"Val!" Buffy interrupted while grabbing Valerie's attention. "Mission now, shop-talk later."
"Right," Valerie said as Jocelyn gave Buffy a confused look. "So what's first?"
"You said just as we were arriving that you can distinguish Diego's victims from the actual paintings," Buffy began. When Valerie nodded Buffy turned towards Jocelyn. "If we gather Diego's victims can you release them?"
"I can," Jocelyn said.
"Okay, here's the plan," Buffy began. "Kennedy, Amber, Wendy and Carrie; you four take the crossbows and go up on the roof as lookouts. I don't what Diego sneaking up on us while the rest of us are inside rescuing his victims."
"Let's move," Kennedy told the other three.
As Kennedy, Amber, Wendy and Carrie went to get the crossbows from the van, Buffy told the others, "Let's go free Diego's victims."
"I need the magic supplies," Jocelyn said. When Buffy nodded Jocelyn turned towards the van. Jocelyn then had to wait until Kennedy's group had moved on with their crossbows before she was able to get out the magic supplies.
Within a short time, Buffy, Xander, Sam, Valerie and Jocelyn were going through the art gallery. Once they were in the back room, the two unconscious police officers near the office were immediately disarmed of their guns and nightsticks, just in case they would wake up. They were then dragged to a location that was out of the way. Sam and Xander then went downstairs while Valerie went through the room and pointed out Diego's victims to Buffy and Jocelyn.
The two unconscious officers in the basement were immediately disarmed as well and were also dragged to a location that was out of the way. Sam and Xander then began carrying the paintings from the basements to the upstairs.
Outside, a few minutes later, Kennedy, Amber, Wendy and Carrie watched as a car pulled up and parked near the van.
Kennedy immediately took out her cell phone and dialed Xander's phone. Kennedy then saw that it was Booth in the car just before Xander answered the phone with, "What's happening, Kennedy?"
"You might want to tell Buffy that Booth is here," Kennedy said.
"Will do," Xander said before hanging up.
As Booth was cautiously approaching the back door, Buffy pulled the door open. Booth stopped in his tracks and when he saw Buffy, he demanded to know, "What's going on here? And in what condition are those officers?"
"The officers are mystically asleep and fine," Buffy said as she and Booth stood at the back door. "As far as your first question…"
"Stop!" Booth uttered. "The officers are mystically asleep?"
"And fine," Buffy added.
"Yeah, well, explain more about them being mystically asleep," Booth said.
"Well, them being mystically put to sleep was Jocelyn Jewel's doing and it was done about an hour ago; so I actually had nothing to do with it," Buffy said.
"And who's Jocelyn Jewel?" Booth asked.
"She's a powerful and an immortal witch who was imprisoned by Diego in 1895 when Diego had magically turned her into a painting," Buffy began. Booth gave Buffy a disturbing look. "She stopped aging at the age of nineteen and she was born in the year 1634 in Northern Ireland."
"You're kidding, right?" Booth questioned in a hopeful tone.
"I'm serious, Booth," Buffy said. "Sam released her just before she told the officers to go to sleep. And there are others in there who were also turned into paintings and that's why we are here now; to release them."
"Diego turned people into paintings?" Booth questioned in a skeptical tone. Buffy just nodded. "And Diego is what kind of demon?"
"The human variety," Buffy said.
"Humans don't turn people into paintings," Booth said.
"Not without help anyway," Buffy said.
"Help?" Booth questioned. "What kind of help?"
"Magical props… usually," Buffy simply said.
"As in a magical wand?" Booth asked.
"Well, it actually doesn't have to be a wand," Buffy said. "A powerful witch or warlock could mystically empower any object of his or her choosing, and in this case it happens to be Diego's paintbrush. Luckily for us though, Jocelyn is the witch who mystically empowered it, so she's able to free Diego's victims."
"So Jocelyn was once helping Diego?" Booth questioned.
"Not willingly," Buffy said. "She was tortured into doing so."
"Okay," Booth said. "I think I got all the information that I can digest for one night."
Buffy grinned before saying, "Since there are no other police officers driving up, I'm guessing that you were able to keep them away."
"Actually, all the available officers are preoccupied at a severe accident scene on the interstate," Booth said.
"An accident scene has all the officers tied up?" Buffy questioned as Xander stepped up to the two.
"It does when it involves a foreign leader, his diplomats and three United States senators," Booth said. "Now the accident could be just that, an accident, but the D.C Police Department and the FBI are treating it as something more."
