A/N: Hi everyone. As always, thank you so much for the reviews. I hope you're all still with me as we near the end of the tale. And what an end. I'm a little exhausted after writing this - its the first time writing something with so many things happening at once - ergo a lot of cross-cutting between the different players. Also, be warned, a lot of Latin in this chapter. I hope it's relatively accurate, as i don't speak it myself :-) I use a website that translates English to Latin for me - so any mistakes, blame them... All translations will follow at the end of the chapter.

Only one chapter to go... Please Read and Review and make my day...


Kathy turned and twisted her head away from Victor's hand, which was coming at her with the rag he planned to gag her with. Straining as far away as possible from him, she had frustrated all his efforts. He let out a grunt of frustration and finally back-handed her across the face, sending the world into a spin. Dazed, she could no longer resist the cloth as it was shoved into her mouth. It tasted dirty and she struggled to push it forward in her mouth with her tongue, trying to get it away from the back of her throat where it would restrict her breathing. Already she could feel the moisture trickling down the back of her throat, and she began to gag.

'That will shut you up now witch,' Victor told her. 'Pity. I did like the way you were screaming for me.'

The look in Kathy's eyes said what her voice could not. Victor glanced back at his master for approval. The glowing figure nodded.

'Now you must hurry. The vampire comes to save the witch. You will not have time for your usual two days of ritual.'

'But, my Lord…' Victor began to protest.

'Do not argue with me, Victor. You must sacrifice her now.'


Angel and the rest of the team were running at full speed, trying to keep up with Willow and Tara's glowing guide. Now that the concealment charm was down, Angel could sense his sister, even from a distance. Like all of his kind, he could sense fear, smell it even. Right now, he could sense Kathy's fear, and it sent chills through him. Somehow, he sensed that they didn't have much time.

Finally, the miniature golden orb came to a stop, hovering over a warehouse at the end of a darkened alley. The group held back, warily checking out the path, from their position to its door. It wouldn't be the first time they were ambushed in an alleyway. Angel turned to the rest of the group.

'Wes, you stay with the girls. Cast whatever spells you need to bring down Doodheks,' he told them in a quiet voice. 'Gunn and I will go on ahead, and take down any monks that get in the way. You guys are our backups. When the magic's over, try and get into the warehouse and get Kathy out.'

The rest of the group nodded. Willow and Tara hastily began to unpack the spell ingredients. Angel did another quick sweep of the alley with his eyes and then looked back to Willow.

'How long will it take?'

Willow looked up at him, her nervousness showing. 'Five minutes, give or take… If nothing, you know, goes wrong.'

'Which given our track record, would never happen,' Wesley interjected, just a hint of sarcasm playing in his voice.

'Let's do this,' Angel said, turning to Gunn. 'You ready?'

Gunn lifted his axe up. 'You even have to ask?'

With that, they ran off into the alley. After watching them go for a moment, Wesley turned to the two witches.

'Let's get to it, ladies, shall we?'


The alley was too quiet. Far too quiet, Angel thought. They were only a hundred yards from the warehouse and still, nothing. Something was wrong.

'This is too easy,' Angel remarked to Gunn in a low voice. 'You'd think we'd have met some resistance by now.'

Just when he thought that it really was going to be that easy, his vampire hearing picked up an arrow whizzing towards him. He moved just in time to stop it going into his heart, but his shoulder still took the brunt of it. Spinning round with the impact, he saw dozens of hooded figures immerging from the shadows.

'You just had to go and jinx us, didn't you?' Gunn said, shooting Angel a dirty look. To the assembled monks, however, he was all bravado. 'Okay now, ladies. We've already kicked your butts a dozen ways from Sunday. But step on up if you want some more.'

Step on up they did. The monks descend on the pair, heavily armed and invigorated by the presence of their Lord. Each and every one believed this to be a holy quest, to protect the Vessel while he purified the witch. They would defend him with their life's blood. Blood which Angel was more than happy to spill in order to save his sister.

Metal clashed on metal, flesh on flesh, as Angel and Gunn tried to fight their way through the human barricade to the warehouse. Angel felt someone grab hold of the arrow, still embedded in his shoulder, and try to plunge it in deeper. The monk's grip slipped when Angel's fist introduced itself to his face. The monks fought well, but Angel and Gunn could hold their own and, slowly but surely, they edged their way towards their goal.


