"I haven't seen anyone fence like that in years."
"Uh, thanks." Jake replied.
"Too bad they no longer have competitions. You two would have been great."
"Do you fence, Finn?" Ryder asked.
"Used to?" Finn held out his hand for the foil Ham was holding. "May I?"
"Of course." Ham tossed it to him.
Finn challenged Jake who accepted. Finn fought amazingly, Jake even with her slayer strength could barely keep up. Ryder and Ham were stunned. When Finn knocked the foil from Jake's hand, Ryder stared at the watch. "Three minutes."
"Best time in the state." Finn said proudly.
"Wow!" Ham said.
Finn looked at his watch. "Got to get to class!" He ran out.
Ham and Ryder finally turned to Jake, who exhaled loudly, "god, he's fast!"
That afternoon when Jake fought Angel, she actually beat him.
"Wow, how did you get so good so fast?"
"Someone other than you beat me." She smiled at Ryder and Ham.
"Well, why don't you go patrol with Buffy tonight." Wesley said walking down the stairs.
That night as Buffy, Jake, Angel, and Gunn went on patrol, Spike went out to find a bar. He found one a few blocks down from Bella's garage. He went inside, sat at the bar, and ordered a drink. After ten drinks around ten o'clock, Spike paid and left. He stumbled out the exit into the alley. He was walking toward the street when a figure in a dark coat appeared and punched Spike in the nose.
Meanwhile at the diner, Will, Xander, and Scout were closing up. Xander was in the back cleaning the kitchen; Scout was washing the counter, as Will was cleaning the booths. Will finished with the booth and rinsed his rag in a bucket. He started to turn the front lights off, when a pale figure in a long leather jacket stumbled down the street and collapsed in front of the diner. Will saw him and ran out the door. Will dragged the man in. "Scout!"
Scout looked up and saw the guy and Will. He ran over.
"He's not breathing." Will said.
Xander walked in, "he can't."
"He doesn't have a heart beat either." Scout said. Both looked up at Xander for help, but all Xander did was walk over and kneel next to the guy. Will started to give him CPR. After he breathed into the guy, the guy shoved him away.
"Yuk, get off of me."
"But you're…" Will started.
"Bloody Hell, Xander, tell him I'm not dead."
Scout & Will started at Xander and then at the guy and back again.
"Oh, come on, Spike."
"What's going on?" Scout demanded.
"I'll call Giles, Spike sit down." Xander went over to the counter and pulled out the phone.
Scout and Will couldn't believe their eyes. Suddenly the figure that attacked Spike crashed through the front window. It immediately attacked Spike. Xander yelled at Giles to get over there and then tried to pry the creature off of Spike. Xander and the creature rolled away from Spike. Both stood up it was a demon with scaly blue skin, four red horns came out of its forehead. It was dress in bronze armor with two axes crossing over its back. It was about two feet taller than Spike, and his eyes were yellow and glowing.
"What? How?" Scout asked as Will fainted.
"Blake!" Spike growled.
"Spike!" The demon growled.
"Friend of yours?" Xander asked Spike.
"Actually no."
"He killed my lover." Blake told them.
"One of the girls I killed happened to be his lover." Spike explained.
At that moment, Giles burst in with Wesley, Cordelia, Ryder, and Ham.
"Ham, Ryder? What's going on?" Scout asked.
They remained quiet.
"Wesley!" The demon growled.
"Blake?"
"Don't tell me you know him!" Cordelia exclaimed.
"Unfortunately yes, Giles isn't the only one who had a dark side."
"What did you do?" Xander asked.
"I used to be a great king, but he took it away."
"I destroyed a dimension with a spell by accident."
"You what!?" Cordelia, Giles, and Xander asked simultaneously.
"How?" Giles asked.
"It was a transportation spell, but when we saw the dimension was full of demons we decided to destroy it. Blake escaped by chance, but we escaped."
"My world was destroyed in seconds." Blake growled.
Before Blake could attack Wesley, they heard the wail of a siren from a police car. Blake vanished into a puff of smoke. The rest grabbed Spike and Will and took off for the house.
Later at the house after explaining the situation to Will and Scout, Giles called Angel's cell and told them to get Jake back to the house. Giles gathered the group and got them into research mode. Jake arrived ten minutes later and was brought up to date. Cordelia got up from the table full of books to get another from the bookshelf. Suddenly the book dropped from her hand, "Ahhhhh!" She screamed as she fell to her knees, Angel and Wesley ran to her side, as Gunn left to get aspirin and water.
"What's going on?" Buffy asked.
"She's having a vision." Gunn explained returning with the pills and water.
