The red sports car pulled up in front of the Spanish-style apartment building. Buffy, Willow, Tara and Giles jumped out. Cordelia and Wesley greeted the group with relief.

'Nice car Giles!' Cordy exclaimed. 'Certainly better than your old bucket of rust.'

Giles smiled and nodded. Same old Cordelia.

'Gee, Xander looks a lot more like a girl than I remember.' This comment was a not so subtle hint that she and Tara had yet to be introduced.

'This is Tara. Xander and Anya are looking after Joyce and Dawn,' Willow told her. Boy was she going to have fun telling Cordy that Tara was her girlfriend, she thought. 'Tara, this is Cordelia.'

'Hi. I've heard a lot about you,' Tara said warmly, with a small nervous smile.

Willow pointed out the former watcher to Tara. 'And that's Wesley.'

'Pleased to meet you Tara,' Wesley said, shaking her hand.

'We'd better go in. We've got a lot to prepare before nightfall.'

Cordelia took a long look at Buffy as the others made their way into her apartment. She hadn't said a word since they arrived. 'Buffy? Are you okay?'

'Been better,' Buffy replied with a weak smile.

'You know, in all my years I never got to kill anyone twice. I wonder what that's like.'

Kathy turned as Angel started walking towards her. She saw his face.

'What's going on? Angel?'

Fear shone in her eyes as Angelus grabbed her by the shoulders.

'Gee sis,' he sneered, 'don't worry. Maybe next time the Powers that Be will bring you back as someone who's actually useful.'

A thousand thoughts raced through her mind. She was too late. Angelus had turned. But something wasn't right. She couldn't put her finger on it, but ...

'What happened to you?'

'You know, I really don't remember. I vaguely recall a blonde,' He laughed. 'Hey, maybe I got lucky with Buffy again. That'd explain why I've blocked it out.'

She was desperate. Frantic. He was going to kill her.

'You can't do this.'

'Let's test that theory, shall we?' he snarled, moving in for the kill.

His teeth sunk into her neck, her blood pouring into his mouth in her heart's panicked rhythm. She could see herself as a child, this very thing happening to her. But she had one advantage now she wasn't afforded as that child.

Gathering every ounce of strength she had left, she focused and, with a flick of her wrist, a chair flew through the air and hit Angelus square on the back. It knocked both of them flying.

She landed heavily, and looked up, dazed. The chair had landed on top of the vampire. She scrambled to her feet as Gunn walked in.

'What the hell's going on?'

'Run,' she screamed. She ran as fast as she could, grabbing his arm as she passed him, just as Angelus pushed the chair off him and jumped to his feet. They got outside into the daylight and safety.

'So The First is heading up an evil law firm?' Buffy wanted to know.

'Kinda fits, don't you think?' Willow commented. 'Lawyers. Evil. Go hand in hand.'

Giles leaned forward, having finished reading the text. 'And you definitely think that this law firm, uh, Wolfram and Hart, know about this prophesy?'

'It's a safe bet, yes,' Wesley replied. 'They had the scroll in their vault for years. And they obviously want Angel for something. And they definitely don't seem to want him dead. God knows they've had enough opportunity to kill him. And they've risked everything to raise Darla. She's a loose cannon. She and Drusilla have already killed a large number of the lawyers from the firm. They would never have brought her back unless they absolutely had to. And that obviously involves Angel somehow."

'And you think part of the plan is to make Angel evil,' Buffy asked. 'To make him go bad.'

'But he's not evil yet, right?' Willow wanted to make sure. She cared a great deal about the vampire, but the thought of an evil Angel made her want to turn round and go home.

'No, not yet,' Wesley reassured her.

'Okay, simple. We dust Dru and Darla, stop The First and make sure Angel doesn't get a happy. No problem,' Buffy said with more confidence than she felt.

'Buffy, we've faced the First before,' Giles, the voice of reason said. 'You know you can't physically fight it.'

'No, but I creamed those monk guys before. And we know how to find them now,' the Slayer replied.

'Maybe there's a magical way of fighting it,' Tara offered. 'Some kind of binding spell?'

'Good idea,' Wesley agreed. 'If you and Willow start looking into that, Giles and I can continue translating these texts. We might still find something there. Buffy,' he turned to her, 'maybe you could go out looking for Angel? We can't seem to find him.'

'Oh, we found him,' Gunn said from the door. He was half carrying Kathy who was bleeding from the neck. Cordelia rushed over to help get her to the couch.

