Buffy lunges at Nina and swings her sledgehammer. Nina leaps in the air, flying over the Slayers and Spike. She lands thirty feet in front of the van. The eight Potentials gallantly try to fight off the six Reapers in order to make their escape. Madari puts an ax into one of their chests, weakening it, but not before it swings its sword for her neck. She ducks her head down and to her right. The single-bladed sword slashes the left side of her neck, creating a shallow, four inch-long wound. She swings her ax again, driving the Reaper back. In the heat of battle, she doesn't notice that her shirt is becoming soaked with blood. To her left, Izora uses a small, forked trident-like weapon to catch the Reaper's dagger, then kicks him with her right foot. The Reaper attacks again. Zora switches hands, putting the mini-trident in her left hand and her sword in her right. She blocks his sword slash with the trident, ducks under under a right hook kick, then sticks her short, wide-bladed sword into his left thigh. The Reaper retreats. Working together, Ella and Fadila drive a third Reaper back. The four of them rush to the van. On the left wing, the three Reapers retreat and surround Spike's car, worrying Andrew, who's sitting in the driver's seat. Kennedy, Molly, Rona and Amanda join the other Potentials in racing for the van.
Twenty feet in front of them, Willow's eyes take on a reddish glow as she glowers at Nina, who's ten feet in front of her. "Eschatae," Willow commands. A force field appears between the two of them. Nina steps forward, reaching her left hand towards the barrier. Willow reaches out her right hand, trying to push her back. Nina's left hand pierces the force field. She grabs Willow's right hand, then walks through the barrier, which collapses. Nina kisses Willow's right hand.
"Sticks and stones, sweetie," a smiling Nina tells a stunned Willow before knocking her down with the back of her right hand. Giles stands right behind Willow, wielding his battle ax and looking fully prepared to die before letting Nina pass. As he swings the weapon downwards, Nina reaches her left hand up, grabs the handle and tosses the weapon to her left. When Rupert still holds his ground, Nina knocks him out with a right uppercut to the chin. "You did your best," she casually and condescendingly reassures the unconscious Watcher before leaping at the van while the girls are piling into it. Madari and Rona have already gotten in. When Nina appears, the girls shriek and get out of the way. Molly, Kennedy and Amanda move to her left. Ariella, Fadila and Izora move to her right. Nina pushes the van over onto its left side. At the same time, the six Reapers, standing on the left of Spike's car, overturn it in the other direction. Andrew manages to leap out before the vehicle is turned upside-down. Then the Reapers flee into the darkness, leaving Nina alone with her now-stranded enemies.
By now, Buffy and company have arrived on the scene, though without their cumbersome weaponry. Nina turns to face them. "Here come the heroes to the rescue," Nina announces. Buffy throws a right kick. Nina allows it to hit her face, then spins clockwise. On the first rotation she lads a left left hook kick, on the second, a right roundhouse kick, and on the third, a left hook. The three powerful blows, executed in less than two seconds, knock Buffy out. Spike lands a right hook to Nina's face. She turns to her left and downs Spike with a quick right cross, left uppercut combination. Faith lands two right hooks to the left side of Nina's face. She turns around and puts her right hand around Faith's neck before she can react. Nina lifts Faith's feet off the ground and hurls her to Nina's right. Faith's head slams into the van's exposed chassis.
"Oh well. They tried," Nina says to no one in particular. During the ten-or-so seconds the putative superheroes held off Nina, Rona, Madari and Anya climbed out of the overturned van. There is no one left to protect them. Anya runs over to Giles to help him get up. Nina turns to her left and looks at Kennedy. "Now where were we?," she asks herself. Ready to take the lead, Kennedy charges at Nina and swings her sword. Nina ducks down, shoots her head and shoulders towards Kennedy's knees, avoids the blade and knocks Kennedy down with a vicious cut block. Nina quickly bounds to her feet. She reaches out, grips Molly's neck with her right hand, and plunges her left hand into Molly's chest, ripping out her heart for all to see. Never have the Potentials been more afraid, sickened or demoralized. Nina quickly shoves the heart back in and drops Molly's lifeless body to the ground. Nina turns round and walks towards Ella, Zora, Fadila, Madari, Rona and a limping Kennedy, who stands in front, still committed to being the leader no matter the costs.
