"Anything else on the agenda this morning," Angel asks Wes, Fred, Gunn and Lorne.
"Harmony's hiding something," Lorne reports.
"How d'ya know," Fred asks.
"She's afraid. I walked passed her, and she clammed up. As if she wanted to be sure nothing got out in the ether for me to pick up."
"How do we know it's work related," Wesley, who brought her into the office, asks.
"What's the harm in testing her," Gunn asks. "No pun intended."
"Make her sing," Angel orders. Lorne walks out into the lobby.
"Excuse me Harmony. Can I um, see, we're doing random testing, and if it wouldn't be too much trouble, I'd like to test you."
"I was already tested today. My blood came back clean."
"I meant a singing test."
"Why today?"
"Why not today?"
"Can you do this? I have rights, you know. A right to privacy. A right not to incriminate myself."
"Who's been telling you about these rights," Lorne wonders.
"No one. I've been reading the employee manual."
"Then you know that when you joined Wolfram & Hart, you signed away all constitutional rights. Actually, as a vampire, you never had them."
"I have a sore throat."
"It'll just take a second."
"Maybe tomorrow?"
"Believe me when I say I don't enjoy this any more than you. Probably less. So let's just get this over with. Or you're fired."
"What? You can't fire me."
"But Angel can."
"Oh. Oh all right." She stands up. "What should I sing?"
"Whatever you want." Harmony thinks a little while and fidgets nervously. "The phone rings, in the middle of the night. My father says When you gonna live your life right?' Oh daddy dear you know you're still number one, but girls, they wanna have fu-un. Oh, girls just wanna have - that's all we really wa-a-a-ant. Just fu-u-u-u-un. When the working day is done," she croaks.
"Stop. Enough. Thank you. We're done. You passed."
"I did?"
"You're free and clear."
"Did you, did you see anything?"
"Nothing work related. Good day." Lorne rushes back into the meeting room. "Good news. It was just an orgy!"
"What was," Fred asks.
"Harmony. The other night, she engaged in your standard quad. Two guys, two girls, various combinations. We've all been there." Fred, Wes and Gunn stare at Lorne, shocked and a little sickened. "I mean, all of us demons." They look at Angel, who unconvincingly shakes his head. "They weren't employees, so it's none of our business. She's just feeling a little confused. We all do after our first time."
"Meeting adjourned," Angel announces. Everyone leaves without looking at Lorne, who's said far too much.
"Spike, did you hear," an excited Fred asks early in the afternoon. "Course you didn't. I haven't told ya. Dev's gonna get a soul! Maybe not today. Or next week. But sometime in the next month. He does hafta travel a long way. But he's doin' it! He's really doin' it."
"That's my boy," he responds wanly.
"What's wrong?"
"You can't put too much faith in someone Fred. Especially not a vampire," he answers cryptically before walking away. Fred suspects he's talking about himself.
"Why'd you break up my meeting," an angry Angel asks Spike.
"I didn't break it up. I solved it. You couldn't decide which demon to back, so I killed the uglier one. End of meeting." His demon clan in the lobby is still wailing and gnashing their teeth.
"Angel, can you call security," Harmony asks. "I can barely hear myself think." Angel and Spike each take a few seconds to consider responding to this remark.
"Too easy," Angel says to Spike after she closes the door.
"In more ways than one."
"I've already heard too much today about her private life."
"You what," an alarmed Spike exclaims.
"Nothing about you."
"Oh. So how are things with Nina?"
"Great."
"She still palling around with Oz?"
"I think she's good for him."
"I'm sure he agrees."
"Are you implying something?"
"Don't you think you're leading her on?" Angel slams Spike into the wall.
"Don't you dare talk about her like that."
"Hands off, cro-mag," Spike replies, freeing himself. "I'm just saying, the girl-wolf's head over heels for you. She's got expectations you can't fulfill." Angel knocks Spike down with a right hook. "Not those. The big stuff. Love, marriage, white picket fence. You're her hero. Which means you can't help but let the poor bird down."
"We're not talking about me, right?"
"At least I am."
"Maybe you're right. No way a girl could fall in love with you."
"Bollocks! You know better. Buffy said - "
"I really, really don't ever want to hear anything Buffy said to you."
"And Drusilla - "
"Was insane."
"I didn't come here to quibble about old times."
"Then why did you come in here, kill a client, and ruin my afternoon?" The demons are still wailing. Spike opens the door.
"Oh boo hoo! Get over it, or I'm taking off your heads, too!" They quickly quiet down. He closes the door. "That's better."
