As Angel returns to Los Angeles, Mal decides to take a road trip to Sunnydale.
Angel finds himself facing up against an eight-legged creature. The segmented legs are paired together, and the four pairs of legs are arrayed in a square ten feet wide. The legs connect to a two part insect-like body, at the front of which are teeth that can shoot two feet out of the demon's mouth before snapping together and snaring or crushing its prey. The body is asymmetrical, with the back section in the center. Presumably, this is heavier than the front section, thus maintaining balance. What's more, the back section can swivel, moving the head up or down. And the head can rotate 180 degrees around, in case someone tries to attack from behind. Angel takes his sword and tries to get to the demon's side. But the pairs of legs also swivel, enabling it to have very quick lateral movement. Angel's efforts just get him kicked into the left wall. While he's down, the monster's head turns 90 degrees and comes at him. Angel swings his sword. The demon takes the weapon in its teeth, rips it out of Angel's hands and tosses it away with a flick of its head. Before it can bite into him, Angel crawls on his belly underneath the demon insect. Its head turns downward, but can't get a hold of him. Angel crawls between the creature's legs and makes his way free, though not before one of the legs jabs down into his lower back, causing a very nasty bruise.
Angel faced a big problem even before he lost his sword. The demon could just swing its head upwards until it was twelve feet in the air and outside of Angel's range. And if Angel went for the body, it would swoop its head down and grab him in its outwardly extended jaws. Not to mention the fact that it had quite a kick, which was a good way to keep any foe at bay. Now, Angel has to think hard. The demon is between him and his sword. There's no easy way he can around, underneath or over the top this monster without getting crushed or eaten. But behind him, along the wall, are several torches. If he ran to one of these, he'd be in business. So Angel leaps twenty feet back. The demon stands still, hissing and chomping its jaws. A torch is ten feet behind Angel and to his right. He rushes towards it. The demon scampers with an elaborate but effective trot. It's on top of Angel when he grabs the torch in his right hand. Angel quickly swings for the mouth. The demon shuts its jaws on the flame, extinguishing it. Then it pounds Angel's body four times with its front, left pair of legs. Angel fights back, swinging his left arm at the legs. But they are covered in prickers, dozens of which pierce Angel's left hand and forearm. Angel does manage to dodge the insect's jaws and hit the outside of its mouth with his left fist, though landing the punch with the injured hand is quite painful. The demon, stung by the blow, yelps and kicks Angel thirty feet down the dungeon hall.
Then it raises its head and lets out a piercing shriek that Angel assumes must be a war cry. It reverberates along the corridor's dank, cavernous stone walls. Angel stands up and tries to remain on his feet. He's bent over and in a great amount of pain. He figures his chance of killing this thing with his bare hands is quite slim. But what weapons does he have left? Angel reaches into his pocket and pulls out the wooden stake Mal gave him. He sighs despondently. The demon slowly approaches, moving side-to-side to show that it can quickly cut off any attempts to get around it. Angel looks at the humble stake. Then he looks at the giant insect. Obviously throwing the stake wouldn't do the job. So he'd have to stab it. Presumably in the head. But how? Since it could pull its head way up high, he'd have to get the job done from overhead: leap in the air and hope to stab the demon before it bit him in two. Angel bends his knees, takes the stake in his right hand and waits for the demon to get within range. When it goes to bite him, his swings his stake. For whatever reason, the demon respects Mister Pointy. It pulls its jaws back, then goes for the head, causing Angel to leap back out of the way. It quickly pursues him and chomps for his legs, leading Angel to jump back yet again. This time, he nearly doesn't stick the landing because of injuries. So the demon was intelligent. It adapted to the new weapon by striking outside the weapon's range. This gave Angel hope. If it thought, then he could get inside its head and outsmart the beast.
Angel holds the stake in front of his face, jabbing towards the demon's mouth. The demon raises its head to twice Angel's height. Then it swoops down. Angel ducks to the ground to his left. The teeth at the end of the demon's right jaw graze his right shoulder, though lesser, mortal men would say the three inch-long chompers nearly took his arm off. The demon tucks its jaws back into its mouth and keeps spinning. Its head misses the floor by a foot, then comes up and back around. Angel crouches. As its head spins round, the demon shuffles its feet rightward so its head is in line with its prey. Then it brings the head down yet again on the cowering prey. Angel groans in pain as he leaps in the air. He tucks in his arms and feet so the demon with have less to grab. After it misses biting him, Angel extends his limbs and lands on the back section of the demon insect. As the head swung downwards, this part swung upwards. Angel's weight causes it to swing back down, so that the creature's body is parallel to the ground. He stabs its thorax. The monster squeals and starts furiously kicking Angel with its hind legs. Evidently that hadn't injured the demon, but only made it madder.