"I'll let the wounded go," Nina announces. "I like my kills fresh." Ella, Fadila and Madari are all cut and bleeding badly. Kennedy can barely stand up, let alone fight. Amanda, who is behind Nina, swings her sword for Nina's neck. She slices right through it. But as soon as the blade leaves the flesh, it repairs itself. Nina whirls around and knocks Amanda down with a left roundhouse kick. Rona and Kennedy charge Nina. She leaps eight feet straight up into the air, does a mid-air somersault and kicks both girls in the back, knocking them on their faces. She reaches back, picks up Kennedy with her right hand and looks into her eyes, holding Kennedy so that her body is between Nina and the four standing Potentials. Kennedy punches her twice in the face with her right hand. Nina puts her left palm to Kennedy's right cheek, smearing her face with Molly's blood. Rona comes at Nina from behind. Nina swings her left arm backwards, felling Rona with a blow from the back of her left hand. Willow has gotten up by now. She chants angrily and frantically, creates a red fireball between her two hands, and commands it to strike Nina. Her body absorbs the ultra-powerful dark magic without so much as a wince or a shiver. Nina glances to her right. "She chose this fate," Nina tells Willow, right before she moves her left hand towards Kennedy's chest. Nina had been willing to leave the injured Kennedy alone, so long as she left Nina alone. Of course, Kennedy could not stand by as Nina took out some other Potential.
But before her fingers can pierce the skin, Izora comes running up on Kennedy's right. She pulls out the pistol Willow/Warren bought and fires at Nina's face from point-blank range. The force of the first shot causes Nina to step back and drop Kennedy. Five more shots follow in rapid succession, knocking Nina nearly thirty feet backwards. But the bullets leave no lasting wound once they're exited out the back of Nina's skull. After the sixth shot, Nina steadies herself, reaches her left arm out and rips the gun out of Izora's hands as the errant seventh shot hits nothing. Nina then sticks her left and right index fingers into Izora's right and left ears. The fingers pierce the eardrums and meet in the center of Izora's brain. Nina executed the move in the blink of an eye. Izora's face looks stunned, yet peaceful, and her body tumbles to the ground. Fadila yells out and tries to charge at Nina, but a tearful Ariella holds an even more tearful Fadila back.
Buffy, Spike and Faith regained consciousness just in time to see Zora die, but not in time to prevent it. Buffy was ten feet away when the Nina gave the mortal wound. A split-second later, Buffy hurls a leaping right hook kick at Nina's head. She hops back out of the way. Buffy lands on her feet and tries a left jab, right cross, left cross and right uppercut. Nina blocks them all, grabs Buffy with both hands and tosses her thirty feet backwards. Faith lands a cartwheel kick. Nina connects with a damaging right kick to Faith's left knee, a right hook kick to the left side of her head and a straight left kick to Faith's chin which knock her down. Spike leaps at Nina, grabs her and sinks his fangs into the right side of her neck. She plunges the fingers on her left hand into Spike's chest, causing him to stop biting and to cry out in pain. He can feel the tips of her fingers on the back of his heart. Buffy lands a right hook to Nina's face. She takes her left hand out of Spike's chest, knocks him down with a right jab and gets nailed in the head by Buffy's right hook kick. Nina knocks Buffy down with a left roundhouse kick.
Frustrated and infuriated by Nina, Willow takes another crack at her. "Ligate!," she commands. But what worked on the brother doesn't work on the sister. Nina holds up her right hand, grabs the magical strand that was supposed to bind her, and whips Willow's face three times with it. Then it wraps itself around Willow's neck and keeps tightening. Willow's falls to her knees. Her face turns bright red, then purple as she struggles to breathe. Kennedy runs over and uses her sword to cut it off and save Willow. Meanwhile, Faith tries to prevent Nina from reaching the Potentials. Nina blocks her left hook kick and right roundhouse kick, then lands a left hook to Faith's face. Faith responds with a left jab and right hook, but Nina blocks them both before connecting with a right jab to Faith's nose, a left hook to her ribs and a right uppercut to her stomach. Nina then tosses Faith to her left. She bounces off of the underside of Spike's car before falling to the ground, worn out from the pounding she took from both Seth and Nina. Spike is also unable to get up and continue. The siblings had been especially tough on him. That leaves only Buffy.