"Answer me. What was on your mind? You miss spending time with me?" Spike laughs. "It's that girl. The one who looks like Willow."
"She does not!"
"Did she make some art for you?"
"How'd you know?"
"Nina's made a couple things for me."
"Cuz you saved her life."
"You saved Claire's life. Well, you helped me save Claire's life."
"Glory hog."
"Drama queen."
"Preening prima donna."
"I don't preen."
"Wut were we talking about?"
"Claire."
"Nina."
"Our girlfriends. I mean, Your girlfriend. And mine," Angel qualifies. This reminded him what Lorne said about Harmony, bringing back memories of the old days with Dru and Darla.
"Whatever. Same bloody difference."
"She said she loved you."
"Don't tell me what she said. Wut do you know?"
"You said it yourself. Well, you tiptoed around it. Talk about preening."
"I'm not the one leading a girl on."
"Then why are you here?"
"She's not a girl. She's a bloody archetype. You and your blondes."
"You want to fight?"
"No. I'll throw you out the window some other day."
"Because you're doing everything you can to provoke me."
"Claire's falling for me. Girl can't help it."
"Don't make me gag."
"What did you do when Nina said she loved you?"
"Actually, - "
"She hasn't? Oh. Sorry. Thought you could relate."
"Oh grow up. Act like an adult or get the hell out of my office."
"How do you do it? How do you keep her expectations down?" Angel glares at Spike.
"You're trying. But you're so accustomed to being a jerk that you can't help yourself."
"Now who's name-calling?"
"You didn't tell her about Buffy. I can't believe. No, I can. You're slippery. You'll do anything to get in a - "
Spike charges Angel, who throws him over the desk. Spike overturns the desk and goes bumpy. Harmony peaks in. "Should I cancel your two o'clock?"
"We'll be done in five minutes."
"You're not gonna kill each other, are you?"
"Not today."
"Goodie. Not that I want to sleep with you again, Spike. I've found someone else. Several someone elses. And they treat me much better than you ever did."
"Smashing, luv. Now give us a minute, would you?" She leaves. "Claire's known about Buffy from day one. She thinks we have something unique and special. Which we do, but, I just want to know how to dash a girl's expectations. What's your secret?"
"You can't be this dumb. You really want me to throw you through that glass wall."
"No thank you. I think I'll do it myself." Spike leaps backwards and shatters the glass. He stands up, brushes himself off, and calmly walks into the elevator. Harmony looks over her shoulder at Angel.
"You two really need to lighten up."
"I've made my choice," Devlin proudly says to Debbie when she comes home from school. "It's that trial and spiritual quest in Bhutan. There's some danger involved, but I'm sure I'll be able to mitigate it."
"Did you really go to Mexicali this weekend?"
"Yes. Unfortunately."
"You didn't use my trip as a chance to run off and kill a Slayer?"
"What? Why would I - ? I've already done that. I'm through with that way of life."
"I think you said there's one in Denver. And Seattle. That's where you're from."
"It's my adopted home. But if a Slayer died there, it wasn't my doing."
"Tell me the truth."
"I went to Mexico and got jumped. I'm not very proud of it, but that's what happened."
"Because you wouldn't lie to someone you love."
"Of course not. Especially you."
"Then why did I have a dream about you killing another Slayer?"
"It's that witch Willow. She gave you your Slayer Power, so she can certainly mess with your head."
"Maybe."
"Maybe?"
"It felt so real."
"Why would I kill another Slayer? Why would I risk my life to do something that wasn't for you? It's irrational. That's not me. I'm not looking for dragons to slay. Not anymore," he says as he walks over and puts his hands on her shoulders.
"I need some rest. I didn't get much sleep at Joshua Tree. And you know what we did yesterday took a little out of me," she says with a smirk.
"Just a little," he jokes back. She gives him a quick peck on the lips and goes into her bedroom. Only when she's out of view does Devlin's face betray his concern. Willow was being pesky. It was like she could see over his shoulder from thousands of miles away and relay his actions to Debbie. She would have to be delt with. Preferably from a safe distance.
Sunday night was wonderful for Elektra and her four minions. They went anywhere they wanted and killed without fear. Robin considered making a stand, but knew that would probably be a death sentence. So he stayed home, safely brooding over the loss of life. There was no question of using Gloria and Susan, fresh from the Academy. They would surely fail where Rona and Vi had. But come Monday night, he would have experienced reinforcements, and the vampires would pay for their new brazenness.
