Giovanni Cassio checked his watch. It was 8:46 and 20 seconds. Good. He had just over a minute and a half.

He didn't pack his things - he couldn't afford to give any clue that he was planning to leave. He just grabbed his wallet, his passport, and his lucky pen (deemed lucky simply because he had hung on it for two whole months without losing it) and stuffed them in his pants pockets.

8:47:00. He closed the door to his room, put on his jacket, and checked the pockets. They contained the keys to his rental car, a small spray bottle, and the address and phone number of the FBI's Los Angeles field office. Federal agents, Gianni reasoned, would be more likely than local police to take him seriously when he handed them a kidnap victim and information about someone manufacturing weapons-grade plutonium.

8:47:30. He started down the hallway towards Dawn's room, trying to look casual. The next run of the alchemy machine was due to begin at nine; Gianni knew he was only a couple of minutes ahead of Nicole D'Armand, who would be on her way to pick up Dawn very shortly. But the plan was more likely to succeed if he cut it close.

8:48:00. At this moment, the program Gianni had written on his office computer was automatically shutting down the entire house security network. The alarm on Dawn's door, as well as every other alarm and sensor in the mansion, would be disabled, and every digital camera would show a continuous loop of whatever it had recorded in the previous five minutes.

Gianni walked up to the door of Dawn's room and addressed the vampire standing guard outside. "I'm here to take the girl downstairs," the young man said, trying to sound confident.

The vampire eyed the cryptologist with suspicion. "Isn't D'Armand supposed to pick her up?"

"Change of plans," Gianni replied. "Mr. Hayden sent her on an errand."

This was the moment of truth. Gianni watched the vampire carefully for his reaction.

"I'd better call downstairs to confirm," the vampire said.

Gianni cursed inwardly, but maintained outward calm. "Go ahead," he said casually.

When the vampire reached for the radio on his belt, Gianni grabbed the small spray bottle out of his jacket and squirted the monster in the face. The vampire screamed and clutched at its eyes. Gianni had gone to the kitchen a few hours earlier, feigning hunger, and surreptitiously squeezed the juice out of several garlic cloves.

The vampire pressed the panic button on its radio, which was wired to set off the house alarms, but to no effect. However, Gianni knew the creature's yells of pain were likely to attract attention at any moment.

He punched in the key code for Dawn's door and rushed into her room. The girl had regained enough strength to dress herself, but she still lay limply on her bed as she watched the young cryptologist rush in. Her eyebrows rose with alarm.

"I'm taking you out of this place," Gianni hissed. "But we must go right now."

Dawn ran clumsily to Gianni. "Fine! Let's go!" she hissed back.

The young man held Dawn's arm as they quickly descended the front stairs. Gianni had parked his car right outside. Once they got there, they could-

Gianni let out a grunt as a white-sleeved arm swung up and slammed into his chest, clotheslining the young man just as he reached the bottom of the stairs. His feet went out from under him and he landed painfully on the wooden staircase. Dawn's arm was yanked from his grasp.

"I can't say I'm surprised, Cassio," Nicole D'Armand said. "Strange little minds like yours are capable of anything, including betrayal. And, fortunately, idiocy."

***

Willow tapped away at her laptop, frequently hitting the backspace key to correct typos caused by the bouncing of the car. She was also squeezed in between Tara and Anya, leaving very little elbow room. As if her task wasn't difficult enough.

"Anything yet?" Buffy called from the front passenger's seat.

"I think I've found Hayden's home server," Willow said distractedly as she stared at the screen. "But I don't know how long it will take to hack into his security sys-. Wait a minute. That's weird."

"What?" Buffy asked.

"It's looks like the security network is already down. All of it."

Buffy scowled. "Why would they do that?"

"Maybe it's a trap," Anya suggested.

"Do you think that fake ID guy could have warned them?" Tara asked.

"And let them know that he gave them up?" Buffy said. "I doubt it."

"Maybe the system's down for maintenance or something," Xander said.

"Maybe," Buffy said, with a distant, worried look on her face. "Okay, we'll stick to the plan, but be extra careful. Our gift horse might be loaded with Greeks."

***

"Everybody still with us?" Cordelia asked as she steered Angel's convertible around a corner.

Giles, who was sitting next to her, craned his neck to look backwards, past the heads of Liam and William. "Xander is right behind us," he replied. "And Gunn's truck is a few cars back."

"I'm gonna slow down," Cordelia said. "We need Gunn in front in case he has to crash the gate." She moved one lane to the right, and Xander did likewise. Gunn pulled by both cars and let them fall in behind. Giles could see Fred and Wesley seated next to Gunn.

"OK," Cordelia said, glancing at the two vampires in the back seat, "does everyone have weapons?" She patted her own armament, a t'ai chi sword that lay sheathed next to the gearshift.

Liam grunted and held up his battle axe. William nervously squeaked, "Yes," and raised the hilt of his borrowed saber, which he earlier had declared more gentlemanly than an axe.

Giles pulled his crossbow into his lap and began checking it over for perhaps the third time since he'd taken it from Angel Investigations' weapons cabinet. "I must say, Cordelia," he said, looking down at the weapon, "you've changed quite a lot since you left Sunnydale."

"Oh, the short hair is just an experiment," Cordelia said. "I haven't committed to it or anything."

"I meant," Giles said patiently, "that you've grown up."

"Oh," Cordelia said, slightly embarrassed.