Willow and Tara had meanwhile created a magical circle, using crystals and sand, and now sat chanting in its centre. Their plan was to make the demon Doodheks corporeal, allowing Wesley to read the incantation that would bind him to the earth – making him susceptible to harm.

As the girls continued to chant, Wesley felt the air around him stir. He could feel the magic rising. He had noted their combined power before, when they had come to help the Angel Investigations team a little over a month ago, and he was in awe of it now. The magic these two women wielded together was definitely greater that the sum of their parts.

'Hecate, Goddess of the Crossroads, bind this creature of evil to the mortal coil,' Willow began to chant, lifting her face towards the heavens. 'Give it back its earthly body. We beseech you, hear our cry.'

'Goddess, Mother, aid us in our magic,' Tara took up the spell. 'Send your Power through us to bend this creature to our will. Doodheks, killer of our kind, we curse thee. Give thee substance, give thee mass.'

Joining hands, Willow and Tara's eyes both locked; their magical powers at their heights. As one, they spoke the final word of the spell. 'Firmus.'

At their words, the magic that swirled around them in the circle turned golden and rose up to a point, before shooting off towards the warehouse and their target.


Kathy's eyes danced in pain as the knife cut into her flesh again. True to his master's orders, Victor had ended his torture of her. But now he was methodically inscribing her skin with the words she had seen cut into the other girls' flesh. The incantation that would release her power to Doodheks when Victor finally killed her. Kathy knew that that time was almost upon her. Victor had already written the first three lines of the spell, and with every letter, unbearable pain seared through her.

A sudden blast of light in the darkened warehouse caught Kathy's attention. Victor paused in his task for a moment, and looked up in time to see a shaft of light hit his master. Doodheks shrieked, his voice unearthly and not at all as angelic as his appearance. As the light surrounded him, his body began to change, take shape, and become solid. And his solid form did not even remotely resemble the angelic, golden form in which he had been appearing to Victor.

The Doodheks that stood before them now was unmistakably demon, from the thick, leathery hide, to the misshapen horns that had sprouted from his head. Had Kathy not been gagged at that moment, she would have gasped at the now hideous creature before her. He, for his part, looked rather pleased.

'My body? Returned to me?' he said, his voice now a thick rasp. He looked at his hands in awe. 'Seems I didn't need you after all, witch. But I'll still take your power. I never say no to a little extra power.'

Victor stood, his mouth agape, not understanding what had happened. 'My Lord?' he asked hesitantly. 'What has happened?'

The demon thought fast. He still needed his religious lackey to finish the sacrifice. 'A trick,' he told him. 'Sent by our enemies to confuse you. Continue with your sacrifice. I will deal with the heretics.' With that, he was gone.


Angel and Gunn had taken out the majority of the monks, leaving a heap of unconscious bodies in their wake. They were now only twenty yards or so from the door to the warehouse. And, as far as Angel was concerned, it wasn't a moment too soon. He could not only smell his sister's fear. He could smell her blood. As far as he could tell, she was still alive, but for how much longer he couldn't be sure.

Angel drove his fist into yet another monk's face, and before the man had even fallen to the ground unconscious, Angel had charged forward, towards the door. His hand was inches away from the handle when a flash of bright light knocked him backwards, off his feet.

Angel looked up and saw an extremely ugly demon towering over him. At least 7 foot tall, with horns and claws, the demon surveyed the fallen vampire with interest. Angel leapt back up to his feet.

'Let me guess. Doodheks, I presume?' Angel asked drolly. The demon inclined his head slightly. 'I'll take that as a yes,' Angel replied, charging forward once more.


There spell now complete, Willow and Tara got to their feet and looked at Wesley. Willow was about to ask what was next, when a stabbing pain went through her stomach. Bent over, clutching her side, she looked up at Tara to see a similar look of pain.

'Oh, goddess,' Willow whispered. 'Kathy!'

'What is it? What's wrong?' Wesley asked, trying to keep his panic to a minimum.

'She's in so much pain,' Tara told him. 'Now that we're close by, we can feel it.'

'They're getting ready for the kill,' Willow said, straightening up and looking frightened.