Buffy, Giles and Gretchen are in the meeting room between the main and secondary courtyards, where several Slayers talk and one leaps over a fountain, flaunting her new abilities. Buffy stares out at the main courtyard, her hands behind her back. "You gave a very stirring speech," Giles assures her.
"It didn't help."
"Don't sell yourself short," Gretchen says, giving Buffy a rare compliment.
"If two experienced Slayers can fall, so can they. That's what's on their minds." Buffy turns around to face Giles and Gretch, who sit at the other side of the table.
"It's a dangerous job," Gretchen responds. "They've known that from day one."
"It's not as if before now we've had them living in denial," Giles adds, perhaps revealing too much. Dawn enters the room from the hallway.
"What is it," Buffy asks.
"I've been looking at the police report. Rona's body wasn't touched. But Vi was stripped naked and raped with her own stake."
"We know," Buffy says, annoyed by this recitation of disgusting details.
"Hilda Grubers Botha was also stripped and raped. I think there's a connection. Maybe the same vampire did both."
"It is an unusual modus operandi, to say the least," Giles notes. He'd never heard of dead Slayers being treated in such a manner in the past.
"In the modern world," Gretchen adds. "In the ancient world, it was common to strip the bodies of dead warriors. Like in The Iliad."
"Why does it matter," Buffy asks. She hates dwelling on such matters.
"If it's the same vampire, it does matter," Giles insists, backing up Dawn.
"Also, there was a puddle of blood near Vi. The police lab said it was human blood mixed with a little animal blood."
"I've heard enough," Buffy insists, annoyed at her sister's fixation on the gory details.
"The only way I can think of that happening is if a vampire who also drinks animal blood swallowed her blood and then threw up. Which is weird. A bulimic Slayer killer."
"We'll take it under advisement," Buffy responds, blowing her sister off and pissed by that last joke. It's as if Dawn didn't take the death of a Slayer seriously.
During her nap, Debbie had another dream, reliving the seconds between when Dev stabbed Vi and when she died. She thinks of her date with Trent, their wonderful kiss, and how she's beginning to like life on the Hellmouth. There are thoughts about the many demons she's killed, including the first uber-vamps she slayed right after getting her powers. Intermixed with these fond memories is disbelief that she is being done in by this short, scrawny dead boy. She remembers that she hasn't called her mother in over a month, but how her natural family seems much less important that her Slayer family. She regrets never having asked Giles about how other Slayers died. But she hadn't felt fear of death for a very long time. Everything was going so well. After the intense battle in Sunnydale, everything else seemed safe and easy. After facing the end of the world, what's a few guys with fangs? But now one of these guys with fangs had ended her life. And not a very fearsome one at that. As she falls, Vi looks to her left and sees Rona's back. She's fighting a vampire Debbie recognizes. It seems as if she's falling forever because she never hits the ground. Dev grabs her before that can happen. The last thing she senses is the feeling of Devlin's lips against her chest, about to suck out her blood.
Debbie shoots out of bed. It's nighttime. She's been asleep three hours. Her breath races. Her heart pounds. Devlin had reverted to his old ways. This was a true nightmare.
Devlin sits on the couch in the living room, his feet resting on the coffee table. He watches a replay of the previous night's Soprano's episode. "I can't believe you'd do this," he hears Debbie say behind him, her voice choked up.
"Do what, baby?"
"Don't you dare baby' me." Devlin stands and turns around. "You son of a bitch. You killed her."
"Who?" Deb knocks him down with a left hook.
"Vi!" Now she was getting names. This was most disconcerting.
"You had another dream. Willow send you another dream. She's playing with your mind."
"You killed her in Cleveland on Saturday. And don't try to deny it, cause from that look on your face I know I'm right." This was very bad. Deb knew too much. It was pointless to deny. "You stabbed her in the heart and drank her blood while Elektra killed Rona."
"Why do you care about the deaths of two complete strangers?" Deb hits him in the nose.
"Because they're like me!" She was identifying with the herd. All Devlin's work was rapidly unraveling.
"No. No she wasn't. You're free. She was Buffy's automaton."
"She was a Slayer. A human being. And you killed her. You killed her and lied to me about it."
"You expected me to tell the truth?" She decks him with a right hook. "Come on, Deb. Try seeing it from my point of view."
"Why don't you see it from hers. Why don't you see what it feels like to die." While Dev's on his back, Debbie pounds his left eye with six straight right hooks. Devlin finally gets up, backs towards the door and rips open his shirt.
"Come on. Do it! Open that chest, grab a stake, and do it! Cause if I can't live with you, what's the point?"
"You should have thought of that before skipping town to commit murder."