"I suppose responsibility tends to have that effect on people," Giles replied.

"It's just.they need me, you know?" Cordelia said suddenly. "Back in Sunnydale, you guys let me help sometimes, but you never needed me. You always had somebody stronger, or smarter, or, well, nicer to fall back on. But Angel actually needs me - my visions, my support, and God knows, my wardrobe advice."

Giles chuckled.

Cordelia glanced up at a street sign. "We're almost there." Giles looked down and checked his crossbow over yet again.

"You're not nervous, are you?" Cordelia said. "I've gathered that this isn't your first time rescuing Dawn."

"No," Giles said. "No, it's not."

I just hope no one dies this time, he thought.

***

Lucas Hayden's front gate was almost everything Gunn had expected it to be - ornate yet solid-looking, stretched across the driveway at the bottom of the hill on which Hayden's mansion stood, and watched over by a blue-suited security guard. The only thing Gunn didn't expect the gate to be was wide open, as it was now.

The guard was fiddling with the inside of a box attached to the gate, seemingly trying to figure out what might be wrong with it. When Gunn's pickup approached, however, the guard ran in front of the truck and forced Gunn to stop. He had one hand inside his jacket as he walked up to the driver's side window.

"We're not taking any visitors right now," he said.

"That's okay," Gunn said with his friendliest smile. "We're not visiting."

The three people in the cab of the pickup truck moved nearly as one. As Gunn unlatched his door, Wesley opened the passenger's side door and began to get out, Fred sliding over into Wesley's place. This left Gunn enough room to lean to his left and ram both feet into the driver's side door.

The door struck the guard in the torso and crushed his arm against his body. He grunted and fell back, dropping the gun he had been holding under his jacket.

The guard regained his balance and made a rush for the gun. However, as he leaned down to get it, Wesley kicked him in the face. The guard's head snapped up, and then his entire body slumped to the ground.

"No, not a visit," Wesley said to the unconscious guard. "More of an invasion, really."

He jumped back into the cab and they sped up the hill towards the mansion.

***

The three vehicles screeched to a halt under the archway at the mansion's front door. Everyone piled out as fast as possible.

Buffy pointed at Willow, Tara, and Xander. "Let's go," she said. The four of them ran around the side of the house and out of sight.

Everyone else gathered around Wesley as he tried the front door. He held a shotgun in his left hand.

"It's locked," Wesley said. "Stand back."

The circle of people around Wesley widened. He leveled the shotgun at the doorknob and fired. Now there was a hole in the oak where the doorknob had been.

Wesley backed off and let the others force the door open. He didn't want to take the shotgun inside; a direct hit from the gun would only slow a vampire down, but a few stray pellets could kill Dawn, or an innocent housekeeper, or any other human who got in the way. He shoved the gun under the seat of the pickup truck and grabbed up his battle axe instead.

Gunn kicked open the door. With one arm in a cast, he couldn't wield a two- handed weapon very well, so he had chosen a large shield to hang off the injured arm while brandishing a German knightly sword with the good one. Fred had called him "Sir Charles" the whole ride over. Gunn would have thought that was cute, if he hadn't been busy worrying about the fact that he was going into a nest of vampires, demons, and who-knew-what-else with a bunch of strangers and with Angel having the world's longest flashback.

Gunn took a cautious step through the front door, looked around, and gulped. There were six vampires in the foyer, all looking hungrily at him. "I see dead people," Gunn said numbly.

Like voracious wolves, the vampires charged.

***

A high fence, made of wrought iron and topped with spikes, separated the front yard from the back, preventing anyone from getting to the back yard by any route other than through the house. Willow looked dubiously up at the spikes.

"Well," she said, "I might know a levitation spell..."

Buffy put her hands on two adjacent bars of the fence. With a loud grunt, she pulled them apart. "No need," she breathed.

One by one, they squeezed through gap in the bars. Xander came through last and only barely made it. "I'm suddenly glad I didn't have that second Twinkie this afternoon," he said as he pulled something through the bars after him -- a long, thin object wrapped in oilcloth. Gunn had loaned it to Xander, saying it was something from Angel Investigations' special weapons stash, but which Gunn himself hadn't had a chance to try yet.

They rounded the corner of the house and found themselves by Hayden's large, oval swimming pool. The whole area around the pool was done in midnight blue tile, with a few tiles painted with golden sun-faces.

"Wow," Willow said. "Imagine what this must look like from upstairs."

Xander looked down. "Hand-painted Mexican tile," he said. "Probably a custom job. Very classy."

"Guys," Buffy said, "can we can talk about exterior design after we find my sister? And that creep Hayden?"

"Um," Tara said, "I think something's found us." She was pointing to the other end of the house's rear façade.

Five Doberman pinschers trotted around the corner. Upon seeing the intruders, the dogs broke into a run, barking like mad.

Buffy was flummoxed. She'd never been attacked by an animal before. The dogs would rip her to pieces if she did nothing, but she couldn't just kill them. Awkwardly, she dropped the stake she had reflexively pulled and put up her fists, waiting for the attack. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Xander fumbling with his wrapped package, and Willow was holding up her hands and seemingly trying to think of an appropriate spell.

"Tranquilate!" Tara called, tossing some kind of powder in the general direction of the dogs. All at once, they stopped running, lowered their heads, and trotted up to Tara. One dog whimpered, and another licked her hand.

"Would you look at that," Xander said, staring in half-amazement. "Tara's the Beastmaster."