Giles, desperate to help, but reminded by Anya that attacking Nina would be pointlessly suicidal, fetched Buffy's sledgehammer and raced to bring it to her. Rupert is fifteen feet to Buffy's left when Nina closes with the Slayer, so he tosses it. Buffy grabs the middle of the handle with her left hand, puts her right hand on the bottom of the handle and swings for Nina's face. Nina calmy reaches her arms out, grabbing the hammer with her right hand and the handle with her left. Then Nina uses her right foot to sweep Buffy's legs out. As Buffy falls, Nina rips the hammer out of her hands and hurls it like a tomahawk at Kennedy, who's kneeling over the injured Willow about thirty feet away. Seeing the hammer, Willow reaches her left hand out and tries to alter the weapon's path. But she fails. Kennedy ducks, and instead of hitting her in the face, the hammer glances off the top of her head, which still knocks her out and gives her a concussion. Willow, of course, feels awful about this. She's never struck out so completely when the stakes were so high.
Buffy tries a left sweep kick. Nina pulls her head back out of the way. Buffy then throws a right roundhouse kick. Nina brings her fists together and smashes them into both sides of Buffy's right ankle as it swung towards Nina's face. Buffy can feel the bones crack as she brings her throbbing foot back to the ground. Desperate to hold Nina off as long as possible, Buffy grits her teeth and throws a right cross. Nina grabs Buffy's right wrist with her left hand and twists it around, spraining the wrist. At the same time, NIna lands three powerful right jabs to Buffy's nose. Then she spins around and puts Buffy on her back with a leaping right roundhouse kick to the head. Before leaving Buffy, Nina reaches down with her left hand and rips out a lock of Buffy's hair by the roots. She wraps it around her right fist as she walks towards the Potentials. No one's left to try to protect them, save Andrew, Anya and Giles. She walks by Andrew and Anya, who back away towards the girls. She looks to her right at Giles, who's picked up his ax. Nina circles around aimlessly, choosing to survey the devastation rather than finish off her enemies.
"Nothing quite like the sight of the powerful made helpless," Nina gloats with pride. Willow walks towards Nina, not ready to give up. She shoots bolts of energy out of her fingers. Nina just shivers and smiles as the bolts hit her body. The hair she took from Buffy is vaporized. "You are REALLY starting to turn me on!," Nina tells Willow with a flirtatious grin as she walks towards the witch. "If all the men in this town are as sorry as these guys, I might hafta give you a go." Willow's chanting, summoning all the power she can draw upon. Nina just laughs. She reaches out her right hand and grabs Willow's jaw, putting her index finger over Willow's lips. She can feel the power of Nina's grip, like she could crush Willow's jaw between her thumb and ring finger. Nina tilts Willow's head upwards so she can look Nina in the eyes. "Shhh," Nina tells her. "Your false gods can't save you from me."
To Nina's left Giles comes up and swings his ax for her right arm. Nina lets go of Willow and pulls her arm back out of the way. "But you can," she tells Giles. "By the way, I was only slagging the vampire and his little helper. You seem like a real man. Maybe a little vintage." A furious and desperate Giles swings for the murderous Nina's neck. She ducks. He swings for her chest. She lets the blade enter her body. When Giles pulls it out, it leaves no wound. Nina gets him in the head with a quick left hook kick. She rips the ax away with her left hand, grabs his shirt with her right and tosses him twenty-five feet through the air. He hits the ground near the Potentials. Everyone's in front of Nina now, except for Willow and Kennedy, who are behind her. Willow tries to wake Kennedy up.
"Sweetie, sweetie. Come on sweetie. Come on." Nina walks over to them and grabs Willow by her hair, dragging her away from Kennedy and towards Buffy. Willow's tapped out for the time being, and can't do any more ineffectual spells to delay and excite Nina.
"She'll live, sweetie.' I barely tapped her." Nina flings Willow by her hair into Buffy, who's managed to stand up and is trying to limp towards Nina. Willow crashes into Buffy, knocking both of them down and further hurting Buffy's ankle. Nina looks at them. "Never met mortals with that much pride. You two stink with hubris. I'm gonna like cutting you both down to size. Except, as you may have noticed, I'm more of a ripper." Nina walks back over to Kennedy, who regained consciousness as Willow was being dragged away. As she tries to get up, Nina pushes Kennedy back down with her right hand. Naturally, she's terrified. Nina hovers her left hand above Kennedy's chest. She looks out and sees Faith approaching, followed by Willow. Spike and Buffy have stood up, but neither can limp to Nina very quickly. Faith's the only one who stood a chance of occupying Nina's attention for five seconds. But she's not close enough to save Kennedy, if Nina really wants to finish her off. "I'll kill you later," Nina tells Kennedy before rising to her feet. "That's a promise." Nina stands over Kennedy and looks at Faith, who's six feet away.
