Chapter 4

The following takes place between 3 A.M. and 4 A.M. on the autumnal equinox.

In his nearly 250 years Angel had learned some hard and fast rules about brawls. The first and most relevant was: "If the room is against you, you're screwed." He had started the brawl because he knew that there wasn't any way out, but he had been pretty certain when he did that the odds weren't in his favor.

For starters, with the exception of Wesley, no one in the bar was likely to help him-- and Wes had his hands full already. (Willy had demonstrated the courage he had in the past by ducking behind the bar.) But it wasn't just the math which was against him; it was the geography. The vampires and demons would have been difficult to take on had they been fighting in an open space -- in close quarters it was nearly impossible. Angel thought as hard as he could but the space and the numbers finally overwhelmed him minutes after the fight had started.

Three of the vampires grabbed Angel and lifted him to his feet while being sure he couldn't get free. The alpha vampire, whom Angel had swung on, walked up to him. He looked around: "Where's the Watcher?" he growled.

"Slippery bastard got away, Duke," said one of the smaller flunkies. "Guess those rumors about his hating you are true." he said to Angel before turning back to the leader "Wyatt and Cuthbert went after him. He won't get far."

Duke turned towards Angel. "Your friend's lucky. Once we find him, bang he's dead. You on the other hand, are going to be wishing for death by the time when we're done." He yelled at the others: "Come on, we've got to hurry."

They began walking out the door, Duke standing slightly ahead of the three vampires who had Angel in an iron grasp.

Angel was mentally preparing himself to get free. There was a very good chance that it would kill him, but he preferred being dust to helping these bastards.

Suddenly they stopped moving and Angel heard a low voice say. "Get ready." The other vampires heard it too, turned around and began laughing.

If he had been Angelus instead of Angel, he might have laughed too. The sight of a grown man-- even one as dark-looking as Wesley -- holding a gun on a group of vampires could only strike the undead as hysterical. A vampire leaped toward him, still laughing after Wes had fired. He was still smiling as he disintegrated into dust.

The vampires laughter disappeared and was replaced with paralyzing shock. It only lasted seconds, but it was long enough for Wes to start shooting the others. The vampires holding Angel loosened their grip, enough for him to break free and tackle one to the ground. By the time he had staked him, the other vampires and demons were dust or had ran away-- except for Duke. Wesley had shot him in the leg and was now standing over him.

Angel got over to him. Even though he had an idea of what happened, he was as surprised as the others to seeing it in action. "What the fuck was that?"

" Special issue from Fred." said Wes putting in a fresh clip.

" Silver sheathed bullets with wooden tips. Capable of killing a vampire quickly or slowly depending on where you get shot." He pointed the gun at Duke. " Get the picture?"

Duke knew the score and that he was probably dust. "What do you want to know?"

"You can start by telling us what you and your friends in the Brotherhood are raising today." said Angel

Duke looked confused. "What raising? We're not raising anything."

"You're going to bring about the destruction of the world but you don't know the details?" said Wesley sarcastically.

"Hey, we're just supposed to show up when it starts today. It's the demons in the Brotherhood are going to do the raising." When Wesley raised the gun, he spoke anxiously: "I'm telling the truth! They say it's going to be this morning. How the hell am I going to do anything in the middle of the day?"

That sounded honest so Angel said, "All right. Who's the big boss in charge?"

"I don't know; I've never met him."

Again Wesley raised the gun.

"He hasn't met with any of us." Duke sounded positively frantic now. "Always sends a guy to talk for him. Only a few of us have met the real boss."

"All right, who's this flunky and how do we find him?" asked Wesley.

"A human. British like you. Calls himself Harvey. I don't know where he lives but he usually meets us at Griff--

As Duke said the word 'meets' Angel heard a sound from across the alley. He had just enough time to pull Wesley down before the crossbow bolt hit him. Duke was so intent on his tale that he didn't know what was happened until the bolt pierced his chest. He never finished the address as he exploded into a pile of dust.

By the time Angel and Wesley ran towards where they thought the shooter had come from, whoever it was had gone.

3:09:18 --- 3:09:19 --- 3:09:20 --- 3:09:21

Santa Monica

It had taken Buffy and Lorne nearly twenty minutes to cut a swath through the vampires. It took Buffy an average of two minutes to kill a vampire or three to kill a demon. (One of the advantages of working for Wolfram & Hart was that you could find people who were willing to go almost anywhere for the most minor things. Clocking killing speed was the least of them) These vampires, however, had fought a lot harder and better than the average.