"I did. I thought I'd get away with it. It's one kill. I won't do it again." Deb throws a lamp into his face, cutting it badly. "I did it for you."
"What! How can you possibly say that with a straight face?"
"As long as things go perfect for them, they'll come for you. But after a setback, they have to regroup. It buys you time. I made a strategic decision to forestall their momentum." Debbie grabs an ax out of the weapons chest and tosses it at his head. Dev ducks, and the ax is stuck in the front door. "It was a one-time thing. I won't do it again. Hey, the past is dead, right?"
"No. She's dead."
"Again, you're identifying with a woman who saw you as just another number."
"What did you see her as? A meal?"
"Hardly. She was a great warrior. The woman fights to the death for a living. Sooner or later she was gonna buy it. If I didn't get her, someone else would have."
"I can't believe I believed in you. I can't believe I thought you'd changed."
"I have. I didn't enjoy it. I couldn't. And I certainly won't after I get my soul."
"You go do that. You go halfway around the world and get it. But don't even think of coming back here."
"What?"
"You heard me."
"I think you're missing the point. A soul means no more killing, period."
"I thought that if I loved you I could make you into a man. But I couldn't. The demon was just waiting for a chance to pop up."
"I don't think you understand," he responds, still sounding cold and dispassionate, which Debbie sees as a sign of his soullessness. "I get a soul, you take me back, this never happens again. You tell me goodbye, I don't get a soul, more people die, and you lose the man you love."
"I've already lost him."
"You lost me when I killed Vi?"
"Yes."
"Then what about last night," he asks wickedly. She doubles over in shame and disgust. "Was that the evil me you said you loved? Was that the evil me who made you feel so wonderful?" Deb leaps across the room and drives his back into the wall, knees him in the groin and punches him in the chin. "Because that man, and the man who killed Vi, and the man who kissed you goodbye before your left town, they're all the same man. I'm all that. Which you knew from the start." She hits his face with a right hook kick. "I'm good or bad or indifferent, depending on the stimuli. Who knows? Maybe if you had been a bit more giving the past two weeks, I wouldn't have felt the need to kill, and precious Vi would still be alive." She lands a right kick to his nose, knocking Dev down. Deb retreats towards the chest while Devlin gets up. "So I suppose this is partly your fault."
"And if I say get out,' more people die?"
"Eventually."
"There is a way around that." She grabs a stake in her left hand. "I could make sure you never get out."
"Go ahead." Dev holds his arms out. "Do it. Only way I can stop you is to kill you, and I can't do that. Hell, even now, I'm not all evil." Deb tosses the stake at his chest. Dev grabs it with both hands. Deb runs forward and knocks him down with a left hook, followed by five more. Now both eyes are black and partially shut. Dev holds out the stake. "Finish me. Finish me. Finish me!" Debbie backs away. "Well then," he says as he stands up. "I guess we both still have feelings for each other. Shame we can't focus on what we have in common. She throws a knife at his face. He ducks, and the knife is stuck in the door near the ax. They both look devastated, Dev physically and emotionally, Deb just emotionally. Dev notices she's still in boxer short and a tank top. She was so upset by the dream she didn't even bother to put her clothes back on. "No shoes. Guess that rules out a chase." Dev leaves, shutting the door behind him. Deb goes back into her room. Devlin sits in his Mustang, trying to think of a way to make this better. Then he sees his clothes, his laptop, and his other possessions flying out the side window. Once she's done, Deb shuts the door, leans against her closet door, sinks to the ground and sobs uncontrollably. It was over. She was truly, desperately, inconsolably alone. And only one day earlier it seemed as if they were going to last forever.
The three vampires are on the couch watching television when they hear a knock at the door. Paul opens it and sees a badly bruised Dev. "Dude, what happened?"
"Change of plans." Dev pulls the stake he has in his right hand from behind his back and dusts Paul.
"Man, what the fuck," Luiz yells.
"You can't go back." Luiz correctly assumes Dev is there to kill him and throws a right hook. Dev ducks, pushes Luiz's face into the wall and stakes him in the back. Sidney runs for the open door, but Dev grabs her collar and pulls her back in. "Relax, Sid." He drops the stake.
"Dev, what the hell is wrong with you?"
"I skipped town, killed a Slayer, and Debbie found out. Naturally, she tried to kill me. I escaped. Now we're no longer wanted in this town."
"You killed a Slayer?"
"Yes, and plan to kill more. Wanna help?" She manages a small smile.
"You serious? You're back on the bad side?"
"I really have no choice. Course, I can't really do it alone. That's where you come in."
"Did you shoot her?"