"Don't pay any attention to the veteran," Nina tells Faith. "You're the one who matters." Then Nina turns around and slowly walks away, confident that no one will pursue her.
Connor hears a noise. He rushes out into the courtyard. Someone's just tossed a body in. Wesley and Gunn also go outside. "He won't get away with this tonight," Connor vows. Another corpse flies over the gate. This one crashes into the fountain, splashing Connor's face with water.
"We're coming with you," Wesley announces. Cordy and Fred stand in the doorway. Connor turns to talk to them.
"If he had a crew, sure. But you said Mal works alone. I'm the only one who stands a chance against this guy." Another body flies over the gate and hits Connor in the back, knocking him flat on his face and calling into question his championish posturing. Connor gets up, undeterred, and runs out to find Mal.
"Shouldn't we be helping him?," Fred asks.
"These corpses would argue against that," Wesley answers while looking the bodies over. "The head's nearly been bitten clean off this one. This other one's missing a right arm. And this last one's missing its heart, and apparently other parts of its chest as well."
"So this time it's the real deal," Gunn concludes. "Mal's callin' us out."
"Looks more like he's trying to keep us away," Cordelia dissents.
"Which means we should go after him." Gunn rebuts. "Maybe there's a reason he doesn't want us around."
"Too late for that," Fred says with resignation. Even if they tried to follow Connor, they couldn't keep up with him on foot. And in the time it would take them to get into Gunn's truck, Connor would have raced out of sight.
Connor follows Mal's scent. As well as the corpses. Over the course of a two mile pursuit, Mal found time to catch and kill four more victims. Mal made sure to mutilate them in ways that would get Connor's attention. The first was mauled and disemboweled. The second was scalped. The third had his nose and ears bit off. The fourth lacked knee caps and a head — Connor found these body parts spread out over the next few blocks. Five minutes after leaving the hotel, fleet-footed Connor catches up to Mal near the La Brea tar pits. As he takes a minute to catch his breath, Connor does a quick calculation in his head to figure out how fast Mal had to run to make these kills (they smelled too fresh to Connor to have been done in advance) and still keep several steps ahead of him. Mal patiently stands about one hundred yards away, waiting until Connor recovers fully from the pursuit.
"Never fight on an empty stomach," Mal jokes to Connor about his trail of slaughter. He's showing his human face. No reason to scare the boy. Connor walks towards him. "You think I'll tell you where your father is before you kill me?," Mal asks before bursting into laughter at this absurd notion.
"That's up to you," Connor replies with all sincerity.
"You're right. I can decide to let you beat me. Or, I could try. So one might say that the quality of your performance does not even matter." Connor takes a bottle of holy water out of his right pants pocket and throws it at Mal. The bottle shatters against his forehead, and the water drenches his face and hair. Mal wipes it away. Connor lands a right hook and a left roundhouse kick to Mal's face, knocking him backwards. Connor realizes that he only succeeded in getting Mal wet. That bothers him. But he doesn't let it distract him. Connor lands a straight right kick to Mal's chin. "The first three are free," Mal announces before landing a right jab-right hook combination. He blocks Connor's left cross and right hook before sending three right jabs into Connor's nose. "The rest are going to to cost you." Connor tries a right hook kick. Mal swerves his head to the left and avoids it. He starts dancing and circling, making Connor pursue him. Mal doesn't seem to be in a hurry.
"I can sense your parents inside you. All three of them." Connor charges in and throws a right hook. Mal dodges to the left, then throws Connor on his back. "You know you have two fathers. He believes he must always deny part of his nature. But you are not quite as weak as your father." Connor charges in and throws a left jab. Mal pushes him back. Connor attacks again and tries a cartwheel kick. Mal steps to the side and kicks Connor in the back, knocking his face into the grass. "The light and the dark, you feel them both, always, like a real man. Like me." Mal continues forcing Connor to take the offensive. He leaps at Mal and knocks him back with a right kick to the chest. Connor follows this up with a right cross. Mal lands two right jabs. Connor hits Mal in the mouth with a left jab and in the chin with a right uppercut. Mal answers with a left cross. Then, instead of throwing a right cross, he reaches his right arm towards Connor's chest and grabs his wooden cross, which was dangling from a string around the boy's neck. Mal steps back and ties the string behind his neck. He fingers the cross. Then he looks at the stunned Connor, who's seen a lot of things in his life, but never a vampire wearing a crucifix.