Worse still, Angel was facing the wrong way. He twists his body around the demon's hairy, prickly exterior. As he does this, the demon rotates its head around so it faces Angel. He sees this, and is not happy, to say the least. Now he can't stab the head without the insect's mouth ripping his right arm clean off. So he quickly stabs for the spot where the head and thorax connect. The demon's jaws grab his right wrist. But by then, he's driven the blow home. The two parts of the demon's body are severed, and they fall, lifeless, to the mildewy ground. Angel is greatly relieved, even though he can't get his right arm free. A blue mist starts emanating from the mortal wound. It coalesces into what Angel recognizes as a portal. "Oh no you don't. Not another one." He can't take much more of Mal's Demon Slave Colony Adventure. The portal sucks him in and drops him off on rocks and dirt. His arm is free, though badly mauled. Angel glances up at the sky. It looks familiar. He stands up, turns around and sees the castle in the distance. He's on the far side, further along to wherever he was going. Angel's relieved. He may not be home, but he's closer to it.
Nina and Mal lie on the floor. Nina rests her head on his chest. Isaac Hayes's rendition of the Beatles' "Something" plays on the stereo. The rest of the furniture, most of which survived the fight in tact, is busted. There's a long crack in the concrete wall, and all the paintings and artwork have fallen off. The balcony's no more. It lies in pieces on the downstairs floor.
"It's dark," Nina notices. "When did the sun set?"
"Obviously sometime before we leaped through the glass wall and into the pool," Mal answers. Nina looks at the giant hole in the west wall.
"Right," Nina says with a smile as she kisses Mal and runs her fingers over his hair. "We were at it for what, ten hours?"
Mal looks up at a clock still hanging from a second floor wall. "Ten hours and forty-five minutes. But who was counting?"
"Definitely not me." Nina rolls on top of Mal and they kiss some more. He caresses her neck. She looks down at him and puts her right hand to his face. He playfully bites her thumb. "So, Mal. First time with a Titan?"
"First time with anything I didn't know even existed." He kisses her shoulders and arms, then nibbles a little on her fingers. "I think I figured you out, Nina. It's motion." He kisses her neck and moves his hands down her back as she arches it up. "You're so soft. You feel so delicate. But only when you are at rest. Movement is what gives you energy. The acceleration of a punch. The deceleration of your fist hitting some unfortunate person's face. Lying here with me, you're just potential. Stunningly beautiful potential." Nina laughs. "You don't agree?"
"No. I do," Nina replies as she caresses his left biceps with her right hand and his pecs and abs with her left. "My targets are called the Potentials. So it's funny. But words aside, you're right. I'm the irresistible force. And you're my rock-solid immovable object."
"You don't also find me irresistible?"
"Hell yeah. I was just making one of those, you know - "
"Metaphors?"
"Yep. So what's with this music?"
Mal reaches for the remote and puts on Otis Redding. "Here. You like this better?"
"It's all old-people's music. I know you're old."
"Not as old as you."
"But I'm with the times. I like the new stuff. What about rap? It's a lot more fun."
"The other vampires asked me the same thing. They don't understand that there's nothing new about what they call rap."
"You mean because of sampling?"
"Not even. Rhyming over beats has been done. Centuries ago. In a couple other dimensions. There's nothing special about that kind of music. But this, what you're hearing now, that's special. No one else has come up with soul."
"What about everything else?"
"It's been done."
"Rock? Punk? Funk?"
"More or less. They sound a little different. Use instruments no one here would recognize. But it's the same stuff. There's thousands of dimensions."
"Hundreds of thousands."
"Even better. Each one's been around for millions of years. Of course there's going to be overlap. Two or three or thirty civilizations arriving at the same answer. But not this answer. You won't find anything like Otis or Aretha anywhere else in the universe. One of the many things I love about this planet."
"Hope I don't destroy all the things you love," Nina responds, feeling a little uncomfortable about ruining his world.
"You can't. We can adapt to anything. Even you." Mal goes bumpy and sinks his fangs deep into Nina's neck. She moans. Mal looks over her shoulder at the clock. He stops biting Nina and stands up. "I need to go take care of some business. And, before that, find some clothes to put on."