"It's a taming spell," Tara said, getting down on her knees and patting each of the dogs on the head. "It works on humans, too, but it's better for animals. I do need to stay with them for a while, though, to be sure they don't get aggressive again. You know, make friends," she explained as she scratched one of the dogs behind the ears.

"Okay," Buffy said. "We can handle the break-in. Xander, get where you need to be."

Xander glanced around for a moment. "I'm on it," he said. He got down on his hands and knees and crawled to a spot just below the stone steps that led up from the pool area to the house. No one on the first floor of the house would be able to see him there.

"Let's go," Buffy said to Willow.

Buffy walked up to one of the French doors on the back of the house and kicked the frame, just below the doorknob. The door burst inward, every pane of glass shattering explosively.

"I thought we were trying to be sneaky," Willow said.

"I'm pretty sure the mutt patrol ruined that. And if they didn't, those guys will," she said, pointing at the entranceway to the huge sunroom they now stood in. Into the room strode two vampires and the big, cable- swinging demon they had encountered at the Déjà Vu.

"Oh," Willow said, eyebrows raised.

***

Anya was very upset. Her wedding was only months away, and yet, instead of looking for the perfect dress and choosing a china pattern, here she was, flat on her back in some stranger's driveway with a vampire's hands around her throat.

She had tried to shoot the monster in question through the heart with her crossbow, but had only managed to hit him in the crotch. He seemed to be taking it personally; he had tackled her before she could reload, and now she could only yank desperately at the creature's hands and watch her friends' feet go this way and that as their owners struggled desperately with their own opponents.

The vampire who was strangling Anya suddenly screamed. Cordelia, the tall, pretty girl who had once taught Xander basic kissing and groping skills, was standing over her. The point of her sword was lodged somewhere between the vampire's shoulders. Lodged quite deeply, in fact, because she seemed to be having trouble removing the blade from her enemy's body. The vampire screamed again as Cordelia worked the weapon back and forth, trying to get it loose.

Anya took the opportunity to roll the vampire halfway off her, crawl out from beneath him, and pull a spare crossbow bolt from her back pocket. The bolt was cracked from having both Anya's and the vampire's weight on it, but Anya didn't intend to fire it. Instead, she jammed it into the vampire's back, over its heart.

The bolt snapped in half before the point reached the monster's heart. Now the vampire had two weapons lodged in its back, and it was clearly not happy. It flipped over and backhanded Anya, sending her sprawling back behind Cordelia.

As she dimly glimpsed Cordelia and the vampire wrestling for control of Cordelia's sword - her from the hilt, him from the business end - Anya thought that this was going to be a very long fight.

***

The Sch'sek demon didn't waste any time. Seeing Buffy enter the sunroom, it immediately lashed one of its cable-whips downward at her. Buffy dodged aside, and the whip splintered an end table instead of the Slayer's skull.

The two vampires went after Willow. Before either one could take a swing at her, however, Willow cried, "Seize!" The closest vampire suddenly went rigid - its arms against its sides and its legs locked together - and fell face-first onto the floor.

The second vamp stumbled over its fallen comrade, but still managed to get its hands on Willow and drag her onto the Persian rug. The vampire scrambled on top of Willow and held her down, the look in its eyes all too familiar - that moment before the bite, when the vampire is consumed by its hunger for the kill. Hunger for her blood.

The monster lowered its face to bite, but Willow got her hand under the vampire's chin and pushed with all her strength. Slowly, she forced the creature's head upwards and back, making it lift its torso partway up off her to relieve the pressure on its neck. Willow gritted her teeth and kept pushing, even though she knew she was only buying herself a few seconds before the vampire knocked her hand away and finished her off.

There was a sudden explosion outside, over which Willow could hear glass breaking. Suddenly, the vampire had something wooden and pointy protruding from the side of its chest, having passed most of the way through the torso. The vampire barely had time to say, "What the hell?" before crumbling into dust.

***

Xander shook his head rapidly to clear it and picked himself up off the blue tile of the pool deck. Gunn's rifle-sized prototype harpoon gun allowed for good accuracy and excellent penetration, but it had a hell of a kick. Xander counted himself lucky that it hadn't launched him straight into the swimming pool.

Plus, there was the reloading issue. Xander mentally went over the steps even as he began them - rip open a paper packet of black powder and pour it into the muzzle, shove a wad of cotton in front of it, then jam another extra-long stake into the barrel. Maybe a Revolution-era minuteman could have done it in fifteen seconds, but Xander knew he would need forty-five at least.

War was hell.

***

Buffy dodged again as Kogue whipped one of his steel cables at her head. It missed narrowly and took out an expensive-looking lamp instead.

Giles had told Buffy that only sharp weapons could kill a Sch'sek, so Buffy reached behind her and drew the dagger she had brought for that purpose. The problem, though, was getting close enough to use it. As Buffy leaped up to avoid Kogue's other cable-whip, this one aimed at her legs, she couldn't quite see how she was going to accomplish that.

Suddenly, Willow shouted, "Bind!" Like snakes turning on their master, Kogue's cable-whips suddenly wrapped themselves around his body, pinning his arms. The demon roared with outrage.

"Nice, Will!" Buffy shouted. She ran at Kogue and thrust her dagger at his chest. Kogue twisted sideways, and the narrow blade buried itself in his upper arm instead. The demon grunted with pain.