"Ex post facto. That was how they explained it when I first started pulling this trick." The two of them stand ten feet apart for five seconds as Connor tries to make sense of Mal's immunity. "Isn't it time for you to resume killing me?," Mal jokes. Connor charges in. Mal jumps high up into the air, avoiding the attack. Connor turns around leaps at Mal, trying to hit him in midair. They meet fifteen feet off the ground. Mal blocks Connor's kick and sends him tumbling head-over-heels back to earth. He lands on his feet and waits for Connor to get up. "Now your heart, that comes from your mother. It always does. Let me think. That would make you needy — no — desperate, for love." Connor doesn't like people talking smack about his mom, especially when those people are his vampire enemies. He throws a left hook, which Mal avoids, but hits the vampire with a right uppercut and a right hook kick to the stomach. Mal doesn't bother to try to block body blows. "Thirsting for someone to nurture you, satisfy you, dominate you. Make you beg and moan and scream until you pass out grinning ear-to-ear. Just like she was. Or, must have been. I am merely assuming," he adds with a devious smile. Connor comes at Mal, trying a left jab and a right roundhouse kick. Mal blocks both, then begins to go to work in earnest.
He nails Connor in the sternum with a right jab, then in the ribs with a left hook, a right uppercut to the stomach, another left hook to the ribs and a right hook kick to the other side of Connor's ribcage. Connor tries a right hook. Mal blocks it and adds left and right punches to Connor's abdomen. Mal knows the benefits of working the soft tissue. Connor connects with a left cross to Mal's right cheek. Mal pounds Connor's face with two consecutive left hooks. Connor staggers fifteen feet back but stays on his feet. Mal leaps at him and puts Connor on his back with a right kick to the chin. "Here's some advice. If you have found her, go to her. Because the two of you do not have much time left." Since his intention was to get Connor as pissed off as possible, Mal was hoping there was a special someone. He wanted the kid to try his best. And bringing Dawn into this was the last straw. Connor stood up, stared intensely and angrily at Mal, and decided to teach this vampire a lesson. Unfortunately, he was in way over his head. Mal blocks Connor's right roundhouse kick. When Connor tries a right hook, Mal grabs him and tosses Connor thirty feet through the air. Mal hops like a kangaroo and catches Connor before he hits the ground. Mal then pile drives Connor's head into the earth. When Connor gets up, Mal sweeps his legs out with his right foot. When Connor rises again, Mal does the same thing with his left foot. He isn't sure how much punishment Connor can take before expiring, and demoralizing Connor will hopefully cause him to give up before he had been beaten past the breaking point. When Connor gets up again, Mal sends his right foot into Connor's chest, then into his face. He adds a left kick to the chin which sends Connor airborne. Mal finishes off with a leaping left roundhouse kick that catches Connor while he's still in mid-air. Mal hopes the kid can take a hint.
Clearly, Mal doesn't know Connor. He gets up and nails Mal with a right hook. Mal is impressed by Connor's will. He decides to break that will with a left hook-right hook-left hook combination that brings Connor to his knees and sends his head spinning. For the first time in the fight, Mal goes bumpy. He pulls Connor up by his hair and leans in. His mouth is next to Connor's right ear while the tips of his fangs brush Connor's neck. "I will drink you dry, just like all the rest." Mal pulls his head back and returns to his human face. "But not today." Mal picks Connor up and hurls him sixty feet through the air. He watches Connor's body plunge into the tar. Mal chuckles and walks away. The night is young, and he is hungry for blood and notoriety. Connor can't swim. After splashing around a bit, Connor gets close enough to the edge to get his footing and walk out. He's covered head-to-toe in tar.
Angel's friends have no intention of following Connor's "orders." But they'll wait for him to return safely before they head out. They pass the time familiarizing themselves with the enemy by reading is file.
"For a supposedly first-class bad guy, this Mal has absolutely no sense of style. Where's the artistry?," Cordy wonders, unconsciously defending the lofty status of Angelus. She likes to believe that, whether good or evil, Angel's always the best.
"I thought the part where he takes the soldiers hostage and makes them fight their own buddies to the death was pretty tight," Gunn answers to some concerned looks. "But only in an evil way," he reassures them.
"Ah thought it was sorta wicked clever when he founded that orphanage for children who's parents he had killed," Fred confessed. "Especially when he set up an endowment to pay for its funding and named it after himself. Wicked meaning evil. Not cool. But ya'al already knew that, since it's pretty clear I ain't from Boston."