'We're too late?' Buffy said. 'He's already turned?' The thought of having to face Angelus again was almost too much to bear.

Kathy lay on the couch while Cordelia cleaned her wound and put on a dressing.

'How did he lose his soul?' Willow wanted to know. 'He was on patrol last night. When did he find the time to ...' she trailed off, looking at Buffy. 'You know, get happy?'

'We don't know that he did,' said Giles. 'There could be any number of ways that Angel lost his soul. The Mayor once tried to have it removed magically.'

'Certainly possible,' agreed Wesley. 'I'm certain that whatever the case, Darla had a hand in it. She was brought back for a reason.'

'I don't think his soul is entirely gone,' Kathy finally spoke. She had been racking her brains the whole time and now thought she knew what it was she had sensed.

'If he didn't lose his soul, how come he turned into Mr. Homicidal all of a sudden?' Cordy asked her.

'I sensed it. It was like I felt the presence of two people, Angel and Angelus, both in the same body. Like he was split.'

'You mean as in split personality?' Cordelia threw her hands up, 'I knew it. I knew if he kept obsessing over Darla he'd have a breakdown.'

'It could be some kind of spell,' Wesley postured, 'Making him think he's Angelus. Like that drug last year.'

'Hold on a tick,' Giles stood up. 'Did you sense a conflict, an inner battle?'

'Yeah, I think that's what I was getting. But at that point, I think Angelus was winning.'

'It's just a theory but it may explain what's happening. In medicine the body fights disease with antibodies,' Giles began. 'If the body doesn't have enough, they're given from an outside source. An inoculation. Angel is a demon infected with a human soul. For a vampire, it's very similar to a disease.'

'So what would they give Angel as a 'cure'?' asked Willow.

'When Drusilla was sick, Spike needed Angel's blood for the ritual to cure her. The blood of her sire,' Buffy told them.

'Darla,' realised Wesley. 'The reason they needed to bring her back.'

'So Angel's still in there?' Cordelia asked Giles. 'According to your theory.'

'Yes. There have always been two entities inside Angel,' Giles told her. 'His human soul and the demon. However, now it seems that the demon half is reasserting itself. Becoming stronger. Angel's soul is being suppressed.'

'What will happen if we don't stop it?' Buffy asked her Watcher.

'Any evil Angelus does will be experienced by Angel's soul. My guess would be he'll be tortured, weakened each time. Eventually his soul will be so weak he won't be able to reassert himself. And he will lose the will to.'

'So what happens now?' Lindsey sounded less than pleased with this latest plan. Angel had been brought back to his hotel and left there. 'How do we know this is going to work? If any of his friends figure out what's going on ...'

'By the time any of them realise what's happening, it will be too late,' Darla smiled. 'They'll all be dead.'

'And then Daddy will come home to play,' Dru said. 'And everything will be as it was before.'

'I still don't like him being off where we can't keep an eye on his progress.'

'Lindsey, Lindsey,' Darla smiles seductively, moving towards him. 'He can do much more damage out there than he can do here. Unless you want him to kill you. And I don't think that would trouble his soul too much.'

Kathy slowly sat up on the couch as Willow and Tara finished the spell that revoked Angel's invitation into Cordy's apartment.

'You know, considering how many of these spells we've had to do in the past few months, we should start advertising our services. You know, like a business,' Tara commented.

'Your magic's improved a lot Willow,' Kathy told her.

'Thanks,' Willow said, and then a look of confusion crossed her face. 'How do you know?'

'I was in Sunnydale when you were just starting to find your power. I was there to watch Angel mostly, but I was keeping an eye on all of you for the Powers.'

'Spying?' Willow asked warily.

Kathy smiled. 'More like a guardian.'

'Were you around the last time we faced the First?'

'Yes, I was,' Kathy answered with a note of regret in her voice.

Buffy heard this and came over. 'And you did nothing?'

'I did as much as I could. I wasn't allowed to contact any of you Buffy. It wasn't my choice.'

'As much as you could,' Buffy was angry and needed to unleash on someone. 'You knew he could have died, or lost his soul. You could have warned us, told us what we were facing. We almost found out too late, you know.'

'I know.'

'And yet you did nothing. Some guardian,' she sneered. She was all dressed up with rage with no where to go but at the injured woman in front of her. 'You would have let him immolate on that hill!'

'I didn't!'

Kathy got to her feet and walked into the bathroom, still looking deathly pale.

All the anger went out of Buffy as she suddenly realised.

'The snow,' she said quietly.

Sunnydale, Christmas 1998.