"That would have been too easy. Hand-to-hand. Cut her open. Sucked her blood. Taped it and put it online. You can check it out if you want. But first, we have to leave."
"You and me, a couple?"
"I've always been a little jealous of Diego. Wasting all your talents on that boy. The two of us could do some serious damage."
"This is so sudden. Which goes without saying." Dev puts his right arm round her waist, pulls her closes and kisses her. At first, Sidney pulls back. Dev looks disappointed. Then she puts her right hand on the back of his head and kisses him. Dev thrusts her against the wall and puts his left hand down her pants. "I thought we were in a hurry," she asks in between gasps as he kisses her neck.
"I am." Dev goes bumpy and bites through her spinal cord. She looks even more shocked than before, which is only natural, since she's about to die. "Sorry Sid. Gotta make a clean break. Her mouth wide open in disbelief, she turns to dust. Dev returns to his human face and calmy licks her blood of his teeth and lips. He looks around for a few seconds. This was the place where he first trained Debbie, where they first spent time together, where he courted her. But memories could wait. He had one more visit to make.
Lorne is at Spike's apartment. The two of them are playing Space Invaders when Dev kicks the door open. He holds a half-empty bottle of Stolichnaya vodka in his right hand, and looks even worse than he did at the last vampire hang-out he crashed. What's more, he launches into song:
"It doesn't pay to try.
All the smart boys know why.
It doesn't mean I didn't try.
I just never know why.
You can't put your arms around a memory.
So don't try. Don't try."
Lorne runs past Devlin out the door. "Here anything interesting," he asks.
"You messed up," Spike says, slowly walking over and looking very serious.
"I am your son."
"I told you it wouldn't last."
"It was lasting. It was lasting great! Until that Willow witch started messing with Deb's head."
"Wut was that?"
"Two weeks ago, she had a dream about me killing Hilda." Spike recalls also having that dream about a fortnight ago. "It was a horrible, brutal kill, as killings go, so you can understand if she was a little skittish around me once that she knew what I was capable of."
"Debbie saw you kill Hilda?"
"Debbie WAS Hilda." And Spike was Devlin. So, in a sick way, during that simultaneous dream Spike was raping and killing Debbie. "I work so hard to overcome that obstacle, and then along comes an opportunity. A golden opportunity."
"Elektra. She came back." Spike remembers the suspicious killings in Los Angeles the previous week.
"You're catching on, blondie," Dev says with a laugh as he staggers sideways.
"I could light your breath on fire," Spike notes.
"Careful. You might go up in flames. But why bother? I am you. I did what you would do. Tried to have it all. Two Slayers. No one's ever killed two at the same time. Until we did it. Debbie's away. How would she know? Without the witch, she wouldn't. Deb thinks I betrayed her. She doesn't understand that Rona and Vi were different. The were part of the Borg."
"You and Leks killed Rona and Vi?"
"Old friends of yours? Vi sure didn't seem to think much of you. Very disrespectful. But oh could she fight. I understand what you meant about dancing' with Nikki. We danced. It was almost a shame it had to end." Spike recalls the mock fight when he pretended to kill Rona and Vi.
"You thought you could get away with this."
"I thought I should tie your mark before getting a soul and retiring. Now we're even. Two apiece."
"So you made a mistake. So did I. You can make it right. Go out there, get your soul and she'll take you back."
"Spikey, Spikey, Spikey. Don't you get it? She already loved me. I broke her trust. Unlike you, I didn't have anything to prove. Getting a soul changes nothing with Deb."
"It changes everything."
"No! She loved me, I blew it, end of story."
"It's not the end."
"I made a fool out of her! I proved her wrong. I proved Debbie wrong, and Buffy right. I'm not good. I'm a fighter. And a fighter needs opponents. Enemies. Things to kill. I can't settle down and be lovey-dubby. That's not me."
"Get a soul, and it will be."
"Don't you get it? I don't want to become good. I want Debbie. I had her, I lost her, and now all that's left is death. Question is, how many do I take with me? Bye dad. I'll be waiting for you in hell."
"You're not leaving this room."
"Why not? You gonna stop me?"
"You're not in much of a condition to resist."
"Oh dad. You should know me better than that by now." Dev turns around and opens the door. Spike grabs his left shoulder and spins him back around. Devlin smashes the bottom of the bottle on top of Spike's head. The bottle is filled with holy water, which burns Spike's scalp, face and eyes. "I always have a trick up my sleeve." Devlin throws Spike over the couch and makes his escape. A nearly blind Spike blunders outside just in time to hear Devlin tire's screech.