"So why aren't you there?" Buffy asked.
"My area is more in missing people and homicide," Booth said. "Which means that I'm very interested in Diego's victims."
"And speaking of Diego's victims, Jocelyn is ready to free them," Xander said.
"Let's go find out if any of them is on my missing person's list," Booth said. Buffy grinned and nodded before she, Xander and Booth walked inside to join the others.
Jocelyn was lighting the eleventh candle that formed the twelve-candle circle around the paintings when Buffy, Xander and Booth were stepping up to Sam and Valerie.
After Jocelyn lit the final one, she turned towards the group. She was about to speak, but stopped when she saw Booth.
As Jocelyn stared curiously at Booth, he asked, "Is there a problem?"
"Oh, uh, this is Seeley Booth, Jocelyn," Buffy said. "Not Angel."
"I can sense that he's not Angel… or a vampire," Jocelyn said. "You're a distant relative of his."
Booth took what Jocelyn had said as a question and answered with, "I don't believe so."
"I wasn't making an inquiry, Seeley Booth" Jocelyn said.
"Angel or Angelus killed his entire family after he was sired," Buffy said.
"He killed the family that he knew about," Jocelyn said. "One of the things that the Master had me do was to locate Angel's or Liam's surviving relatives. Liam's father had an estrange uncle and cousins who had lived in London England during the time that Liam was sired. Seeley Booth is a descendent from one of Liam's cousins."
"I definitely have to meet this vampire with a soul," Booth said. "Especially now."
"How can you be so certain that Booth is related to Angel?" Sam asked.
"I mystically marked Liam's surviving relatives and I can sense that mark in Booth," Jocelyn said.
"You mystically marked my ancestors?" Booth questioned in a tone as if he was just simply digesting the information. "Why?"
"The Master asked me to do that for several of his minions' relatives," Jocelyn said. "I didn't ask why nor did I care to know at the time."
"Should I be concern about this mystical mark?" Booth asked in a concerned tone.
"That mark just makes it to where I can locate your relatives throughout the world at any given time," Jocelyn said.
"Can you remove that mystical mark?" Booth asked.
"I cannot," Jocelyn said.
"You mystically marked me, but…" Booth was only able to get out.
"I mystically marked your ancestor," Jocelyn corrected. "When that mark got passed down to the first offspring it had become a permanent attribute of your family's line."
"Most people pass down their eye color to their children, but with your family, Booth, you and your relatives are passing down a mystical GPS tracking," Xander said.
Jocelyn gave Xander a curious look as Booth sarcastically said, "Great."
"What is GPS?" Jocelyn asked.
"GPS stands for Global Positioning System," Xander said as he held up his phone. "Not all, but a lot of these cell phones have built-in GPS. Police and other branches of authority can locate anyone they want as long as the person is carrying a phone with a GPS."
When Jocelyn politely grinned and nodded to acknowledge what was said, Buffy told her, "We need to get back on the mission… before Diego makes an appearance."
"Right," Jocelyn said before she turned towards the fifty-one paintings that were in the circle. Jocelyn stepped up to the outside of the circle and again recited the eight-line incantation.
Again, once the incantation was done, the candles blew out and the images on the fifty-one paintings separated from the canvas while breaking up into millions of swirling pieces. Within seconds the swirling pieces reassembled into their respective individuals. Booth watched the event in an Awe.
Once they were all whole again, they vigorously looked around at their surroundings and grumbled.
Diego and the two men were two blocks away from the art gallery when Diego felt extremely light headed.
The driver, while looking through his rearview mirror, saw Diego as Diego momentarily acted as if he was going to pass out.
The driver was about to question Diego's wellbeing, but before he had a chance to do so, Diego uttered, "That's not possible."
"What's not possible?" the driver asked as he was slowing down for a flashing red light.
"Don't stop!" Diego ordered. "In fact, step on it!"
"Yes, Sir," the driver said as he accelerated
At the art gallery, Booth held up his FBI badge for the former victims to see while uttering, "Can I have everyone's attention!?" Everyone became silent and turned towards him. Sam had recognized three of them as being demon hunters and was making his way towards them. "I'm Special Agent Seeley Booth of the FBI." Booth paused for only a brief moment to come up with a believable excuse. "You each had been drugged and were being held within this facility against you will." Officer Jones and Officer Callahan had awakened and were making their way up the steps. "I do recognize a few of you from a missing person's report, but until I can identify all of you, all of you will have to remain calm, patient and in this room."
