DISCLAIMER: I only own my character! Anything you might recognize is courtesy of the CW.

WARNING: Some of these episodes/chapters may contain graphic violence, cursing, mentions of suicide or assault and other triggering aspects. Proceed with caution please.

Episode Summary:

It's 30 hours before Angel's deal with the crossroads demon is up and Angel, Dean, Sam, Bobby and Asa are searching for Lilith, who holds the contract. They discover her location and Sam summons Ruby for help despite both Dean's and Angel's protests. Ruby warns them they aren't ready to fight Lilith yet but they steal her knife and depart for New Harmony, Indiana. In a battle to the death, Asa, Angel, Sam, Dean and Bobby take on Lilith and all her demons in a last ditch effort to save Angel's life.

Previously skipped: Long-Distance Call and Time Is On My Side…

Prologue…

Angel closed the door to her Trans-Am as she and Asa got in before answering her ringing phone, "Bobby?"

"Hey. Think I finally got a bead on Bela."

Her attention peaked as she turned the key, "I'm listening."

"Rufus Turner."

"Okay…" She frowned, "Am i supposed to know who that is?"

"He's a hunter, or he used to be."

"And now?"

"Hermit mostly. Does a little selling on the side. Anyway, I put the word out on Bela months ago. He just called. Said a woman got in touch, wanted to buy some things."

"What makes him think it's Bela?"

"British accent, went by the name Mina Chandler."

"Ah, sloppy, sloppy." Angel scoffed, "She's used that one before. Down right stupid to use it again when getting in contact with one of your old friends."

"Friend? Haven't laid eyes on him in fifteen years. He's not the Christmas card type. I doubt she knows I know him. Canaan, Vermont."

"Thanks, Bobby." She met eyes with a curious Asa as she pulled out of the motel they had been staying at during a quick hunt, "Asa and I will take care of it before meeting back up with the boys. They're uh, hunting a frankenstein doctor at the moment."

"One other thing. Take a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue."

"Uh…" Her brows furrowed before she chuckled, "Alright, will do."

Canaan, Vermont…

Asa and Angel climbed the tall stairs of the address Bobby gave them onto the porch. A handwritten sign hung on the door that said: 'No solicitors, that means you! No asking for donations. No selling ANYTHING!'. Angel raised a brow at Asa before ringing the buzzer beside the door. When there was no answer Asa banged on the security door loudly. Upon hearing a whirring noise they both looked up to see a security camera moving to train on them.

An older man's voice sounded from the intercom irritatedly, "What?"

"Hi, uh…" Asa leaned towards the intercom to speak, "Rufus?"

"Yeah, even if I am, the question is still the same: What?!"

"I'm Angel Winchester. This is Asa Fox." Angel interjected, "We're friends of Bobby Singer's."

"So?"

"You called him this morning."

"So?"

"Okay, um…" Angel sighed, her eyes flashing with irritation as she and Asa shared a look, "You contacted Bobby about the british woman he's been looking for. She made contact with you."

"And so?"

"You know where she is?"

"Yeah."

Asa rolled his eyes, "Care to share that information?"

"No."

Angel grumbled to herself, "Course not." Clearing her throat she addressed the man through the intercom again, "Look, Mr. Rufus, sir-"

"Let me tell you a little story, sweetheart." Rufus interrupted as he opened the door holding a bowl of cereal and glaring at Angel, "See, once upon a time, Bobby called me, asked me to call him if I got a whiff of this Bela Talbot. I got a whiff. I called. The end."

"Wait, wait." Angel held out her hands as he was about to close the door and smile politely, "Could you just tell us where she is? I mean, that would be great."

Rufus kept his glare pointedly on her, never wavering, "Angel Winchester and Asa Fox, right?" She nodded with another smile, "Angel, do I look like I'm here to help either one of you?"

"Uh, um, I'm gonna say no?"

"Then get the hell of my property."

"Alright, yeah." The blonde nodded and started to back off the porch, "Fair enough."