Suddenly, a familiar blonde woman in a white suit passed by the entranceway that led from the sunroom to the back hallway. She was dragging Dawn along by her forearm.

The girl saw Willow first. "Willow!" she screamed. Then she saw her sister. "Buffy!"

For that single second, Willow's concentration lapsed. The spell that had bound Kogue up in his own cables relaxed, and the large demon backhanded Buffy halfway across the room. Kogue then turned and whipped a cable up, around, and down into the side of Willow's head. The witch fell to the ground, unconscious, with blood trickling from her scalp.

Dawn screamed louder and tried to wrest her arm from Nicole's grip. The older woman smashed the blade of her hand against the back of Dawn's neck, stunning the girl into submission. While Buffy clumsily got to her feet, Nicole dragged Dawn out of sight.

Buffy was desperately torn. She had to go after Dawn, but she couldn't just leave Willow here to be beaten to a pulp by a huge demon.

Then came a crashing sound as Xander barreled through the remains of the ruined French doors. Pointing his harpoon gun at Kogue, he shouted, "Smile, you son of a b-OOF!"

The vampire Willow had paralyzed was mobile again and had thrown itself at Xander. Xander went down as the gun discharged upwards, driving a harpoon straight into the twelve-foot-high ceiling.

Fortunately, the weapon's massive kick had spun Xander and the vampire around somewhat as they fell to the floor, so that the vampire landed next to Xander instead of on top of him. Xander drove the butt of the harpoon gun into the side of the vampire's head and knocked the creature out cold.

Xander looked at the situation in the room. Kogue was in front of him, advancing on Buffy, who was standing but looked somewhat woozy. Kogue's cables were only partly extended and wrapped around his fists like brass knuckles.

Without thinking, Xander leaped up, grabbed his harpoon gun by the barrel, and ran up behind Kogue, swinging the gun like a club. There was a heavy thud as the butt hit Kogue in the back of the head.

The demon, completely unfazed, turned around and smiled toothily at Xander.

"Come on, Big Ugly!" Xander shouted. "You want a piece of me? 'Cause I got one thing to say to you, and it's.bye."

Xander tried to run around Kogue, hoping to get to the front of the house and get some of the others to come help, but he wasn't quite fast enough. While Kogue's fist only clipped Xander's temple, that was enough to send him sprawling, barely conscious, on the hardwood floor.

Kogue turned his attention back to Buffy, who had no allies left in the room. He growled and extended his cable-whips fully.

"The goats," he said in an inhuman bass, "taste good when they're scared."

For once, Buffy couldn't think of a single witty reply.

***

Cordelia looked around for the briefest of moments to assess the situation. On the plus side, two of the six vampires that had come at them from the foyer were now dust - Giles had bullseyed the one with his crossbow, and Cordelia had just finished off the other by decapitating it with her razor- sharp Chinese sword. On the minus side, Fred was unconscious behind one of the cars; Anya was sitting next to Fred, awake but looking at her fingers as though unsure of how many she was holding up; and Giles had been blindsided hard enough to knock the wind out of him and maybe fracture a rib or two. Fortunately, Gunn had stepped in and forced Giles' undead attacker to back off before it killed the Watcher.

Now Gunn was fighting desperately with that same vampire, which was trying to wrestle Gunn's sword away from him. With Gunn's other arm broken, it didn't look like it would take the vampire long to succeed. Cordelia ran up behind Gunn's attacker, but given how close Gunn and his opponent were to each other, Cordelia didn't dare attempt another decapitation. Two heads on the ground would definitely not be better than one. So she did the first thing she could think of - she stabbed the vampire in the butt.

"OW!" the vampire screamed. He turned around to face Cordelia. "You stabbed me in the ass! Fight to the death or not, that's just dirty pool."

"Then this is really gonna upset you," Gunn said, whipping his sword around and beheading the vampire from behind. The vampire's head and body fell to the ground and collapsed into dust.

Gunn glanced up at Cordelia and grinned. "Thanks," he said. "For the help, and the laugh."

"No problem," Cordelia replied, and they went to help the others.

***

Buffy's back was literally against the wall as she rolled right and narrowly avoided a downward strike from one of Kogue's cable-whips. Bits of splintered paneling flew as the cable took out a vertical strip of wall.

The situation was growing desperate. The demon's long reach and extraordinary personal weaponry enabled him to attack almost continuously while preventing Buffy from moving in on him. She could hold him off for a while longer, perhaps, but every moment that passed allowed her enemies that much more time to remove Dawn from the premises, maybe to a place where Buffy wouldn't be able to find her.

It was time for desperate action. Buffy reversed her dagger in her hand and threw it at Kogue's head. The demon raised his arm and got the dagger through the wrist instead. It roared with pain.

Buffy charged and leaped up to kick Kogue in the chest. The blow wouldn't hurt him, she knew, but if it knocked him down, she might be able to pull her dagger out of his arm and stab him somewhere more vital.

With his uninjured arm, Kogue knocked Buffy's kicking leg aside, sending her into a wild aerial spin. She landed flat on her back, the wind knocked out of her. Dimly, Buffy saw Kogue raise up his foot for a fatal stomp.

Then a figure in a long skirt stepped into the outer doorway, pointed at Kogue, and yelled, "Attack!"

The pack of Dobermans charged around Tara's legs and threw themselves at Kogue. Ignoring Buffy completely, all five dogs latched onto Kogue's legs and began ripping at his flesh, shaking their heads wildly as they tried to remove meat from bone. Kogue roared madly and tried to shake the dogs off, but even his most violent movements could only dislodge them for a moment - the moment he freed one leg, the dogs would worry all the harder at the other one.