'Go!' Wesley told them. 'Get into the warehouse somehow, and get her out of there.'

'What about the other spell?' Tara asked.

'I can do the incantation alone. Then I'll join Angel and Gunn in trying to get in the front. You girls sneak round the back entrance. It should be less heavily guarded.'

Tara and Willow looked at each other and nodded. 'Good luck,' Willow told the ex-Watcher, before she and her lover ran off into the night.

'Good luck,' Wesley whispered after them.


Hustling down another alley, which ran parallel to the one Angel was currently fighting on, Willow and Tara saw the back door to the warehouse. Only five monks were guarding it. Working in tandem, not needing to speak to know what the other was thinking, Willow reached into her pocket and wrapped her hand around a vile of powder. Sprinkling some into her palm, she moved forward, while Tara kept to the shadows.

'Hi!' she said brightly to the armed, robed figures. 'I'm a little lost. I'm trying to get to the Bacchanal.'

The monk's looked at one another and then one stepped forward, leering at Willow. 'Witch,' he said with venom in his tone.

'You betcha,' Willow replied, raising her hand and blowing the powder into his and his nearest neighbor's faces. The powder worked immediately, and the fell down, fast asleep.

Creeping up behind them, Tara had grabbed a plank of wood as a weapon. As another of the monks started towards Willow, she clocked him over the head. He staggered stupidly for a moment, before falling down, out cold.

Two left. Willow and Tara liked those odds. Almost as one being, they faced off their respective opponents and cast their spells. Willow intoned, 'nex amo somnus', while Tara said, 'sicco gelu'. Both monks followed their comrades into a deep sleep.


Stepping into the magical circle which Willow and Tara had vacated, Wesley glanced down the words he had to say, familiarizing himself with them. Then, clearing his throat once, he began.

'Bestia quisnam nutritor in veneficus ,reus iam ut terrenus plagiarius ,

temerarius vis of meus lacuna ,fio minor validus , fio castro.

Vos quisnam constupro man's visum ,haud diutius immortalis mos vos exsisto ,

nex mos reperio vos , nex mos servo vos ,reus ut pulvis vadum vos exsisto'

Which meant: Beast who feeds on witches, Bound now to the earthly plane, Heed the force of my words, Become less powerful, become unmade. You who corrupts mans' vision, No longer immortal will you be, Death will find you, death will keep you, Bound to dust shall you be.

Looking up from the page, Wesley looked around for some indication that the spell had worked. Unlike the girls' spell, there was no light show, no fanfare. Closing his book with a shrug, he could only pray that it had worked. Picking up his weapons, he ran off to join the fray.


The fight was not going too well for Angel. Doodheks was a powerful fighter in his solid form, and still impervious to harm, as far as Angel could tell. Twice he had plunged his sword into the demon, and twice he had only been rewarded with a brief howl, followed by getting to watch the demon rapidly heal. It sort of reminded him of the Mayor, and inwardly he urged Wesley to hurry up with his spell.

Gunn was holding his own against the remaining five monks. However, he was really beginning to miss the lack of moral ambiguity that came with fighting vamps. With them he knew what he had to do – dust them. But these monk guys were human. They may be allied with evil and planning on killing a friend of his, not to mention that fact that they were more than prepared to kill him too. But he still wasn't that comfortable hacking and slashing at them. Wherever possible, he was cold cocking them, knocking them out rather that killing or injuring them. Unfortunately, that way took a lot longer.

Angel went flying passed him at that moment, and hit the wall with a thud. Sliding down in, he shook his head to clear it. Man, that demon packed a punch. He jumped back up to his feet and was about to charge again, when he saw Wesley enter the alley.

'Is it done?' Angel called to him.

Wesley held a single thumb up in the air, hoping that he wasn't mistaken. It was good enough for Angel, who raised his sword and attacked, while Wesley ran to help Gunn.


Tara and Willow entered the darkened warehouse. In the far corner, they saw Kathy, chained up, her arms spread out, crucifixion-style. In front of her stood a lone monk, carving at her with a knife.

'Permoveo absentis!' Willow yelled, with a wave of her hand. Victor spun away from Kathy and landed on the ground several feet away. Tara ran towards Kathy to free her, while Willow squared up to the crazy monk.