The dawn was merely minutes away as Buffy frantically searched the hillside for Angel. On a ridge, overlooking a peaceful suburb, she finally found him, looking at the houses and apparently deep in thought.

'Angel!' she called out to him.

He looked round at the sound of her voice, before looking towards the rooftops once more. As she walked towards him, he finally spoke.

'I bet half the kids down there are already awake,' he told her. 'Lying in their beds... sneaking downstairs... waiting for day.'

'Angel, please. I need for you to get inside. Th-there's only a few minutes left.'

'I know,' he replied, unworried. 'I can smell the sunrise long before it comes.'

'I don't have time to explain this,' Buffy said in an anxious and hurried voice, 'you just have to trust me. That thing that was haunting you...'

Angel cut her off. 'It wasn't haunting me. It was showing me.'

'Showing you?' asked Buffy, confused.

'What I am.'

'Were.'

'And ever shall be,' Angel insisted. 'I wanted to know why I was back. Now I do.'

Buffy was beyond exasperated. She had to make him understand. But there was so little time left. Her desperation was turning into anger.

'You don't know. Some great evil takes credit for bringing you back and you buy it? You just give up?'

His voice was harsh when he replied. 'I can't do it again, Buffy. I can't become a killer.'

'Then fight it.'

'It's too hard.'

Buffy began to panic. 'Angel, please, you have to get inside.'

'It told me to kill you,' he told her. 'You were in the dream. You know. It told me to lose my soul in you and become a monster again.'

'I know what it told you. What does it matter?'

'Because I wanted to!' he cried out. 'Because I want you so badly! I want to take comfort in you, and I know it'll cost me my soul, and a part of me doesn't care.'

At this admission, Angel began to sob. Buffy had no reply.

'Look, I'm weak. I've never been anything else. It's not the demon in me that needs killing, Buffy. It's the man.'

Buffy tried to reason with him. 'You're weak. Everybody is. Everybody fails. Maybe this evil did bring you back, but if it did, it's because it needs you. And that means that you can hurt it.'

Angel shook his head, not wanting to believe her.

'Angel,' she pleaded with him, 'you have the power to do real good, to make

amends.'

When he didn't respond, she got angry, raising her voice. 'But if you die now, then all that you ever were was a monster.'

She looked up at the sky, which had begun to lighten.

'Angel, please,' she begged, frantically. 'The sun is coming up!'

'Just go,' he told her.

'I won't!'

'What, do you think this is simple? You think there's an easy answer? You can never understand what I've done! Now go!'

'You are not staying here,' she told him, grabbing his arm. 'I won't let you!'

'I said leave!' he yelled, jerking his arm free of her grasp.

In her anger and desperation Buffy drew back a fist and punched him. Not thinking, just reacting, he responded by shoved her hard away from him. Buffy landed face-forward in the dirt, sobbing.

Half-realising what he had done, he went to her, crouching down and trying to turn her to face him. Terrified, not knowing his state of mind or intentions, Buffy struggled and cried out.

'No! No!'

Grabbing her roughly by the arms, he turned her and made her look at him.

'Am I a thing worth saving, huh?' he asked, shaking her. 'Am I a righteous

man? The world wants me gone!'

'What about me?' Buffy sobbed in reply. 'I love you so much... And I tried to

make you go away... I killed you and it didn't help.'

She shoved him off of her and got to her feet.

'And I hate it! I hate that it's so hard... and that you can hurt me so much.' Sobs racked through her, but then her voice took a harder edge. 'I know everything that you did, because you did it to me. Oh, God! I wish that I wished you dead. I don't.' Her voice broke, and she finished with barely more than a whisper, 'I can't.'

Angel got to his feet, his voice softer and pleading.

'Buffy, please. Just this once... let me be strong.'

'Strong is fighting!' she insisted. 'It's hard, and it's painful, and it's every day. It's what we have to do. And we can do it together.'

Angel knew, deep in his soul, that she was right. That everything she said was true. But fear, fear of himself and what he might be capable of, kept him from responding.

She was angry and resolved now. This was her final chance to get through to him.

'But if you're too much of a coward for that, then burn. If I can't convince you that you belong in this world, then I don't know what can. But do not expect me to watch. And don't expect me to mourn for you, because...'

She trail off, confused. Suddenly, inexplicably, in the middle of a typically unseasonable California heat wave, it had begun to snow. They both looked around them, amazed. Finally, they looked at each other. Relief and gratitude shone in both their eyes. It was nothing short of a miracle.

There would be no sun that day…