Finally, Buffy got to her feet and punched Kogue in the face hard enough to knock him down. The dogs surrounded him and continued their assault. Kogue began screaming.

Buffy ran up and raised her dagger to finish Kogue off, but the demon was now completely covered in snarling canine. When the Slayer tried to push one of the dogs aside, it turned and snapped at her hand - which Buffy quickly withdrew - before resuming its attack on Kogue.

"Don't!" Tara cried. "They just know they're supposed to attack. They don't know you aren't the enemy."

"Okay, okay," Buffy said, looking desperately at Tara. "But I have to find Dawn."

"Go, I've got it," Tara replied.

Buffy ran off in the direction Dawn and Nicole had gone, and hoped for a miracle.

***

William cut at his attacker with his saber while simultaneously backing away from him. This had been William's strategy for the entire fight, keeping well away from his vicious, but unarmed, opponents and trying to strike from a distance. The only problem was that it wasn't really getting him anywhere. He stayed too far away to do any real damage, inflicting only shallow cuts on his vampiric foes. But he was afraid to get closer.

How they all would laugh, he thought, if they could see me now.

Reading war stories in his youth, he had always imagined himself in the role of the dashing young hero, always heading once more into the breach, but now.fighting these THINGS, with their yellow eyes and sharp fangs.it was terrifying. The best William could do was to keep this one busy, hoping it didn't kill him before someone came to his aid.

And then, sure enough, someone did come to his aid. His countryman, Wesley, ran up behind William's foe with a battle axe and planted the blade deep in the vampire's shoulder, nearly severing its arm in the process. Then, with his other hand, Wesley produced a stake and ran the creature through with it. The creature turned instantly to dust.

"That's the last one," Wesley said. William looked around; indeed, there were no remaining vampires.

Besides myself and Liam, he reminded himself.

"We need to find Dawn," Giles said, wheezing a bit.

"Right," Wesley agreed. "Gunn, get all the injured into your truck and take them to the hospital. The rest of us-" he indicated himself, Giles, Cordelia, Liam, and William "-will search for Buffy's sister."

Gunn looked as though he had been about to protest this plan but had thought better of it, perhaps remembering his near disarmament and murder earlier. As Wesley and the others went inside, Gunn began helping his injured companions into his truck.

***

Buffy wasn't sure what do to. The back hallway down which Nicole had taken Dawn led to the kitchen, which had doors to the back yard and the dining room. However, neither one of those escape routes seemed like particularly good ones to Buffy - the back yard was completely enclosed by a high fence, and the dining room would lead only to the front hall, where the rest of Buffy's companions would be. Nicole could never get Dawn past them without being spotted.

The Slayer began throwing open doors, searching for some other way they could have gone. She found a pantry in the kitchen and a broom closet in the hall, but the third door she tried was locked. That seemed promising.

Buffy put her back against the hallway wall opposite the door and gave a mighty kick. The door burst open to reveal a long flight of concrete stairs. Dagger in hand, she ran downwards.

***

Tara's eyes were fixed on Kogue, watching the dogs worry and tear at him. Then she saw Kogue's arm go up and around one of the dogs. The dog yelped loudly for a moment, and then there was a sickening crunching sound. Kogue had crushed the poor animal to death.

One by one, Kogue seized each dog and killed it with his bare hands. Tara was so horrified by the sight that she was still standing there, staring, when Kogue killed the last dog and got up off the floor. He was bleeding in several places, but the murderous look in the demon's eyes was as steady as could be. Kogue started towards Tara.

"Pugnus aeris!" Tara cried. Kogue's head snapped upwards and he staggered a few steps back, as though he had been punched in the face by someone his own size.

Unfortunately, the magical punch had no more effect on the Sch'sek than a real one. He recovered quickly and charged at Tara. She screamed and tried to run, but one of Kogue's cables wrapped around her ankle and yanked her leg out from under her. Tara landed face-down on the floor. Before she could get up, Kogue was on top of her, wrapping one of his cables around her neck and pulling it tight.

***

Buffy reached the bottom of the stairs and found herself in some sort of control room. To her left, beyond a long console, there was a large window that looked in on another room containing two big, metal boxes. An unkempt young man in a T-shirt was pounding on the window and yelling.

"Hey! Let me out!"

Buffy considered for half a second, then unlocked the door and let the young man out. He seemed quite distraught.

"You are here for Dawn, yes?" he said in some sort of accent.

"Do you know where she is?" Buffy replied.

"That way," the man replied, pointing down a corridor. "That passage connects to the garage. We have to hurry. The device," he pointed at the lead-coated boxes behind him, "is for making plutonium. Hayden has some with him."

Buffy's eyebrows raised, and then they took off down the hall. "Not to be rude, but who the hell are you?" Buffy asked as they hurried along.

"Long story," the young man puffed. "I'm just someone else Hayden has been using."

They were approaching the end of the hall. It ended at a metal door.

Buffy accelerated and hit the door at full speed with a flying kick. The door burst open and Buffy landed in a three-car garage. Two cars were parked in it - the green Lotus from the Polaroid at Deevers' place, and a black Jaguar. At present, the tall blonde, Nicole, was dumping a limp, handcuffed Dawn into the passenger's seat of the Lotus. Hayden, whom Buffy recognized from a picture in one of Cordelia's magazines, was standing next to the Jag with a metal briefcase. He had apparently been saying something to Nicole when Buffy burst in.

