Angelus ran as fast as possible in the direction of the nearest alley he
could find.
When he finally reached his destination he leaned against the wall and took
his jacket off. He reached inside one of his pockets and took a small
pocket knife out of it.
He dug the blade inside of the wound in his shoulder and finally was able to remove the bullet.
After that he searched with his hands for the wound on his back and was able to find it. But the second bullet didn't hurt as much as the one he had in his shoulder. Add to that he couldn't reach the wound without help, let alone remove a bullet, he decided to leave things as they were.
He took his jacket from the ground and looked at the bullet hole in it.
"My luck he didn't have those blessed bullets this time," he murmured before he disappeared in the general direction of the industrial district.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------
Xander entered the library with two duffel bags in his hands. The remaining scoobies were all sitting at the table in the middle of the room, waiting for his report with anticipation.
"You found something out?" Faith asked once he was completely in the room.
"Yep," Xander said and turned his attention towards Giles. "Found your old pal Ethan Rayne at the mansion. Someone really had fun snapping his neck. Seems like he is responsible for Angelus the sequel."
"I can't believe this," Giles muttered. "Ethan always liked to spread chaos, but he wouldn't do something as suicidal as going after Angelus all by himself."
"I don't think he did this on his own," Xander told him and dropped the bags on the floor. He took a chair and sat down at the head of the table. "I assume that the Mayor hired him for this job," he explained and noticed the confused stares the rest of the gang were giving him.
"But Xander, where is the connection between Ethan and the Mayor?" Giles finally asked.
"You guys remember the band candy incident you told me about?" Xander asked. That earned him a collective nod. "Ethan was paid by the Mayor to curse the chocolate."
"How did you know that?" Willow asked.
Xander shrugged. "Went through the Mayor's files while I was working for him. Ethan was on City Hall's payroll for this action," he told her. "Looks like Ethan's services were needed again. But that's not important. The more important thing is, what we are gonna do."
Surprisingly it was Wesley that took the word in the room. "Well, I believe we have two choices. Either we go out and kill Angelus or we again curse him with a soul. If no one has any objection we should vote."
"Okay, who is for staking Angelus?" he asked. Willow, Giles, Cordy, Wesley, Oz and Buffy lifted their hands. "Who is for cursing him with a soul?" This time only Faith raised her hand.
She noticed the stares she received from he rest of the group. "What? I kinda like the guy," she said and shrugged with her shoulders.
Now everyone was looking at Xander, who was the only one who didn't raise his hand.
"What?" Xander finally asked annoyed. "What are you expecting? Should I sing 'Another one bites the dust' on top of my lungs? Believe me, a year ago you would have had no greater supporter for this decision than me, but things are a bit different now," Xander explained.
"What do you mean?" Wesley asked.
"Okay, I'm the last person that would admit it, but we need Angel for Graduation day. And there is still the danger that he might take out one of us in the process if we go after him. And plan two, well the soul curse will not work this time."
"Hey," Willow exclaimed. "I'm pretty sure that I could do it again."
"I'm not questioning your magic abilities Willow," Xander explained. "It's just not possible," he said and took a pencil from one of the books and placed it in front of him on the table. "Would you please levitate the pencil a bit?"
Willow looked confused at the others, but finally gave in and concentrated on the pencil and lifted it a few inches in the air.
Xander grabbed the flying pencil and motioned to Willow to stop.
"Now," he said and placed it on his open palm. "Do it again."
Again Willow concentrated, but this time the pencil just didn't move. After the third try Willow stopped.
"How is that possible?" Willow asked confused.
With out letting the pencil out of his hand Xander reached under his shirt and revealed a shining amulet.
"My protection amulet. One of the many presents the Mayor gave me during my work," Xander explained and unclasped it and gave it to Giles. "It protects me from most spells."
"But Xander, what's that got to do with Angelus?" Buffy asked.
"Well, I saw a similar one around Angelus' neck. The Mayor probably gave it to him to protect him from the soul curse," Xander told her.
Unseen from the rest Willow again concentrated on the pencil in Xander's hand, but again the pencil would not move. After a few seconds Xander noticed this.
"Don't try it Will. I always carry double protection," he said and lifted his right hand and showed her the ring he wore around his ring finger.
"Another protection item?" Wesley asked.
"Yeah," Xander said. "Picked it up during my road trip. Also a pretty handy thing."
Giles meanwhile had passed the amulet to Wesley who also started to examine it.
"Can I see the ring?" Giles asked.