"Oh. Right. That vampire you're going to kill. I can show you mine. Plus, I got Slayers. So long as they're not too scared to come out tonight."
"I've heard some interesting things about this Sunnydale place."
"See you soon?"
"Count on it," Mal promises. Nina disappears. The vampire puts one of the chairs right side up, collapses down on it, looks up at the hole in the ceiling where a chandelier used to be, and laughs. "Hellmouths always used to be so dull."
But before his new girl could introduce him to her small town pals, Mal had a few pressing matters to take care of. Mal struts into the Orpheum theater, which is packed with vampires. He wears loose-fitting white pants, no shirt, and a large platinum and diamond cross around his neck. Naturally, that impresses this crowd, to say the least. He ignores the gasps and makes his way towards Lou and Vic. Vic is six feet feet tall, an inch shorter than Lou. A tall, wiry white guy who looks to be in his early twenties. Vic has very pale skin, even for a vampire, and large, dark eyes. His short, black hair is parted down the center, giving him the look of an overgrown schoolboy. His big eyes, soft hair and thin, pursed lips lend him a curious combination of innocence and malice.
"Got your wheels in a garage across the street," Vic proudly tells Mal. "One hundred black vans with tinted windows, ready to roll."
"You did what you promised," Mal cooly responds. "You know what that gets you? A head still attached to your body." Vic looks a little disappointed. All he wanted was a little credit. Mal looks at Lou. "Are all the men here?"
"Yes sir," Lou reports. "I had no trouble making good our losses from last night."
"I knew you wouldn't. Tell whomever set those fires that they did us a favor. If they didn't kill those surplus vampires, we would have needed to. It's nice when your enemies help out." Vic laughs. Mal glares at him. Vic stops laughing. Mal always seems to like it when Lou sucks up.
"All of the men and women have been given your manual and instructed in your ways," Lou reports.
"I had those typed-up and run-off at the printer's last night," Vic offers.
"I'm sure that must have required great skill on your part," Mal responds curtly. Then he lightly slaps Vic's face with his left hand and chuckles. "Smile, my boy! I am only joking with you!" Vic nervously laughs along. Mal puts his right to Lou's face. "Victor. Louis. Please bring me my seals." Each of them puts on a large, leather glove, walks over to some hot coals and picks up a small, metal rectangle about four centimeters wide and two centimeters deep. One side of the rectangle is red hot. Vic and Lou put the cool sides down on a table in front of Mal. Ten men eagerly line up. One-by-one, they reach out their hands. Mal pulls the backs of their left hands down into one brand, and the backs of their left hands into the other. They wince as he holds each their hands down for a few seconds and smoke rises up from their skin. Lou and Vic hold up their fists. Mal puts the right-hand brand on the back of both their fists. He orders the 350 men and 150 women in attendance to sit down. Petey, who's up in the projector booth, shines a spotlight on Mal and starts showing slides on the big screen behind Mal. He begins his presentation.
"One hundred teams of five. Grouped into ten companies of fifty. Each company assigned a region. Each team assigned a neighborhood. The first thing you do when you arrive in your neighborhood is to kill any unmarked vampires in your territory. By tomorrow, Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura and San Bernardino counties will be ours. And only ours. Provided you stick together. Remain with your quintet. While you eliminate the competition, your leader of fifty will be assessing human resistance. He or she will report to you on the location of any demon fighters in your area. Only when the humans have been pacified will the leader of your quintet allow you to disperse and obtain your own residence. Considering how you'll be the only vampires in the neighborhood, it should not be too hard to find a good place. Abundant space. Abundant blood. Abundant victims. An absence of enemies. That is what you have to look forward to.
"That, and traveling." The slides switch from a map of the Los Angeles area to a map of the west coast. An arc with a radius of 500 miles extends around L.A. The area inside is sub-divided into ten sections, just like the city had been. "Without enemies, with the collaboration of local gangs and with the acquiescence the local police forces, we will not need to maintain such a large presence in our home base. There is room for expansion. San Diego. Tijuana. Las Vegas. Phoenix. San Francisco. They can all be yours. So long as you are patient. No moving for a month." The vampires laugh. "And no siring. Not here, at least. That I cannot stress too much. Violation of any of my orders will result in death. Especially that one. You are all privileged. If other vampires enter this town, or if you make other vampires inside this town, then that precious privilege becomes worthless. However, when your capo gives you permission, you may travel. When you get to the new town, each member of your group of five can sire four new members. Please be selective. Choose only those who are worthy. Then you can be your own leader of five. You behave in this new town as you behaved here. Eliminate unmarked vampires. Scout the humans. Stay together until all demon fighters are taken care of. And don't overpopulate. When you've started sharing victims, when you take your blood from a bottle, something is deeply wrong.