"The Slayer, I presume?" Hayden said, looking at Buffy as if there were nothing unusual about a five-foot-nothing girl smashing open his garage door with the force of a stick of dynamite. "I can't tell you how much I regret not being able to stay and see you perform. Unfortunately, I need to meet with some clients who are interested in my new product. Nicole, if you would kindly take care of the young lady, I will meet you at the rendezvous point."

"Gladly, Mr. Hayden," Nicole said. She flipped open her knife.

"Bastardo," Cassio spat at Hayden and pointed at his metallic briefcase. "You are not leaving here with that."

There was a rack of tools hanging on the rear wall of the garage, near the door to the basement. Cassio snatched a large wrench off of it and ran at Hayden with a yell.

Hayden was more agile than he looked. He ducked Cassio's first swing, then blocked the second with the briefcase. Before Cassio could bring his impromptu weapon to bear again, Hayden ran in and punched the young Italian in the stomach, then grabbed the wrist of the hand that held the wrench.

Buffy tried to move in and intervene, but Nicole stepped in front of her and blocked her path. Nicole moved slowly towards Buffy, glancing down at the Slayer's dagger.

"Tres amusant. Have you ever been in a knife fight before?" she asked tauntingly.

"Haven't lost one yet," Buffy replied, eyeing Nicole warily.

"Then I hope you are open to new experiences," Nicole said.

Cassio tried to knee Hayden in the groin but missed and hit his thigh instead; Hayden's leg went temporarily dead and he staggered back. Cassio tried one more swing with the wrench, but Hayden blocked again with the briefcase, then ran forward and smashed Cassio in the face with it. The young man went down.

"Well then," Hayden said, straightening his jacket, "I'll be off. Enjoy." He climbed into the Jaguar and sped away.

***

William was checking out the foyer very cautiously when he heard the scream. It was definitely a woman's.

He dashed down a hallway towards the back of the house, holding his sword in front of him as if the end of it were on fire. He was terrified of what he might find when he reached the source of the scream, but he was not about to allow some beast or ruffian to manhandle any of the ladies in his party without at least having to knock him out of the way first.

William skidded to a halt just inside the doorway of a large, drafty room. In the middle of the room, a huge, horrific creature was kneeling over a woman and choking her with a rope of some kind.

"Unhand her at once!" William cried, trying to sound more courageous than he felt, "or I shall cut you to pieces and feed you to the.dogs.." William's voice faltered as he saw the heap of dead guard dogs on the floor behind the demon.

The creature released the woman and rose to its feet. "You," it said in an impossibly deep voice. "This time, I will kill you."

William wasn't sure what to make of that remark - could he have met this monstrous thing before? If so, he was rather astounded that he had survived.

The woman at the demon's feet was barely conscious but alive. She turned her head feebly, and now William could see her face. Tara.

A strange feeling came over William, one he didn't think he had ever felt before. Something inside him began screaming for blood, screaming to be allowed to break bones, to tear flesh, to kill. Screaming to be released.

William released it.

"HAAAAAGH!" he cried as he ran headlong at the demon. The creature was so taken aback by William's sudden, senseless charge that it froze for a moment, forgetting to bring its cable-whips to bear until William was already well inside their range. William slashed wildly with his saber and cut Kogue across the chest. Dark blue-green blood spattered across the wood floor as the demon howled with pain and outrage.

William slashed again; the success of his first attack only seemed to heighten his blood lust. This time, Kogue caught the sword blade in his cable-wrapped palm and wrenched the weapon out of William's hand. The demon shoved William backwards so hard that he fell to the floor. While William got up, Kogue broke the saber in half over its knee and threw the pieces aside. Then the demon advanced.

But William was past caring about his weapon. He would kill the monster with his teeth if he had to. He leaped straight at Kogue; the demon deflected him and sent him crashing into a wall, making a huge dent in the plaster. Kogue extended his whips and went in for the kill.

"Hey! Beastie!"

Kogue turned. William looked past Kogue's legs to see Liam in the doorway, battle axe in hand.

"Are yeh feeling homesick for the Hell that spawned ye?" Liam said. "'Cause I'm here to send you back."

Seemingly perturbed by Liam's insolence, Kogue ignored William, who was moaning slightly from his prone position on the floor, and began to move towards the Irishman. He slowly circled one of his cable-whips as he advanced. Liam stepped into the room and moved laterally, looking for the best angle of attack.

Kogue let fly with a cable-whip at Liam's legs. Liam leaped up and forward in an eight-foot-high arc and swung his axe; the demon barely managed to knock the blow aside before Liam followed up with a kick to the face. Kogue staggered back, but Liam kept after him, swinging the axe again and again to keep Kogue in retreat. Finally, right after one particularly mighty swing of Liam's axe, Kogue seized the initiative and leaped forward, tackling Liam to the ground. The demon grabbed Liam by the hair and slammed the Irishman's head into the wooden floor. Liam went limp.

The huge demon got to his feet. He was now standing next to Tara, who was still on the floor, trying to crawl away. Kogue lifted her up by her shoulders until she was eye to eye with him.

"Now die, little dog-herder," he boomed, closing his hands around Tara's throat.