"Holy shit!" Officer Callahan uttered while staring at the crowd.
As everyone turned towards the officers, Officer Jones said, "We're going to need back up."
Booth stepped up to the officers and as he flashed his badge, he said while he looked at their nametags, "I'm Special Agent Seeley Booth, Officer Jones and Officer Callahan."
"What's going on here, Special Agent Booth?" Officer Callahan asked as she looked over the crowd.
Booth thought for a moment before saying, "That might be a little hard to explain, but every person before you had been abducted and was being held against his or her will by Diego."
"Diego's abducting people?" Officer Jones questioned.
"He has been," Booth said. "And now I'm going to need your help figuring out who is who."
"Okay, Special Agent Booth," Officer Jones said as Officer Callahan was noticing that her and Officer Jones' pistols were nowhere to be seen. "What do you want us to do?"
"Where are our weapons?" Officer Callahan questioned.
As Booth was answering Jones and Callahan, Kennedy was telling Xander over the phone, "Diego and two of his goons had pulled up out back."
As Xander was putting his phone away, he uttered out, "Buff, show time. Diego's out back."
Outside, once Diego and the other two men were out of the car, they were able to hear the activity of the large crowd within the gallery.
When Diego reached within his jacket, Kennedy took aim with her crossbow. When Diego pulled out his paintbrush, Kennedy fired her crossbow.
Diego saw the bolt coming just before it went through his wrist of the hand that held the paintbrush. He lost grip of the paintbrush and uttered out in pain as he recoiled from being shot.
As the paintbrush was dropping to the ground, Wendy told Kennedy, "Nice shot."
"Thanks," Kennedy said with a satisfying grin on her face.
Once the two men with Diego realized the situation, they quickly drew their guns.
As the two were swinging towards the rooftop with their guns, Amber and Carrie fired their crossbows. Amber's bolt hit the first man just below the elbow of the hand that held the gun. The man recoiled, but held on to the gun.
Carrie was aiming at the second man and her bolt missed completely. Wendy was aiming her crossbow at the second man when the second man shot off a round in haste in their direction. When the bullet impacted the roof near Wendy, Wendy flinched at the moment she fired her crossbow. The second man saw the bolt coming and couldn't get out of its way in time before the bolt when through his ribcage while barely missing a major organ.
"Son of a bitch!" the second man uttered as he recoiled from being hit. Like the first man, the second man held on to his gun.
The first man was recovering his composure of being shot when Buffy, Valerie and Jocelyn were stepping out to join the fight.
Once the first man saw Buffy's group coming out, he swung his gun around towards them; however, before he was able to get a shot off Jocelyn waved her hand while saying, "Sleep." The first man fell unconscious to the ground.
When Diego saw the situation of Jocelyn being released, he couldn't help but to utter fearfully, "Oh, shit!"
Booth had heard the gun shot and as he was coming out with his gun in the ready position, the second man was re-aiming his gun at Buffy's group.
Jocelyn spotted the second man just as Booth uttered out while aiming his gun at the man, "Drop your gun! FBI!"
The second man immediately dropped his gun, while uttering, "Don't shoot. And I would put my hands up, but I have an arrow sticking out of me."
"Just keep your hands where I can see them," Booth ordered as he continued to aim his gun at the man.
Jocelyn was now focusing on the paintbrush on the ground and rattled off an incantation. Immediately the paintbrush boiled away into a melted glob where it had laid.
Once the paintbrush was destroyed, Jocelyn faced Diego while saying, "Now to boil your insides."
"Stop, Jocelyn!" Buffy ordered.
"I'll stop when Diego's stomach splits open from me cooking him!" Jocelyn hissed.
Buffy got in front of Jocelyn before saying, "You convinced me that you want to be a better person, but killing him isn't the way."
"He should be punished!" Jocelyn hissed.
"He will be punished, Jocelyn," Booth was the one to say. "I doubt that I'll be able to get him on murder, but he is looking at more than fifty counts of kidnapping charges. That alone will get him life in prison."
"Listen to Booth, Jocelyn," Buffy said.
"Being imprisoned isn't enough justice for him!" Jocelyn hissed. "He should die."
"Killing him isn't justice; it's revenge and revenge is never good," Buffy shot back. "And if you calm down and think about it, even you would realize it."
"He captured you too," Jocelyn pointed out.