"Many of you have asked about the Slayer. Or Slayers. Don't worry about her. Or them, however that happened." Interstate Five going up the coast to Vancouver and Interstate Ten going across the country to Jacksonville are lit up. "The Slayer is not astride our lines of communication. And, from what I hear, she has problems of her own. If she wishes to deal with us, she will have to come south and deal with me. As I said, do not worry about any Slayers." The vampires get excited. All of them who know about Buffy are scared to death of her. But they think the super-vampire sporting the bling-bling crucifix on his chest could teach her a thing or two. "Like all other humans, the Slayers will have to learn to live with us."
"Trust me, she already has!," a vampire yells out. The rest of them laugh. Mal doesn't get it. He waits a few seconds for them to settle down, then continues.
"Eventually, we will be able to progress along both lines of communication. One of which terminates on the other side of the continent, the other of which terminates in the ice-bound regions, both of which begin right here in Los Angeles. But those plans are at least a year in the future. In the short term, we will not extend our line of communications beyond one day (500 miles). Be patient. We're not getting any older." The vampires applaud. "Your leaders of fifty will now give you the Mark of the Chosen. Then you will go out and show this city who owns it."
Mal leaves. Lou and Vic, along with the ten captains, take control of the situation. Everyone gets a common brand on their left hand. The captains got a special brand on their right to connote rank. Vic and Lou didn't get the common brand, but got two of the special brands. Each leader of their group of five gets a common brand on each hand, to distinguish them from the other vampires. Mal knew his speech could have been more rousing, but he was distracted. The big move was an afterthought. He had already laid the ground work by personally choosing all the captains and nearly all of the team leaders on Monday and Tuesday. Now all the vamps had to do was go where he told them to. Meanwhile, there was another vampire he wanted to relocate.
Angel had walked along for hours towards a pointy rock with an impossibly steep peak. It looked important. Perhaps there was a cave inside that contained the portal back home. When he gets close, Angel notices a sudden rise in the ground of about fifteen feet. To his left, underneath this rise, were four demons pushing a wheel and going around in circles. On top of the rise was a stream that flowed gently downward. Evidently, the stream was artificial, and the demons were turning a pump to raise the water back up. As Angel walked down the gentle slope, he noticed how the stream fed a garden that brightened up the otherwise desolate landscape. Just the sort of picturesque yet pointless use of demon slave labor that Mal seemed to be fond of. To say nothing of how much work it took to create and even out this slope which extends for miles. When Angel is within a hundred yards of the rock, someone emerges and moves towards him. It's Mal. This is not what Angel wants to see. What's worse, he's bearing gifts. Mal has his satchel slung over his shoulder.
"Have we been having fun?," Mal asks. "I know I have." Mal takes off the satchel and pulls out a large urn. "I believe you two have met." Mal drops the urn, smashing it. Sah-jhan materializes. He looks down at the busted urn. That makes him happy. He looks over at Angel. That makes him even happier. Angel looks severely disappointed. This is not what he needs right now. To say nothing of Connor. "I swear, one finds the rarest things in your city," Mal jokes. He stands back, folds his arms and watches.
"Not the face I wanted to see, but you'll do for now," Sah-jhan tells the exhausted and injured Angel. He swings his right arm for Angel's head. Angel blocks it and lands a right uppercut, grunting in pain. The demon pounds the top of Angel's head with his left fist, knocking Angel to his knees. When Sah-jhan tries to kick him, Angel grabs his foot and pulls the demon onto his back. Angel stands up and kicks Sah-jhan in the face. He gets up. Angel backs away, giving himself room to react.
"Take a look around," Angel tells his delighted opponent. "The guy who freed you, you're in his world now. It's a great world. For him. Not for you. All the demons here are slaves. And you thought you were free when you got out of that bottle." Sah-jhan rushes Angel. He uses all his strength to flip the demon on his back.
Sah-Jhan gets up. "And what does that make you?," he asks Angel as he throws a left hook. Angel ducks and lands a right hook. Sah-Jhan responds in kind, staggering Angel. He kicks Angel in the stomach, picks him up and slams Angel to the ground. Then he stomps on Angel's back. Angel stands and takes a left jab. He lands right and left crosses to Sah-jhan's face. The demon responds with a left hook, a right hook, another left and another right. Angel tumbles to the ground. Sah-Jhan picks Angel up and tosses him into the boulders opposite the stream. He walks over to finish Angel off. Angel looks up and tries to struggle to his feet. But out of nowhere, Mal grabs Sah-jhan from behind and throws him into the rocks.