With a shriek, a vamp-faced William flew at Kogue from behind. Kogue cried out as William stabbed the broken end of his saber deep into the demon's kidney.

Kogue whipped around and dealt William a backhand blow across the face, but William barely seemed to notice. He stabbed Kogue in the chest, then in the shoulder, then cut a great gash across the demon's abdomen. Kogue fell, and William fell on him, stabbing again and again.

Finally, long after Kogue had stopped moving, Tara dragged herself over to William and caught his arm. "It's okay," she said. "He's dead. It's over."

William regarded at Tara with his yellow eyes, his expression one of animal- like puzzlement. He growled.

Tara screamed as William threw himself onto her and tried to sink his fangs into her neck. William screamed in turn and rolled off of Tara, gripping his head in agony.

The witch lay on the floor for several seconds, breathing hard and looking at William with horror. Then she began to crawl towards the still- unconscious Willow, leaving William alone in the middle of the room.

***

Buffy gazed at Nicole with unmitigated anger. Their fight so far had given Buffy a light cut on her hand and a somewhat deeper one on her upper arm, while Nicole had yet to be injured at all. The Slayer was frustrated as hell. Her opponent, on the other hand, never lost the slight smile on her lips as they circled each other.

"It is only a matter of time before I finish you," Nicole said. "But I wouldn't worry. After a few more sessions in the transmutation chamber, I don't think your sister will have the energy to miss you."

Buffy saw an opening, a chance to cut at Nicole's forearm, and went for it. But it was a ruse; Nicole pulled the arm back just as Buffy extended her own, and countercut to the wrist of Buffy's dagger arm. Buffy yelped and dropped her weapon.

Backing off rapidly, the Slayer took a fraction of a second to glance at the cut on her wrist. Had Nicole managed to cut any deeper, Buffy might now be bleeding to death.

Nicole shifted her knife to a point-down position, holding it the way Buffy would hold a stake. It was obvious that Nicole intended her next attack to be a fatal one.

Suddenly, for no apparent reason, Nicole turned around.

Buffy didn't wait to find out why. She slammed her foot into Nicole's lower back and sent the woman sprawling over the hood of her Lotus. Buffy ran at her and tried to punch her in the face, but Nicole rolled away just in time; the Slayer's fist impacted painfully on the hood of the car. Nicole ran out the garage door and turned right, hurrying out of view.

Buffy opened the car door and pulled her handcuffed sister out. "Dawn," Buffy said. "Are you-"

"Are you both all right?" a familiar English voice said from behind. Buffy looked around and saw Wesley approaching.

"I'm okay," Dawn said.

"Me, too," Buffy added. "What just happened?"

"I distracted her for a moment by visualizing myself attacking her from behind as vividly as I could. It was enough to fool her, if only for a moment."

Buffy looked out the garage door. "I have find her," she said. "She knows where Hayden is going."

"Don't think about what you're doing when you fight her, Buffy," Wesley said gravely. "Let your mind wander, and let your body do the fighting. It's the only way to win."

"I'll try anything once," Buffy said, and ran off after Nicole.

***

Ethan Rayne peered out the window of his room, which overlooked the front of the house. The pickup truck had driven off, but a black sedan had pulled into the driveway a couple of minutes later. Two dark-suited men had gotten out of the sedan and gone into the house, which they were, presumably, searching. That was probably not a good thing.

He glanced around the room for some means of escape. Noticing the bed, he yanked the cover off, then pulled off the top and bottom sheets and began knotting them together. His car was parked in the driveway - if he could lower himself down, he could escape without anyone in the house noticing.

The door creaked open behind him. Ethan's intuition told him exactly who it must be.

"Ethan," Giles said. "I would have guessed that this was all your handiwork, had I not thought you were in prison."

Ethan turned around and saw Giles in the doorway, crossbow in hand. A tall woman with shortish dark hair and a sword stood next to him.

"Why, Ripper, you wound me," Ethan said, placing a hand on his chest in mock outrage. "Building the alchemy engine was all Hayden's idea. I merely provided technical advice. Well, that, and the one interesting part of the plan."

"Spike and Angel," Giles said.

"You know me too well."

"And you know what I'll do to you if you don't tell me how to reverse it."

"What? You'll kill me? Put an arrow through my heart? Not that I'm saying you wouldn't, mind you; if there's one thing I've always admired about you, Ripper, it's that ruthless streak of yours. I do wonder, though, if you would go quite so far while your little friend was watching." He glanced at Cordelia.

Giles began to lower his crossbow. Ethan grinned.

Then Giles shot Ethan in the thigh. Ethan fell to the floor, cursing vehemently and clutching his leg. The Watcher turned to Cordelia.

"Did it bother you to watch that?"

"Are you kidding? Best thing I've seen since RENT," Cordelia replied.

***

Nicole was at the bottom of the driveway, not far from the front gate with its small guardhouse, when the Slayer caught up to her. Nicole had half- hoped that she would. Also fortunate was the fact that the gate guard seemed to have fled, which meant that Nicole would not have to kill him to cover up what she was about to do to the girl. Normally, when it came to murder, Nicole was all about cool efficiency, but this one, this Slayer, with all her strength and speed and haughty, deep-seated belief in her own importance - she needed to die slowly.

Nicole halted abruptly and turned, pulling out her knife again. She focused her mind on Buffy's as the Slayer drew her own weapon and approached.

That was when she noticed two odd things. First, Buffy said nothing before she entered the fight. Nicole had had the impression that the girl was a talker.