"Yeah," Buffy confusingly uttered. "What's your point?"
"He captured you too and you don't want to hurt him?" Jocelyn asked.
"Hurting him and killing him are two very difference things," Buffy pointed out.
"And yet you don't do either one," Jocelyn said.
Buffy gave Jocelyn a grin before backing up towards Diego and saying, "The night's not over yet."
Jocelyn gave Buffy a confused look before Buffy turned towards Diego. As Buffy stepped up to him, he asked, "Is this the part where you warn me or tell me that I'm lucky that you didn't let her kill me?"
"No," Buffy calmly said. "This is the part where I break your face with my fist." Jocelyn was slightly shocked and amazed when Buffy sent Diego flying back ten feet into the air with a single punch to the nose. Buffy immediately turned towards the second man with a serious expression across her face and demanded to know, "Where are my two friends?"
In spite of the pain that the man felt for abrupt movements, he quickly pointed towards the trunk of the car before rattling off fearfully, "They're… they're in there. Diego turned them." He then flinched from the pain that he had caused to himself.
As Buffy went to open the trunk, Kennedy and her group were climbing down from the roof.
The four officers had retrieved their pistols and nightsticks from Xander and Sam, and they had stepped outside in time to witness Diego being hit by Buffy. When Officer Callahan saw as to how far Buffy had sent him flying, she uttered, "Ooh! Wow!"
Booth turned towards the officers. He then stepped up to them before saying, "We're going to need a couple of ambulances. Oh and those three men are under arrest. I'll file the charges within twenty-four hours."
"Yes, Agent Booth," Officer Jones said followed by the other officers.
"I'll call for the ambulances," Officer Brown said before getting on his radio.
As officer Jones and Officer Larkin went to arrest Diego and the other two, Officer Callahan stepped up to Booth before uttering, "Special Agent Booth?"
"Yes, Officer Callahan?" Booth asked.
"Some of the young people inside claim to have been born before the 1930's," Officer Callahan said as Buffy was stepping up.
"You orders were to take their statement, Officer Callahan, not to evaluate what they say," Booth said.
"Yes, Special Agent Booth; I just thought that you should know," Officer Callahan said. When Booth just nodded Officer Callahan turned towards Buffy. "You wouldn't be bionic, would you?" Buffy shook her head with a slight grin. "I'm so jealous."
Buffy continued to grin as Officer Callahan walked away. Buffy then turned towards Booth before saying, "Capt. Matuzek and his crew have more experience at easing time-displaced people from the past to the present."
Booth nodded before saying, "Call one of them."
"I don't have my phone… in fact, with everything that had happened I'm not sure where it is at," Buffy began. Booth just grinned. "So, I'll get Xander to call." After Booth nodded, he and Buffy went their respective ways. Buffy was about to step passed Valerie when she saw that Valerie was concentrating on a thought with a troubled expression across her face. "Val?"
Buffy saw that Valerie was slightly startled before she faced Buffy while asking, "Yeah?" When Buffy gave her an inquisitive look she gave Buffy a confused look. "What?"
"You look troubled," Buffy began. "Is there anything wrong?"
"Oh, uh, I was just thinking about the last thing that you said to me this morning," Valerie said.
"Which was?" Buffy asked.
"Your warning about me stepping into ambush under false pretense," Valerie said. "I totally stepped into one."
Buffy grinned before saying, "Yeah, well, I let Diego into my home. So don't beat yourself up over it. Because no matter how ready you are or how hard you prepare, there will always be days like these."
"And I don't find any comfort in those words," Valerie said.
Buffy continued to grin while saying, "It wasn't meant to comfort you… or to scare you. It's the truth; however, we do have a great team and great allies, so I do believe that we can weather days like these with high success. So again, don't beat yourself up over what happened today." When Valerie nodded with a slight grin, Buffy continued towards Xander.
Within seven minutes three other police officers and two ambulances pulled up. Diego and the two men were immediately treated; however, because of their type of wounds they required further treatment at a nearby hospital. The three were then placed in the ambulances in handcuffs and were being accompanied by the police officers. As the drivers of the ambulances were driving away, the TimeCops, Jack Logan and Marc Koebbe drove up.
Once Jack and Marc were filled in on the situation, Buffy and her group left the scene, except for Sam. Sam stayed behind with the five demon hunters who were there in order to help ease their transition into the present.
Mat and Nash were still at the house when Buffy's group returned home; however, instead of Buffy and the others entering the house, they went to the backyard with the painting of Cat and Nichole.