"One more question, sir." Asa took her spot in front of the irritated man, earning his glare, "See, we got this, uh, this bottle of scotch, and…" He pulled out the unopened bottle of Johnny Walker Blue whiskey and smiled charmingly, "This considered any good?"

Rufus eyed the bottle before eyeing Angel and Asa respectively and grinning widely. Soon the three of them were inside his house sitting at the table with glasses in front of them. The bottle was already three quarters empty.

Asa cheersed, "Bottoms up."

"You know…" Rufus clinked glasses with both of them before drinking, "I don't even bother drinking unless it's this stuff. Nectar of the Gods, I'm telling you."

"Well, it's a nice change that's for sure." Angel smirked, "Most of the whiskey I drink comes from a plastic jug." The three of them laughed before Angel studied the older man curiously, "So, Bela was here because…"

"She wanted to buy a couple of things." He shrugged, "Which is gonna take me some time to round up."

"Where is she now?"

Rufus watched that blonde closely before putting his glass down, "Can I ask you something?" She motioned for him to go ahead, "You got three weeks left. Why are you wasting your time chasing after that skinny, stuck-up English girl?"

Angels brows went up as she leaned back and gave him the same suspicious look as Asa, "How do you know about that?"

"Because I know things." He leaned forward, "I know a lot of things about a lot of people."

"Is that so?"

"I know ain't no peashooter gonna save you."

"And how would you know that?"

"Cause that's the job, kid. Even if you manage to scrape out of this one, there's just gonna be something else down the road. Folks like us…" He shook his head, "There ain't no happy ending. We all got it coming.

"Well…" Asa cocked an eyebrow at him, "Ain't you a bucket of sunshine?"

"I'm what you've got to look forward to if you survive." Rufus smirked at Angel before raising his glass again, "But you won't."

Angel sighed as she stared Rufus in the eyes, taking in his words, "So, Bela…"

"Hotel Canaam." He answered, by now pretty drunk, "Room 39. But watch your backs."

"I'm not worried about her." Angel dismissed, "We can handle it."

"Oh, don't be so sure about that. There are things that you don't know about her."

"Oh, and you do? Right." Asa nodded and tipped his glass towards the older man, "Because you know things."

Superiority laced Rufus's voice, "Yep."

"What, you lifted her finger and that got you jack, right?"

"Yep. She burnt them off. Probably years ago."

"Yeah, so you're right where we are."

"Nope." Angel and Asa both raised a curious brow at him, "You do her ear?"

Puzzlement crossed the blonde's face, "Sorry?"

"You do her ear?" When the two of them continued to gape at him he elaborated, "Ears are as unique to humans as fingerprints. Of course, that don't fly in the courts over here, but in England, they're all over it. A friend of a friend… of a friend faxed me 10 pages of confidential files within a day. All I had to send him was one clean shot off the security camera."

"Right…" Angel nodded slowly as Asa stared in confusion, "One clean shot of… her ear."

Rufus got up and retrieved a folder from his desk before handing it over to Angel, "The so-called Bela Talbot."

Bela's hotel room…

Bela entered, turning to close the door behind her. Asa pushed her back against the door and laid his arm across her throat.

Angel stepped up beside him and pointed her AE at the woman's face, "Where's the Colt?"

"Asa." Belas eyes moved from the man pinning her to the blonde, "Angel."

"No extra words."

"It's long gone, across the world by now." Angel glared at that before grabbing her bag from her hand to look in it, "I'll call the buyer. Speak Farsi?" Asa grabbed her around the waist and pulled her against him earning a glare from the brit, "What the hell are you-"

He quickly frisked her to find her gun and held it up to her, "Don't flatter yourself."

Angel used the point of her gun to snap on the room's lights before pointing it at Bela again, "Don't make a move."

The two of them began searching the room, leaving Bela standing against the door, "I told you I don't have it."

"Right, right." Angel scoffed as she turned her back to rifle through Belas drawers, "We're definitely gonna take your word for it." As Bela slid along the wall toward the door, a bullet burst a huge hole through it, inches from her head, and she froze, "I said: Don't move."