Second, the content of the Slayer's thoughts was very unusual for someone about to engage in potentially deadly combat. Normally, Nicole's opponents focused their thoughts only on the most important details - searching for openings in Nicole's defenses while trying to avoid exposing themselves to attack. Then there would be a moment when the opponent would see an opportunity, where the mind would cry "There!" or "Now!" and Nicole could stop the attack before it started.

Buffy, on the other hand, seemed to be thinking of nothing in particular.

(hope Dawn's okay she looked all right but it's hard to tell got to find Hayden Hayden's house is huge big stupid rich guy I'm still paying for the full copper re-pipe I used to love those copper crayons in the big box with peach periwinkle lavender sepia now-)

Buffy lunged. Nicole had almost missed the single, warning thought; she jerked back at the last second and only narrowly avoided having ten inches of steel shoved through her right shoulder. She didn't even have time for a counterattack before the Slayer withdrew out of range.

(she's wearing a white suit way after labor day looks like Colonel Sanders mmm could go for fried chicken right now used to beg mom to buy it for dinner I miss her)

Nicole hunted for some piece of useful information in the cacophony of thoughts, some idea of what the Slayer was going to do next, what openings she might present. But there was nothing relevant at all.

(what if they can't change Angel back William is not what I expected huge dork but kind of sexy I totally did not just think that)

A hundred sharp slivers of pain exploded throughout Nicole's hand as Buffy kicked it hard, knocking the knife away and breaking many small bones in the process. Nicole jerked her injured hand back and tried to counterpunch with the good one, but Buffy caught Nicole's arm and threw the Frenchwoman over her shoulder. Gravel skittered as Nicole landed flat on her back.

"Now," Buffy said, putting her foot on Nicole's neck, "tell me where Hayden's going."

Nicole glared at her defiantly. Buffy was about to apply some additional pressure when she heard the crunch car tires coming down the gravel driveway behind her. She glanced back to see who it was-

-and Nicole threw her arms around Buffy's legs and twisted her whole body hard, throwing Buffy to the ground. Nicole got up, ready to run, when someone shouted, "Freeze! Federal officers!"

Nicole turned and saw two men in dark suits, standing in front of a black sedan and pointing guns at her. Dawn and another man whom Nicole vaguely recognized from the Déjà Vu were in the back seat.

The telepath focused on one of the two agents, prying open his mind like an oyster. Arrest them, she thought, projecting images of Dawn and the man with her into the agent's mind. They're dangerous criminals.

The man turned and hesitantly pointed his gun at Dawn and her companion. "You're- you're under-"

An explosion of black-and-white stars filled Nicole's field of view. As she fell, she sensed the Slayer behind her, pulling back the hammer fist that had just struck the base of Nicole's skull. Then the world faded away.

***

Buffy looked over at Dawn, Wesley, and the two burly men with them. For whatever reason, neither of the dark-suited individuals seemed remotely confused or surprised by what Nicole had just done to them. Instead, they walked up to Buffy and looked down at Nicole.

"We're placing her under arrest," one of them said.

"Mmhmm," Buffy said uncertainly. "Are you sure you can handle someone like her?"

"We have special procedures," the agent answered cryptically. "She won't be bothering you again, Ms. Summers. And neither will Mr. Rayne."

Buffy didn't even bother to wonder how the agent knew her name. "Rayne, as in Ethan Rayne?" she asked. "He was in on this?"

"Yes ma'am."

"That explains a lot."

"Yes ma'am."

The other agent got down on his knees next to Nicole's unconscious form. He took a syringe of some kind from his jacket and injected her with it. "She'll stay out until she's properly contained," the agent explained. "The rest of your friends are up at the house. Some of them may need medical attention."

"Your nation thanks you for your help in this matter," the first agent said.

The two agents lifted Nicole between them and carried her to the car. Dawn and Wesley got out, and the agents laid Nicole down in the back seat. Before they closed the rear door, Dawn nudged Nicole's body roughly.

"Sfacciata," she muttered.

Then the sedan drove off, and Buffy, Wesley, and Dawn headed back up the hill to their friends.

***

Hayden drove up the Pacific Coast Highway with great care, not even taking the time to enjoy the view of the rocky, moonlit beach sixty feet below him. He had to stay under the speed limit - this was not a good time to be pulled over. Although Hayden doubted that any patrol officer would recognize plutonium on sight, having a metal briefcase full of whitish powder on the passenger's seat would provide enough probable cause to arrest Hayden on the spot. Perhaps it would be better to put the case under the front seat, just to be safe.

That was when he noticed the case was slightly open.

This was not good. Plutonium was not highly radioactive and could not do any harm outside the body, but if one inhaled it, death from lung fibrosis could occur within a month. And the plutonium in the case was in powder form.

Hayden tried to close the case, but it wouldn't stay shut. A closer look revealed that the latch was damaged. Cassio had broken it during his wrench attack.

Idiot boy, Hayden thought as a feeling of desperation overtook him. He needed to get that case closed right now. Maybe he could put something heavy on top of it. He glanced desperately around the floors and the back seat for anything that might work.

He didn't notice that he had veered into the wrong lane until the Greyhound bus was almost on top of him. The driver had swerved to Hayden's right, but the long body of the bus was covering most of the road. Hayden panicked and yanked the wheel left. The Jaguar missed the bus and punched through the guardrail.

He screamed all the way down.

END CHAPTER 11