"Sorry, G-man, I never take it off. It's my last line of defence against magic. But here," he said and placed his hand on the table, so Giles could examine the ring.
"Now I understand," Willow exclaimed happily.
"Understand what?" Oz asked her.
"When Xander was on his road trip I tried a location spell," she explained. "But it didn't work. I thought I did something wrong, but now it seems that I couldn't find him because the ring protected him."
"Guess you might be right with that," Xander said. "Are you finished Giles? I need my hand."
"Ah, Xander," Giles stammered "You know that this is the ring of a master assassin of the brotherhood of Taraka?"
Xander shrugged "Yeah, why? I ran in one in Atlanta."
"But I read that these rings cannot removed without the will of the wearer."
"Yeah, unless you cut the finger off," Xander explained.
"Eww," Cordelia and Willow exclaimed at the same time.
"Guys," Buffy interrupted the conversation. "That all is pretty interesting, but I think we went a bit off topic here. So, what are we gonna do with Angelus?"
"Well, you are the leader. I think it's still your choice Buffy," Xander told the blonde slayer.
"And most of us decided to destroy Angelus once and for all," Buffy stated. "So I think we will go with this plan."
"The problem is: That's exactly what the Mayor wants us to do. Like I said, if we go with plan A, we will at least lose Angel, maybe another one of us while we hunt him. And it will take us a lot of time to find him," Xander summed the situation up. "Time we don't have, cause we have to prepare for tomorrow. And we already established that Plan B won't work."
"Doesn't seem like we have a big choice," Faith exclaimed.
"No. But luckily I invented plan C," Xander said and stood up. He opened one of the two duffel bags and threw two rifles to both Faith and Buffy. The two slayers caught their respective weapons in mid air and looked strangely at them.
"What are these?" Buffy asked.
Xander shrugged. "Tranquilizer rifles."
Both slayers stared with disbelief at him.
"You can't be serious," Buffy finally said.
"Oh, I'm pretty serious," Xander stated.
"Okay, let me get this straight," Faith said and interrupted their upcoming argument. "Us two are supposed to go out there, find Angelus, sedate him, remove the amulet so Red here can curse him with his soul."
"See, she doesn't have a problem with it," Xander said. "Come on Buffy, that's the best plan I can come up with. I something goes wrong you can still stake him"
"Okay, let's just assume we follow your idea, how are we supposed to find him?" Buffy asked.
"Well, I have the same kind of amulet Angelus wears. I'm not the greatest expert on magic, but I think Willow should be able to locate him if she uses my amulet as a kind of reference."
"You think you can do that," Buffy asked the red haired hacker.
"I think that might work. I will have to cast a location spell on Xander's medallion and then search for a similar energy signature," Willow explained.
"These might be useful," Xander said and produced a couple of walkie talkies from one of the bags. "This way you can tell Willow when she can start the soul curse."
"Great, this plan is that insane that it might work," Buffy murmured.
"Okay," Faith interrupted, "We hunt Angelus down and you protect the library."
"Sorry Faith, but I have something more important to do," Xander told her.
"Something more important?" Faith asked confused. "What could be that important?"
Xander only smiled at her. "I will do the one thing the Mayor won't count on. While you two hunt Angelus I will attack City Hall."
Everyone in the library now had a look of surprise and shock on their faces.
"Xander, are you insane," Buffy nearly shouted. "There must be more vampires than at Willy's on a Friday night. You can't take them all out."
"Oh, I think I have a pretty good chance," Xander told her with a smug grin. "They don't think that I will be coming. That's my advantage."
"A pretty slim advantage," Buffy countered, but noticed the determination in Xander's eyes. "I'm not going to change your mind?"
"Nope," Xander told her still grinning.
"But who is going to guard the library while we are away?" Faith asked him.
"Those two," Xander said and pointed at Giles and Wesley. The two Watchers looked shocked at the teen, then at each other and then back at Xander. "Us?" they both asked at the same time.
"Yep, you two," Xander stated and took two Spas-12 shotguns from the other duffel bag and handed the weapons to the two Watchers. Then he took a few boxes with shotgun shells out of the bag and placed them on the table. "These are loaded with wooden buckshot," he explained and pointed at one of the boxes. "If Angelus tries something stupid like coming back here, shoot him in the heart and he will be dust. I hope you two know how to handle such a weapon."
"Well, it looks a bit different than the guns I used in my youth," Giles explained, "but I think there will be no problems."