"It's gone." Bela watched the two of them trash her room as they looked through everything, "Get on a plane if you must. Track down the buyer. You might catch up to him eventually." Angel angrily slammed one of the drawers shut before pinning Bela back against the door and pointing her gun right at her head, "Are you going to kill me?"

Asa watched her carefully as the anger flashed in Angel's eyes, "I should."

"You're not the cold-blooded type."

"You're right. At least not like you." Angel cocked a brow, "See, I couldn't imagine killing my parents."

Shock momentarily filled Belas face but she immediately started to regroup, "I don't know what you're talking-"

"Yes, you do. You were, what, 14? Folks died in some shady car accident. Police suspected a slashed brake line, but it was all too crispy to tell. Cut to little Bela… Oh, I'm sorry, Abby… inheriting millions."

"How did you even-"

"Doesn't matter."

"They were lovely people." An emotionless mask filled Belas face, "And I killed them. And I got rich. I can't be bothered to give a damn. Just like I don't care what happens to you."

Angel smirked at her and took a step back as she pointed and cocked her gun at the brits head. Bela stared back for a beat before closing her eyes as Asa studied the upset hunter. He didn't want to intervene but he also wasn't sure if they should kill her. A strand of woven herbs dislodged from the ledge above the door distracted Angel momentarily. The hunter studied them for a second before looking back at Bela as the meaning of those herbs spiraled through her brain.

"You know what?" Bela opened her eyes at Angel's voice, "You're not worth it, sweetheart."

Pushing her to the side, Angel walked out of the room followed by Asa and got into the Trans-Am to meet back up with the boys.

Later on…

Bela slowly walked down the hallway of a motel and picked the lock on a door. She removed a gun from her jacket and quietly entered. Raising the gun she put two bullets into the bodies lying under the covers on each bed. Moving out of that room she moved onto the one beside it and did the same to the bodies lying together in the queen sized bed. She glanced at the clock beside the lamp which showed the time as 11.56 pm and pulled back the covers to reveal two slowly deflating sex dolls. Shocked she ran into the previous room where two more sex dolls were slowly deflating on each bed. When the phone rang she quickly picked it up.

"Hey there, Bela." Angel's voice sounded on the other end, "You should be more careful when you're trying to pick-pocket a pick-pocket. I felt your hand, babe."

"You don't understand-"

"I think I do. Perfectly. During our little reunion in your hotel room something caught my eye. You had devil's shoestring tucked above the door. Only one use for that. Holding hellhounds at bay. So you know what I did? I went back and took another look at your folks' obit. Turns out they died ten years ago today. You didn't kill them personally. You made a deal with a demon who's coming home to collect. That's the whole reason you even swiped the colt, isn't it? You were gonna use it to bargain for your soul and wiggle out of your deal."

Tears pricked her eyes as she sat down on one of the beds, "Yes."

"But, since you're answering the phone at our old motel, I'm guessing stealing the Colt wasn't quite enough."

"They changed the deal." Her voice broke, "They wanted me to kill Sam."

"Wow, demons are untrustworthy. Shocker." She sighed, "You're hitting kind of a tight deadline, don't you think? It's almost midnight."

"Angel, please." Bela sobbed, "I need help."

"Sweetheart, we are weeks past help."

"I know I don't deserve it, but-"

"You don't, that's true, but that's not the point. Had you come to me and the boys sooner and asked for help we probably could have taken the Colt and saved you."

"I know, and saved yourself." She cried, "I know about your deal, Angel."

"And who told you that?"

"The Demon that holds it. She holds mine, too. She said she holds every deal."

"She?"

"Her name's Lilith."

"Lilith?" Angel paused at that familiar name and information, "Why should I believe you?"

"You shouldn't, but it's the truth."

"Telling me this isn't going to save you, Bela. So why even bother?"

"Because… just maybe you can kill the bitch."

Angel paused for awhile as she took in everything, "I'll see you in hell, Bela."

After she hung up, Beal sat on the bed listening to the dial tone. She hung up and took a deep breath just as the clock clicked over to midnight. A deep howling could be heard in the distance, before a closer vicious growl began.