"I'll tell you what it makes him," Mal says as he leaps at the demon and pounds his face with a flying right hook kick. "It makes him a person." Mal lands three right jabs and a left hook, knocking Sah-jhan down. "Which makes him a thousand times better than your sorry demon ass." Mal lifts Sah-jhan above his head and hurls him twenty feet through the air. First he kidnaps Angel. Then he tortures him. And now, he rescues him. Angel has yet another reason to hate Mal. Sah-jhan gets up as Mal approaches. He can't figure this vampire out.
"What is wrong with you? Do you have a soul?"
Mal laughs. Sah-jhan hits him with a right hook. Mal responds with a right hook, left roundhouse kick, right elbow and left hook, putting the demon on his back again. "No. But I do have a brain." He pulls Sah-jhan to his feet and head-butts him. "So I know where he stands. And I know where you stand. And I know that pretty soon, you won't be standing ever again." Mal lands a leaping right hook kick, followed immediately by a mid-air left roundhouse kick. He sends three left crosses into the demon's body. Sah-jhan grabs the much smaller vampire. Mal breaks free and kicks Sah-jhan in the groin. He falls to his knees. Mal pounds his face with two more left hooks before grabbing his head and snapping his neck. Sah-jhan's face falls to the dirt. Mal puts his left foot on top of the back of Sah-jhan's head and looks at Angel.
"This is why I don't believe in prophecies." Angel takes the stake in his left hand, staggers over to Mal and pounds his face with a right cross. Mal backs up. "Hey! My man! Is that any way to treat your brother?"
"You're not my brother," Angel spits out before kicking Mal in the stomach.
"The hell I'm not! Ain't we both part of the human family?"
"In case you haven't noticed, that was a long time ago for both of us." Angel tries to sweep Mal's legs with a right hook kick. Mal hops above it. He blocks Angel's left jab.
"You mean because you can do this?," Mal asks. Then he hurls Angel into the stream. Once Angel gets his head above water, he screams. It burns terribly. Especially inside all his open wounds. Like his flesh is being melted from the inside. Angel crawls out in agony, realizing the stream was filled with holy water. That he didn't expect from his vampire foe. Mal puts both hands in the stream, takes up some water in his cupped hands and pours it over his head. It is now that Angel notices the crucifix Mal is wearing. As if taking a bath in vampire acid wasn't enough. "What's the matter? You ain't down with Jesus," Mal blasphemously jokes. "I got friends in really high places." He takes the cross off and dangles it in Angel's face for a few seconds before putting it back on. Angel, with his red, bubbling skin, gets up one more time. Mal backs up thirty feet and laughs. "Look at you. Never giving up. I love that in an opponent. But trust me, right now it's a really good thing you can't look at yourself in the mirror." He is wearing shoes, so Angel's feet don't hurt. He goes bumpy, growls and rushes towards Mal. Mal calmly waits. When Angel arrives and tries to stake him, Mal rips the stake away, grabs Angel and throws him over Mal's shoulders. He sails through the air and falls head first into a pond at the bottom of a five foot-high waterfall that marks the terminus of the stream. This water actually is boiling. Angel screams. But then he notices that, other than the heat, the water doesn't hurt. His chest isn't being eaten away. Mal puts his foot on top of Angel's head and pushes him back under. Angel surfaces and crawls out. The red bubbles are gone. The bite marks on his right wrist are disappearing. This was just too much. Mal runs back, grabs his satchel and returns.
"Funny thing about holy water: you bring it to a boil, then add the resin from a certain plant that grows only in the carnivorous troll dimension, and you turn something that hurts vampires into something that heals them." He reaches into the satchel and tosses Angel a towel. Then he tosses Angel a red button-down shirt. "I hope you like this one. It is one of yours, after all." Angel can't take much more of this guy. Mal walks up to the giant rock. Sticking out of it is a needle. He pricks his right index finger on the needle and squeezes a drop of his blood down onto the rock. A swirly blue and purple portal appears. "Gndas. Sha-na. Kil-li. Untep. Zas." He walks back to Angel. "That's to make sure we end up in the right dimension." Angel doesn't move. "What's the matter? Don't you want to go home?" Mal grabs Angel's left forearm with his right hand and pulls him into the portal.