"I don't believe this!," Wesley exclaims. "But there are too many sources from too many places for me to discount it."
"Discount what?," Fred inquires.
"It appears that Mal had an intimate relationship with a Slayer."
"You mean he slept with her. A Slayer slept with a vampire. That surprises you?," Cordelia wonders with more than a little sarcasm.
"That doesn't make sense," Fred counters. "He was evil. He killed people. Unless he kidnapped her, which I wouldn't put beneath this guy."
"The tradition is extremely hostile to the Slayer, indicating that she chose to be with him," Wesley begins. "I've heard this story, this legend, actually. It's usually presented as a Faustian bargain. Mal's name is changed, but, oddly enough, not the Slayer's."
"Enough deconstruction. What's the story?," Fred demands.
"In the mid-fifth century there was a Slayer named Candace, from Axum. Evidently Mal was quite taken with her. It's not clear how he wooed her, or how long it took, but she eventually left her Watcher and went off with Mal."
"Who better to teach her how to dust vamps?," Gunn points out.
"I'm sure that was a large part of it. No doubt he trained her and taught her everything he could. They were together for nine years. During that time they traversed the known civilized world, from Spain to Egypt to India to China, killing demons and possibly averting an apocalypse on more than one occasion. Candace was rumored to have killed upwards of ten thousand vampires. More than any other Slayer, by a long shot. Mal presumably slayed an equal amount himself."
"That sounds a little exaggerated to me," Cordy asserts.
"That's only about three a night," Fred points out. "Doesn't sound like too much for a Slayer. But why would Mal work for the good guys?"
"Simple. More bodies for him," Gunn replies.
"Precisely," Wesley adds. "Mal is the sort of egotist who would probably relish the idea of being the only vampire on earth. And from what we know of vampire demographics, he nearly succeeded. As for saving the world once or twice, I'm sure Mal did not want to lose his favorite playground."
"Demographics? What, they took a vampire census?," Cordy wonders.
"It is generally assumed that the maximum long-term sustainable vampire population over a large area is one vampire for every ten thousand humans. At that time, there were approximately three hundred million humans on earth — enough to support thirty thousand vampires. When you realize that five thousand of them would have been in the Americas, it becomes apparent that Mal and Candace slayed between eighty and ninety percent of the Old World's vampires. Which might explain the drop-off in reports of vampire activity during the early medieval period."
"What happened after nine years?," Cordy asks. "Did they break up? Did he kill her?"
"The Council killed her," Wesley answers. "In their minds, Candace was a renegade. A rogue Slayer who chose to share her bed with a vicious killer. We know what Mal can do. He probably killed dozens of innocent people every night. For whatever reason, she chose to look the other way."
"Maybe she thought she was serving the greater good," Gunn proposes. "He was offing his own kind."
"Or she had the hots for a soulless dead guy. It's been known to happen," Cordy points out none-too-cattily.
"Sounds like those Council people were jealous that she was getting the job done better than they could," Gunn adds.
"Undoubtedly that was a large part of it," Wesley concedes.
"I'm guessin' Mal wasn't too happy with 'em," Fred mentions.
"He appears to have retaliated by killing them all quite painfully. There's a gap in the Council records between roughly the Fall of Rome and the reign of Justinian. The common assumption was that this was due to the political turmoil. But it's conceivable that it took the organization several decades to fully recover from Mal's purge."
"Did he love her?," Cordelia wonders. "It seems odd that a vampire would take it so hard if he didn't. Especially one without a soul."
"Obviously Mal's the only one who know that answer. There were some Isis-Osiris idols from that period which are thought to be based on the two of them. Small carvings of Candace served as protective talismans for centuries. That was one of the reasons it was always assumed she was a myth."
"You mean like little dolls?," Gunn asks. "Black girl with an itty-bitty stake in her hand?"
"From this illustration, it would appear so."
"Let me see that." Gunn walks over to Wes and looks at the page. "That's the black Slayer! I bought one of these for my sister at a swap meet in Long Beach. Gave to her for her fifteenth birthday." Connor enters the hotel. Except for around his eyes, nose and mouth, he's completely covered in tar. "Speakin' of black Slayers. What the hell happened to you?" Connor just walks upstairs without saying a word.
"At least he came back alive. And in one piece," Fred points out.
"And in no condition to even think of stopping us," Gunn declares as he walks over to the weapons case. "I say we suit up and ride."
NEXT: As his friends go vampire hunting, and Mal turns his attention elsewhere, Angel begins to fight his way home.