Now, as she managed to dispatch the last of the demons, she began to think of the problems that this could mean for her and the rest of the team.

"There are two things that could be going on here," Buffy said. "One, I'm off my game and its taking me longer than usual to kill these demons."

"Or these were tougher than usual," Lorne suggested as he put his battle-ax away. "Please tell me you were just going easy on them."

Buffy shook her head.

"Great. Have I mentioned how much fun I'm not having?"

"Well it gets better. Now we have to go inside their clubhouse." They were now about twenty feet away from a rickety looking building. Actually, building was a kind word for the place: it appeared to be a restaurant that hadn't been too high class before it had been abandoned. In other words, the ideal vamp nest.

"Wonderful. We've just killed ten monsters, we're going in to face more and we don't even get the benefit of a 1-up." Lorne looked at Buffy. "Please tell me we're going to call for backup."

Buffy thought it over. "Go around back. Check and see if there's a back door."

Lorne ran as quickly as he possibly could. He returned a minute later. "There's a door they must have used for delivery."

"Do you think that whoever's left was smart enough to run away when they saw me coming?"

Lorne thought for a few seconds before he shook his head. "There's something that they're protecting. They didn't get themselves killed for the exercise."

Buffy thought again. "Stay here and guard the front door. If something comes out…"

"…ask them if they'd like a Seabreeze, I get it. " Lorne said in about as grim a tone as he used. "Where are you going?"

"Seeing if you can find good help at three in the morning." Buffy started walking around to the back, taking out her cell phone as she went.

3:15:45 --- 3:15:46 --- 3:15:47

Angel-Slayer Inc.

It had taken nearly forty minutes to call in ten junior Slayers and twenty apprentice Watchers. Part of the reason it took such a long time was that Dawn had had a brainstorm that almost made Fred ashamed of her own supposed intellect.

"We're going to have the gang all over California right?" Dawn had asked. When Fred had nodded, she went on: "Well rather than call everybody here, let's call some Slayers and Watchers to the places they're going to be. That way they'll have back up in case something goes wrong." She added: "Which, given our luck, is probably going to happen."

Fred saw the sense in that. So the two had called some of the Slayers and Watchers who were still in the field and sent them to where they were needed. By two forty-five, all of the board members had called in that they had reached their respective destinations. By three a.m., all of the second teams had gotten into position about a block away from them. And just now the last of the Slayers and Watchers who hadn't been in either the field or the building had finally arrived. So , in theory, Angel-Slayer Inc should have been operating at full efficiency.

In theory.

"Miss Burkle!"

Fred sighed as the fourth stranger in six minutes ran up to her. "It's Fred, Mister…."

"Waterston. Keith Waterston." The young man was a little too perky even for her taste. "I just got a call from – Buffy?" Keith seemed unsure that he had heard right

Fred sighed. Clearly this was a real green hire who hadn't even gotten the name of one of the major bosses. "What does Buffy want?"

"She says that she and Lauren--"

"Lorne" Fred corrected tiredly.

"Whatever. They need back up in Santa Monica."

Fred thought for a moment again before looking at one of the many Post-It notes on her desk. "All right, Xander's out in the field. Call this number…and tell him and his team to go to this address."

"Yes, ma'am." The young man disappeared before she could correct him.

Fred heaved another sigh and walked over to one of the people she did know. "Dawn, how's it going on the Respighi?"

Dawn was looking at another text that had to do with the apocalypse. The young woman looked up at Fred. "Not so good. My Latin was never that strong and this is mainly Florentine which doesn't help matters."

Fred sighed. "Well, work harder and faster"

Dawn fixed her with a stare. "You know, a little more practice and you could be as bossy as my sister."

Before Fred could respond, her phone rang. "Night lasts long enough I may get there," she said before answering it. "This is Fred."

"It's Andrew."

"Is something wrong with Faith?"

"No. Um, I'm not sure. Faith finally figured how to use the spelling on her cell phone, and uh-she sent me what I think is a license plate on the instant message. Can you check it?"

"Hang on." Fred punched in a couple of commands on her computer, bringing up the California License Bureau. "California plates?"

"I guess so. " He gave her the plate number..