"Wait, I though that guy Doyle was the one…" Cordelia's wailing interrupted Buffy.
Cordelia hugged Angel, and whispered, "she's not ready, it can't be, she's not ready."
"What? What did you see?" Buffy asked loudly.
"Not so loud." Wesley whispered.
"Well?" Buffy said.
"Jake fighting for her life…against Blake."
"What?" Ham said, hugging Jake.
"When?" Wesley asked.
"I don't…" Someone or something whispered to Cordelia. "One month from today."
"The powers that be are giving us an early warning? Why?" Buffy asked.
"To prepare me." Jake muttered.
"I, uh, have an idea." Willow spoke up. "But I'm going to need Anya's help."
"I'll call her, but she's not going to be happy about leaving the shop." Xander told her as he walked toward the phone.
Later that night Will and Scout are in Jake and Ham's room.
"So when were you going to tell us?" Scout asked.
"Never?" Jake said weakly.
"Why? We're friends." Will protested.
"I didn't want to get you guys killed."
"But you told Ryder!" Scout exclaimed.
"Well, no one cares if he gets killed." Ham smiled weakly.
"Notice no one's laughing." Scout said.
"Sorry," Ham and Jake apologized.
The next day, Anya and Willow had moved all the furniture in the parlor to give them some extra space. Willow explained to everyone at once, what she was going to do.
"Ok, I think I can bring his girlfriend back, which would solve Spike's problem, as for Wesley…well, we can't fix that."
"Isn't that kind of dangerous?" Ham asked.
"Yes, I don't think you should do it. If you fail, it could kill you." Giles added.
"That's why we're using Spike as a safety net. If anything goes wrong, Spike will be slightly injured, instead of either of us dying."
"I don't mind that idea." Giles said with a smile.
"Hey!" Spike said, "but if it will make Blake go away, okay."
"So what exactly are you doing?" Jake asked.
"We're going to call upon the power of Hades, the Greek god of the underworld." Anya explained.
"Uh..." Will interrupted, "Hades is a myth."
"That's what you think, trust me he's very real."
"In the myths you always have an offering for the god, what do you have?" Scout asked.
Anya held up a large blue crystal. "I found this is the shop. I hope you don't mind, but if that doesn't work we have Wesley."
"Hey!"
"Ok, well we'll leave you alone." Giles closed the door to the parlor, Spike with Willow and Anya.
"Alright, let's go downstairs, Will, Scout you two can work with Gunn, Ryder, Ham, and Xander."
"Um, Giles?"
"Oz?"
"About tomorrow?"
"Oh, right, we'll take care of it tomorrow morning."
"Full moon." Jake whispered, when she saw Will and Scout's confused looks.
"Oh." They replied.
They all walked down the stairs, except Oz who headed upstairs to find Cordelia. He found her in the room she was sharing with Buffy and Willow, she was crying.
"You okay?"
She shook her head. "I miss him."
"Doyle?"
She nodded her head.
"Well, maybe when Willow and Anya are done, they can find a way to contact him."
"It's just that… he loved me and I wouldn't give him the time of day. So he gives me this to remember him by." She points to her head.
"Your head?"
"No, the visions." She smiled.
"I know, but I got you to smile. Come on, they need some help training the new recruits. "
"I'll be down in a minute." She told Oz as he left. Cordelia wiped her eyes and followed. As she passed the parlor she said a silent prayer for Doyle.
In the parlor Anya and Willow sat facing each other chanting. Spike was sitting on a blanket next to them. He watched a lot of spells performed in his time, but he wasn't so sure about this one. As Willow dropped some dust into the pot in front of them, a spirit surrounded by fire appeared.
"Why have you called upon me?" It spoke.
"We seek out a spirit that was wrongfully killed." Anya replied.
"I have a lot of those."
"What was her name?" Willow hissed at Spike.
"I don't know she was Asian."
"I know of whom you speak." The face of a young girl appeared.
"That's her." Spike spoke up.
"What do you have to offer me?" The apparition asked.
Willow held up the crystal.
"You have a seer in your presence, bring her forth."
"Cordelia?"
"Yes, bring her."
Willow opened the door and saw Cordelia in the hall. "Cordy, come here." Cordelia walked over, she gasped when she saw Hades.
"Give me your ring and you may get him back as well."
"But it's not mine." She held out the ring anyway. The ring and the crystal disappeared.
Hades spoke once more. "The girl is bonded to her lover, he dies and she returns to my realm." Then there was a flash of light, Cordelia's eyes filled with tears. When the light faded, she saw the figure in front of her.
"Doyle?"