"Wesley?" Xander asked the younger Watcher.
But Wesley already had opened one of the boxes and loaded his shotgun. He pumped the gun "No problem," he told him.
"Okay, I think it's pretty clear what everyone has to do," Xander said and looked at everyone. "Let's start."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------
"So they left?" came the voice of Richard Wilkins III from the other side of the phone.
"Yeah boss. The two slayers and your 'friend' just left the school," the vampire told him over the cell phone. He stood on one of the buildings that was just across the street of Sunnydale High. "Looks like Angelus really did a number on them."
"Just as we expected," the Mayor exclaimed. "You know what you have to do?"
The vampire turned around and looked at his men. "Yeah boss, I know what I have to do."
"Good. Wait five more minutes, then you can start," the Mayor told him and hung up.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------
Xander parked his SUV about a block away from City Hall. He didn't want to attract too much attention and if things went as planned he didn't want his car damaged.
He quickly left the car and opened the trunk. His equipment was almost the same he used on the drug house. This time however the one of Kyle's G36ks replaced the M4 and he now had one of the P8's with him.
He quickly put the SWAT vest on and placed the P8 in his hip holster. Then he took the G36 and attached a grenade launcher to the barrel. He loaded one 40mm grenade and placed two more into the slings of the vest. He also took magazines for the assault rifle, the pistol and shells for the Spas- 12, which he slung over his shoulder. Also in went a few stakes and a combat knife for close combat.
After that he took a Cmag, a 100 rounds drum magazine for the G36, and loaded the German assault rifle with it.
To finish his preparations he took the rucksack with the explosives he had taken from the library and slung ii over his other shoulder.
He closed the trunk and walked into the direction of City Hall.
When the distance between him and the official building was only about one hundred meters he stopped. At this distance Xander could clearly see the two vampires that stood guard at both sides of the entrance.
Deciding to try his new toy out he aimed and pressed the trigger of the grenade launcher.
Before one of the vampires could react, the grenade had already had hit the door. It exploded into a great ball of fire that illuminated the whole street. The result was devastating. The door was ripped apart and the two vampires were nowhere to be seen.
Content with this first field test, Xander opened the grenade launcher and released the still smoking shell. He took another one from his vest and reloaded his weapon.
Whistling a happy tune he crossed the remaining distance to City Hall, just in time to see the first wave of vampires entering the entrance hall.
He dug the blade inside of the wound in his shoulder and finally was able to remove the bullet.
After that he searched with his hands for the wound on his back and was able to find it. But the second bullet didn't hurt as much as the one he had in his shoulder. Add to that he couldn't reach the wound without help, let alone remove a bullet, he decided to leave things as they were.
He took his jacket from the ground and looked at the bullet hole in it.
"My luck he didn't have those blessed bullets this time," he murmured before he disappeared in the general direction of the industrial district.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------
Xander entered the library with two duffel bags in his hands. The remaining scoobies were all sitting at the table in the middle of the room, waiting for his report with anticipation.
"You found something out?" Faith asked once he was completely in the room.
"Yep," Xander said and turned his attention towards Giles. "Found your old pal Ethan Rayne at the mansion. Someone really had fun snapping his neck. Seems like he is responsible for Angelus the sequel."
"I can't believe this," Giles muttered. "Ethan always liked to spread chaos, but he wouldn't do something as suicidal as going after Angelus all by himself."
"I don't think he did this on his own," Xander told him and dropped the bags on the floor. He took a chair and sat down at the head of the table. "I assume that the Mayor hired him for this job," he explained and noticed the confused stares the rest of the gang were giving him.
"But Xander, where is the connection between Ethan and the Mayor?" Giles finally asked.
"You guys remember the band candy incident you told me about?" Xander asked. That earned him a collective nod. "Ethan was paid by the Mayor to curse the chocolate."
"How did you know that?" Willow asked.
Xander shrugged. "Went through the Mayor's files while I was working for him. Ethan was on City Hall's payroll for this action," he told her. "Looks like Ethan's services were needed again. But that's not important. The more important thing is, what we are gonna do."
Surprisingly it was Wesley that took the word in the room. "Well, I believe we have two choices. Either we go out and kill Angelus or we again curse him with a soul. If no one has any objection we should vote."
"Okay, who is for staking Angelus?" he asked. Willow, Giles, Cordy, Wesley, Oz and Buffy lifted their hands. "Who is for cursing him with a soul?" This time only Faith raised her hand.