She typed it in and hit search.

And was stunned by what she saw.

"Oh lord." she said quietly and without even thinking disconnected from Andrew. Then she speed dialed Wesley.

3:23:45 --- 3:23:46--- 3:23:47 ---- 3:23:48

The instructions given by the tablet on where to find the band had, as was usually the case with centuries-old texts, rather vague. The computer had spit out that there was an 80 chance of success but, even had he not trusted those infernal devices, Giles would have figured Hansen Dam Park was the best place to look for the Band of Tarquin. It was located "between two liberated paths" -- the Foothill and Golden State freeways. It was "between a peak and a valley" -- the Verdugo Mountains and Tujunga Canyon. It was "where the city becomes a jungle" -- Angeles National Forest was a few miles away. And it was "where water lays trapped" -- the Dam itself.

So Giles and Robin were in the right place…generally. The problem was whether or not the Band of Tarquin's location had been buried under five feet of cement. There were some stretches of untouched dirt but a lot of the area near the dam had been paved over to the point where it would probably take a jackhammer to go looking for it. Robin had had the good sense to grab a pair of ultra-sensitive metal detectors and some big shovels to help them look. However, as Giles was repeatedly finding out, they were working TOO well. It could find a penny or a stray paper clip fifteen feet down which was okay if you are on the beach, but not so great when you were trying to find a mystical artifact and you are on the clock.

They had been at it for nearly forty minutes and all that they had found were fifty-nine cents, a piece of metal shaft from the dam itself and a couple of buttons. Giles was beginning to wonder if they should leave the work to the two apprentice Watchers who had shown up twenty minutes ago, and go try help Buffy and the others. He hadn't heard back from any of his charges and, even though he wasn't high on their callback, he was starting to--

"Giles!" Robin had gone to the other side of the enclave hoping for better luck and it appeared he had found it. "I found a box!" Giles dropped his shovel and began running towards him thinking that they had caught a break at last.

As he reached the spot where Robin had been digging, however, he felt a strange feeling of dread overtaking him. There was no reason for it but Giles felt that something was wrong . The feeling intensified as he neared Robin.

"Looks like its been here a while," Robin said, handing it to Giles. It was a wooden box with carvings on it. It was old enough and looked like Hittite, but he still felt that something was rotten in Denmark.

"There don't seem to be any locks." Giles tried pulling but the top was stubborn.

"Here, let me," Robin said. He began pulling at the top.

Giles looked away for a moment.

And saw the ground flicker.

"What the hell--" It happened again. And suddenly Giles realized what had happened. The glamour had flashed. Someone had been using some kind of magic to cover it up. Which could mean--

"Robin! Don't!"

But it was too late. Even as he grabbed the box, it opened.

A loud bang filled the air.

3:30:47 --- 3:30:48 --- 3:30:49

Angel reached the car several seconds before Wesley made it back. "Find anything?"

The ex-Watcher shook his head. "Nothing. Whoever it was who killed that vampire didn't leave a trace."

"Damn it!" Angel pounded his hand on the car roof.

"Either they used magic to cover their tracks or whoever it was is a faster runner than either of us."

"Faster than a vampire. Great," Angel said as he put a hand to his temple. "This day keeps getting better and better."

At that moment Wesley's phone rang. He pulled it out quickly. "I'm here." Short pause. "I'm sorry, Fred. The reception here is crap. What do you want?" Pause. "And what did Faith find out?" Long pause. A dark look came into his eyes. "You're absolutely certain of this information." Another long pause.

Angel definitely didn't like the expressions that were appearing on Wesley's face.

"I realize that." Another pause. "There's no way to get a message to her?" Pause. "I don't, Fred, we'll figure it out." He hung up without saying goodbye.

"More bad news?" Angel asked.

"Sort of." Wesley took a deep breath. "Faith is sitting on the warehouse we sent her to."

"Is the stone there?" he asked.

"No but they've found out something that could be just as important. Someone at the warehouse has a car with California plates. Fred just ran the license number."

"And?"

Wesley exhaled. "The car belongs to Justine Cooper."

Now Angel understood. He felt a darkness of his own overtake him as he thought of the woman who had trapped him at the bottom of the ocean for three months. "What is she doing there?"

"Apparently she decided to become a prisoner again. Only this jailer's a hundred times worse than Holtz." There was an expression of regret on his face that Angel didn't understand.