The next few seconds are exceedingly painful. Like Angel's body is being ripped apart while he is being launched into space. The g-forces alone would knock a human unconscious, to say nothing of the centrifugal pull with might tear them limb-from-limb. And then, they are back in Los Angeles. Angel looks around and takes a few seconds to recover from the journey. Angel doesn't recognize the specific intersection he's standing at, but the surroundings look like the area a few miles south of the hotel.
Giles, Dawn, Xander and Anya sit at the dining room table, reading the books Giles picked up that morning. Buffy and Spike stand around them. Faith's in the living room with the Potentials.
"A Titan," Spike says. "Sounds bloody important for something that couldn't even make the cut. They lost out to demons. Demons lost out to people. How scared can you be of something that went extinct?"
"I don't know about you, but if a T-rex came to town, I'd be pretty scared," Anya responds.
"Rare and unprecedented as this may sound, Spike does make something of a point," Giles very reluctantly concedes. "Nina is not a god. She's a creature that can be killed. That has been killed."
"Buffy killed her brother," Xander points out.
Buffy clarifies. "Actually, she killed her brother. But now I see why."
"Cuz she can't live until he dies?," Spike asks.
"It's more than that. What have we always feared? The Hellmouth opening. Our world being taken over by demons. Nina had that happen to her. She saw her world end. So she's reenacting that again and again."
"No offense Buffy," Xander begins, "but something tells me she's not some ghost searching for closure."
"No. She's searching for vengeance."
"You really think so?," Anya asks. "Because I didn't sense any common bond between the two of us."
"Maybe not vengeance in the strict sense. She's making people pay who have nothing to do with her suffering. It's like because her world got ruined, she's going to make sure everyone's world gets ruined. Why should she be the only one to suffer? At least that's how I think she works."
"Interesting profile," Anya starts off. "But how does it help us kill her?"
"Nina has feelings. Emotions. Regrets. Pain. We can use those things against her."
"Exploit her humanity," Giles muses. "How do you propose we do that?"
"I don't know yet. Give me time."
"Assuming that we have time."
"We do. Nina likes being alive. She kills us, her job's done, she dies."
"Is this why you want to patrol tonight?," Spike asks.
"I was wondering about that myself," Giles adds.
"Why? You're the one who told me about the recent killings. About how you suspected four vampires would rise tonight. We're not ready for Nina. She's not ready for us. So we might as well do some good."
Giles thinks about this. Buffy has a point. But Buffy doesn't know about Mal. "Okay. But I'll go with you."
"Shouldn't you stay here to do research?," Buffy asks as Dawn gets up from the table and goes to her room.
"I am your Watcher. And I think it would be good. For old time's sake."
"Fine," Buffy concedes.
"Try to stay away from the monsters. I wouldn't want to spend my whole night saving you from the baddies," Spike jokes.
Giles looks around. "Someone's missing. Where's Willow?"
"I think she's upstairs meditating," Buffy responds. "Building up her power for the next time she sees Nina."
"Good," Giles concludes as he looks into the kitchen and the living room. "Then everyone's accounted for."
At the Hyperion, everyone's in the lobby, trying to figure out what to do tonight.
"I still say we make an attempt to get Mal's blood," Wesley advocates. "It's our only hope for finding Angel."
"But how many of us are up to that?," Fred asks. "You're hurt. Charles is hurt. Connor's not at full strength."
"I'm still the strongest one here."
"Which unfortunately isn't saying much," Cordelia sadly comments.
"Whatever we do tonight, how bout we stick together," Lorne proposes.
"Splitting up didn't do us much good last night," Fred adds pointedly.
"Let's face it," Gunn says with a sigh. "We need help." Fred looks unhappy. She thinks he's referring to Gwen. Fred and Cordy do not want to work with her. Everyone sits there in silence for a few seconds. Then the phone rings. Lorne answers it.
"Angel Investigations, how may we help you?" Then he looks disappointed when he realizes it's just a personal call. "It's Dawn."
Connor runs over and takes the receiver. Hello lo - " he says before she cuts him off. Connor looks stunned. "He's where?"
"I don't know how I know that, but that's what my brain tells me he is. And in my vision, he's in trouble."
"But he's there?"
"Yes."
"That's great!"
"It is? I think Angel's life is in serious danger."
"Thank you. Thank you, Dawn. I love you. I love you so much. You're the best."
"You're welcome. I love you too, Connor." Dawn's confused. Even for Connor, this is strange behavior.
Connor hangs up the phone and looks at everyone else. "Guess who's back."