She noticed the stares she received from he rest of the group. "What? I kinda like the guy," she said and shrugged with her shoulders.
Now everyone was looking at Xander, who was the only one who didn't raise his hand.
"What?" Xander finally asked annoyed. "What are you expecting? Should I sing 'Another one bites the dust' on top of my lungs? Believe me, a year ago you would have had no greater supporter for this decision than me, but things are a bit different now," Xander explained.
"What do you mean?" Wesley asked.
"Okay, I'm the last person that would admit it, but we need Angel for Graduation day. And there is still the danger that he might take out one of us in the process if we go after him. And plan two, well the soul curse will not work this time."
"Hey," Willow exclaimed. "I'm pretty sure that I could do it again."
"I'm not questioning your magic abilities Willow," Xander explained. "It's just not possible," he said and took a pencil from one of the books and placed it in front of him on the table. "Would you please levitate the pencil a bit?"
Willow looked confused at the others, but finally gave in and concentrated on the pencil and lifted it a few inches in the air.
Xander grabbed the flying pencil and motioned to Willow to stop.
"Now," he said and placed it on his open palm. "Do it again."
Again Willow concentrated, but this time the pencil just didn't move. After the third try Willow stopped.
"How is that possible?" Willow asked confused.
With out letting the pencil out of his hand Xander reached under his shirt and revealed a shining amulet.
"My protection amulet. One of the many presents the Mayor gave me during my work," Xander explained and unclasped it and gave it to Giles. "It protects me from most spells."
"But Xander, what's that got to do with Angelus?" Buffy asked.
"Well, I saw a similar one around Angelus' neck. The Mayor probably gave it to him to protect him from the soul curse," Xander told her.
Unseen from the rest Willow again concentrated on the pencil in Xander's hand, but again the pencil would not move. After a few seconds Xander noticed this.
"Don't try it Will. I always carry double protection," he said and lifted his right hand and showed her the ring he wore around his ring finger.
"Another protection item?" Wesley asked.
"Yeah," Xander said. "Picked it up during my road trip. Also a pretty handy thing."
Giles meanwhile had passed the amulet to Wesley who also started to examine it.
"Can I see the ring?" Giles asked.
"Sorry, G-man, I never take it off. It's my last line of defence against magic. But here," he said and placed his hand on the table, so Giles could examine the ring.
"Now I understand," Willow exclaimed happily.
"Understand what?" Oz asked her.
"When Xander was on his road trip I tried a location spell," she explained. "But it didn't work. I thought I did something wrong, but now it seems that I couldn't find him because the ring protected him."
"Guess you might be right with that," Xander said. "Are you finished Giles? I need my hand."
"Ah, Xander," Giles stammered "You know that this is the ring of a master assassin of the brotherhood of Taraka?"
Xander shrugged "Yeah, why? I ran in one in Atlanta."
"But I read that these rings cannot removed without the will of the wearer."
"Yeah, unless you cut the finger off," Xander explained.
"Eww," Cordelia and Willow exclaimed at the same time.
"Guys," Buffy interrupted the conversation. "That all is pretty interesting, but I think we went a bit off topic here. So, what are we gonna do with Angelus?"
"Well, you are the leader. I think it's still your choice Buffy," Xander told the blonde slayer.
"And most of us decided to destroy Angelus once and for all," Buffy stated. "So I think we will go with this plan."
"The problem is: That's exactly what the Mayor wants us to do. Like I said, if we go with plan A, we will at least lose Angel, maybe another one of us while we hunt him. And it will take us a lot of time to find him," Xander summed the situation up. "Time we don't have, cause we have to prepare for tomorrow. And we already established that Plan B won't work."
"Doesn't seem like we have a big choice," Faith exclaimed.
"No. But luckily I invented plan C," Xander said and stood up. He opened one of the two duffel bags and threw two rifles to both Faith and Buffy. The two slayers caught their respective weapons in mid air and looked strangely at them.
"What are these?" Buffy asked.
Xander shrugged. "Tranquilizer rifles."
Both slayers stared with disbelief at him.
"You can't be serious," Buffy finally said.
"Oh, I'm pretty serious," Xander stated.
"Okay, let me get this straight," Faith said and interrupted their upcoming argument. "Us two are supposed to go out there, find Angelus, sedate him, remove the amulet so Red here can curse him with his soul."
"See, she doesn't have a problem with it," Xander said. "Come on Buffy, that's the best plan I can come up with. I something goes wrong you can still stake him"
"Okay, let's just assume we follow your idea, how are we supposed to find him?" Buffy asked.