'Witches!' he spat. 'What do you think you are doing? I was purifying her soul!' He started to get to his feet, wielding his dagger.

'Subsisto illic,' Willow said, keeping him on the ground.

Tara managed to open Kathy's chains, and was now helping the weakened and bleeding girl over to where Willow stood.

'We need to get you out of here and back to the hotel,' Tara was saying gently. Kathy looked exhausted, her arms, legs and stomach were bleeding freely, her body covered in burns. But she shook her head.

'Angel,' she said, moving towards the front door.

'Kathy, you're too weak,' Willow protested.

'I need to finish this,' Kathy told her, determined. As she walked passed Victor, he grabbed her leg.

'I'll finish you, witch,' he snarled.

'Ceadaigh téigh!' Kathy said in a voice that did not match her weakened state.

At her words, Victor's hand seared in pain, and he leapt back, as though burnt. Without blinking, Kathy kicked him in the face and he fell back, out cold.

'Okay,' Willow said. 'Not too weak.'

'Let's go,' Kathy told them.


Angel was attacking the demon fiercely now, but couldn't land a killing blow. The demon was powerful, and right now Angel was on the wrong end of that power. Bleeding from a gash in his head, he blinked the blood out of his eyes in time to see the demon's fist come at him once more. The blow made his ears ring, and he hit the wall for what felt like the tenth time. As Doodheks loomed up over him once more, Angel took his chance and drove his sword into the demon's chest.

Doodheks wailed in pain, and this time the wound did not heal up. The demon looked down at the blood that flowed from him, but instead of collapsing, he looked back at Angel, mightily pissed off. Grabbing the vampire by the neck, he pulled him up, dangling him mid-air. While the demon wasn't affecting Angel's breathing, since he didn't actually breathe, Angel was still more than a little concerned. Doodheks might not be able to strangle him to death, but Angel was fairly certain the demon could rip his head off.

A flash of light knocked Angel from Doodheks' grip. Looking up, Angel saw Kathy, flanked by Willow and Tara, coming towards them. Kathy looked badly beaten, and covered in blood, but her eyes were unwavering. Looking closer, Angel saw that Kathy's eyes had in fact turned completely green, and right now they were focused on the demon.

'Doodheks , vernula of obscurum, audite meus vox. Per meus lacuna , vado tergum ut abyssus ut spat vos sicco,' she said in a powerful, almost unearthly voice. Her hands cupped together in front of her, and a glowing ball appeared. As she continued to speak, it grew in size. 'Per vestri nex , Ego exsequor veneficus vos occisor.' The ball of light was now at least two foot in diameter.

'Didn't you mother ever tell you?' Willow quipped. 'Never get on the wrong side of a witch.'

Kathy took aim and hurled the ball of energy towards the demon. Without time to get out of its path, it hit him full on the chest. Screaming and writhing in agony, he burst into flames, before turning to dust. At the sight of this, the few monks still standing dropped their weapons and ran.

All her energy spent, Kathy swayed on the spot and started to fall. Tara and Willow grabbed her just before she hit the ground. Dashing over to her, Angel picked her up in his arms.

'Kathy?' he asked. Her eyes slowly fluttered open.

'Hey,' she said in a hoarse voice.

'Let's get you home,' he told her.

'How's Cordy?' Kathy asked before she lost consciousness.


To Be Continued...

A/N: Okay, lot of Latin (and a little bit of Gaelic for good measure)

The Latin:

nex amo somnus - death-like sleep (Willow spell to knock outa monk)

sicco gelu - out cold (Tara's spell to knock out a monk)

Permoveo absentis – move away (Willow's spell on Victor)

subsisto illic – stay there (Willow's other spell to keep Victor on the ground)

Doodheks , vernula of obscurum, audite meus vox. Per meus lacuna , vado tergum ut abyssus ut spat vos sicco - Doodheks, servant of darkness, hear my cry. With my words, go back to the hell that spat you out. (Kathy's spell to defeatDoodheks pt 1)

Per vestri nex , Ego exsequor veneficus vos occisor - With your death, I avenge the witches you murdered. (Kathy's spell pt 2)

The Gaelic:

Ceadaigh téigh – Let go! (Kathy's spell against Victor)