Once in the backyard Jocelyn began the ritual to free Cat and Nichole. Everyone in the house came out to watch.
Giles stepped up to Buffy and said, "I see you had another successful mission."
"It was," Buffy agreed as she watched Jocelyn work.
"And Diego?" Giles asked as he also watched Jocelyn.
"He's no longer a threat and is on his way to prison on charges of abducting people," Buffy answered. "I'm sure Cosgrove won't be please as the results."
Giles grinned while saying, "Yes; I imagine he won't be."
Valerie was standing the closest to Jocelyn while focusing on Jocelyn's every move. Carrie was standing slightly behind Valerie and watched as Mat and Nash stepped up to Valerie.
When Valerie glanced at Mat and Nash, Nash said, "So I hear from Giles that last Halloween you had created a black hole at mom and dad's old house."
Valerie gave Nash a smile before saying, "It was just a small one… of course it was doubling in size each month."
"Whoa!" Carrie uttered louder than what she should have as she stepped closer to Valerie. "You caused a black hole!"
Valerie gave Carrie an annoyed looked before sarcastically saying, "A little louder, Carrie. I don't think the neighbors had heard you."
"Sorry," Carrie said as Jocelyn was trying to hear their conversation. "But you caused a black hole?"
"I did, but it was by accident," Valerie said. "I did the spell wrong."
"So what were you trying to do?" Carrie asked.
"I summoned my nightmare demon and after I summoned it, I attempted another spell that would make it move in slow motion so I can kill it easier," Valerie began. "However, the spell that I cast caused time to move slower within the room that I was in instead. And with each passing month, time within that room fell further and further out of sync with the rest of the world, thus creating a very small black hole that was forever increasing in size."
"How did you stop it," Carrie asked.
"I didn't…" Valerie said.
"It's still out there and growing?!" Carrie quickly interrupted with.
"No-oo," Valerie slowly said. "Willow and Dawn corrected it and saved me from being killed by the demon."
"Phew," Carrie said. Valerie just grinned.
Jocelyn stepped up to the four before saying, "I'm ready to recite the incantation, so you four need to be quiet now."
"Of course," the four said.
Jocelyn turned towards the paintings and recited the incantation. Again once the incantation was done, the candles blew out and the images on the painting of Cat and Nichole separated from the canvas while breaking up into millions of swirling pieces. Within seconds the swirling pieces reassembled into their respective individuals.
Later, at the police station, Cosgrove stepped into a room where Diego was waiting.
When Diego saw Cosgrove, he asked, "How soon can you get me out?"
"No time soon," Cosgrove said as he took a seat across from him.
"What do you mean?" Diego asked.
"Your arraignment will be tomorrow and if you plea innocent, the bail amount and trial date will be set," Cosgrove said.
"Of course I'll plea innocent," Diego said. "As far as paying the bail, I have money."
"You're looking at more than fifty counts of kidnapping," Cosgrove said. "So your bail is going to be high… possibly higher than what you can come up with."
"I have connections," Diego said.
"I'm sure," Cosgrove said. "Anyway, were all of your captives released?"
"Your slayers are free and out there," Diego confirmed.
"You assured me that this couldn't happen," Cosgrove said.
"Yeah, well, someone knew enough to release Jocelyn Jewel," Diego said.
"Jocelyn Jewel?" Cosgrove questioned.
"She's the witch who gave me… and took away my ability to turn people into paintings," Diego said.
"So not only did you lose the slayers, you allowed them to ally themselves with yet another witch?" Cosgrove asked.
"Jocelyn was never a team player in the past, so she'll most likely go about her business without getting too deeply involved in your activities or the slayers," Diego said.
"For your sake you better be right," Cosgrove said in a serious tone.
"Did I detect a threat in your tone of voice?" Diego questioned.
"Make it as you wish," Cosgrove said.
"I was sickly and dying when I tracked down Jocelyn and did what I did," Diego began. "Since the spell that was keeping me healthy and young is now broken, I suspect that my health will now rapidly decline. So your threats don't mean shit to me."
"Fair enough," Cosgrove said. "And if you're truly dying again, I should be able to drag out your days in court enough to where if you're found guilty, you won't spend that many days in prison."
Diego nodded before saying, "Thank you."
"There are detectives outside who still want to question you about these charges," Cosgrove said before he continued with how Diego was to handle the questions.
TBC