"Well, I have the same kind of amulet Angelus wears. I'm not the greatest expert on magic, but I think Willow should be able to locate him if she uses my amulet as a kind of reference."
"You think you can do that," Buffy asked the red haired hacker.
"I think that might work. I will have to cast a location spell on Xander's medallion and then search for a similar energy signature," Willow explained.
"These might be useful," Xander said and produced a couple of walkie talkies from one of the bags. "This way you can tell Willow when she can start the soul curse."
"Great, this plan is that insane that it might work," Buffy murmured.
"Okay," Faith interrupted, "We hunt Angelus down and you protect the library."
"Sorry Faith, but I have something more important to do," Xander told her.
"Something more important?" Faith asked confused. "What could be that important?"
Xander only smiled at her. "I will do the one thing the Mayor won't count on. While you two hunt Angelus I will attack City Hall."
Everyone in the library now had a look of surprise and shock on their faces.
"Xander, are you insane," Buffy nearly shouted. "There must be more vampires than at Willy's on a Friday night. You can't take them all out."
"Oh, I think I have a pretty good chance," Xander told her with a smug grin. "They don't think that I will be coming. That's my advantage."
"A pretty slim advantage," Buffy countered, but noticed the determination in Xander's eyes. "I'm not going to change your mind?"
"Nope," Xander told her still grinning.
"But who is going to guard the library while we are away?" Faith asked him.
"Those two," Xander said and pointed at Giles and Wesley. The two Watchers looked shocked at the teen, then at each other and then back at Xander. "Us?" they both asked at the same time.
"Yep, you two," Xander stated and took two Spas-12 shotguns from the other duffel bag and handed the weapons to the two Watchers. Then he took a few boxes with shotgun shells out of the bag and placed them on the table. "These are loaded with wooden buckshot," he explained and pointed at one of the boxes. "If Angelus tries something stupid like coming back here, shoot him in the heart and he will be dust. I hope you two know how to handle such a weapon."
"Well, it looks a bit different than the guns I used in my youth," Giles explained, "but I think there will be no problems."
"Wesley?" Xander asked the younger Watcher.
But Wesley already had opened one of the boxes and loaded his shotgun. He pumped the gun "No problem," he told him.
"Okay, I think it's pretty clear what everyone has to do," Xander said and looked at everyone. "Let's start."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------
"So they left?" came the voice of Richard Wilkins III from the other side of the phone.
"Yeah boss. The two slayers and your 'friend' just left the school," the vampire told him over the cell phone. He stood on one of the buildings that was just across the street of Sunnydale High. "Looks like Angelus really did a number on them."
"Just as we expected," the Mayor exclaimed. "You know what you have to do?"
The vampire turned around and looked at his men. "Yeah boss, I know what I have to do."
"Good. Wait five more minutes, then you can start," the Mayor told him and hung up.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------
Xander parked his SUV about a block away from City Hall. He didn't want to attract too much attention and if things went as planned he didn't want his car damaged.
He quickly left the car and opened the trunk. His equipment was almost the same he used on the drug house. This time however the one of Kyle's G36ks replaced the M4 and he now had one of the P8's with him.
He quickly put the SWAT vest on and placed the P8 in his hip holster. Then he took the G36 and attached a grenade launcher to the barrel. He loaded one 40mm grenade and placed two more into the slings of the vest. He also took magazines for the assault rifle, the pistol and shells for the Spas- 12, which he slung over his shoulder. Also in went a few stakes and a combat knife for close combat.
After that he took a Cmag, a 100 rounds drum magazine for the G36, and loaded the German assault rifle with it.
To finish his preparations he took the rucksack with the explosives he had taken from the library and slung ii over his other shoulder.
He closed the trunk and walked into the direction of City Hall.
When the distance between him and the official building was only about one hundred meters he stopped. At this distance Xander could clearly see the two vampires that stood guard at both sides of the entrance.
Deciding to try his new toy out he aimed and pressed the trigger of the grenade launcher.
Before one of the vampires could react, the grenade had already had hit the door. It exploded into a great ball of fire that illuminated the whole street. The result was devastating. The door was ripped apart and the two vampires were nowhere to be seen.
Content with this first field test, Xander opened the grenade launcher and released the still smoking shell. He took another one from his vest and reloaded his weapon.
Whistling a happy tune he crossed the remaining distance to City Hall, just in time to see the first wave of vampires entering the entrance hall.