"What do you want to do?" Angel asked.

Wesley considered it for a moment. "See what's at Griffith Park."

Angel was a little surprised. "You sure?"

Wesley gathered himself. "I'm pretty sure that Faith can handle her. We've got a lead to follow and the clocks ticking."

Angel was about to speak when Wesley said, "We have an apocalypse to prevent. We can't get bogged down in vengeance."

"All right." Angel saw he meant it. He opened the car door. "Next stop Griffith Park."

3:36:19 --- 3:36:20 --- 3:36:21 --- 3:36:22

At first Giles had thought that he and Robin had gotten extraordinarily lucky. Whoever had dug up the box, replaced the Band Of Tarquin with the device and used what magic was necessary to make it look like the ground had been untouched could have replaced it with something far more dangerous: a bomb, a snake, even one of those miniature magic spells that some sorcerers used -- certainly something that could have instantly killed them or at the very least blown off his hand. Instead all they had been sprayed with a white powdery substance. He had thought that maybe the man who got to the band was demonstrating a perverse sense of humor-- the equivalent of giving them a raspberry.

That feeling lasted only a few seconds. Then he realized that the powder itself might be dangerous. He'd only paid a vague attention to events in the world (when you're neck deep in the supernatural you don't much care who was president) but he knew that there were all kinds of poisons, magical or traditional, that were more than capable of killing you just as dead as anything that might have been put in the box.

Robin came to the realization about a second after Giles. "We need to decontaminate now." He began undressing quickly, trying to get rid of any trace of the substance that way. Giles thought for an instant-- he had gotten less of the powder on him-- then remembered how many poisons eat through the skin and began to disrobe as well.

As they undressed another car pulled up and a man and a woman got out and started running towards them. At first the prudish part of Giles' nature almost overcame him and he considered putting some clothes back on. Then he recognized the man as Robert Merridew, one of the few Watchers to survive the First's purge. The realization came as only a minor relief.

"Bit cold for this, isn't it Rupert?" Merridew said with a small smile.

"The Band has been taken. The box blew up," Giles responded in an irritated tone. "There was a white powdery substance in it. Do I have to draw you a bloody map?"

Merridew cut the smart-arse behavior and became the cool operator that he had become known for. "We have to figure out what they hit you with. There's a medical center a few miles from here; we'll get you clean and identify it there."

"Is it safe?" Giles asked as he and Robin started walking towards the other car.

Merridew nodded. "Wolfram & Hart office. Watcher-trained medics. Safe as houses."

Giles acquiesced and got in the car. Merridew turned to him. "They knew that you were coming. They got here first and left this as a warning."

"Gee, you Watcher types are quick on the trigger," Robin said.

Giles nudged him because he knew what Merridew was getting at. "Why didn't they just leave an empty hole for us?" he asked. "Or if you're going to leave a trap for someone, why not go the distance and make it instantly fatal?"

"Good question," said Robin. "Do you have an answer for it?

Giles thought about it as the car began to move. He had a nasty tickle at the back of his mind. "I couldn't say. But I think whoever's behind this whole mess doesn't just want to beat us." He looked ahead. "He's playing a game."

3:42:36 --- 3:3:42:37 --- 3:42:38

Faith was beginning to wonder whether this was a complete waste of time. She had been here for over an hour, waiting to see if she could locate that vital component to the thing that was important to the end of the world, and all she knew for sure was that neither of the two people-- Justine and Kevin, according to them-- had it. They had been waiting as long as she had (in the case of Kevin, probably a bit longer) but Faith didn't think that they had exchanged more than four lines between them. It was almost as if they knew that she was there and were determined to give nothing away.

But things were beginning to look up. There were no obvious signs but, judging by the way that she was pacing around, Justine's patience was beginning to fray. She turned to Kevin. "You know I should probably just go out hunting myself. I didn't agree to this to be jerked around."

"He said that he would be here between 1:30 and 4:30. As far was know, he's sticking to his schedule." The young man seemed calm but it was clear that he was pretty wound up himself.

"When I signed up for this, the selling point was that I would get another chance at Angelus." Justine's statement surprised Faith, she didn't think that there were more than a few people outside of Wolfram & Hart knew Angel's real identity. "I'm burning starlight that I could have spent tracking him down."

Now Faith was really in the dark. This woman knew Angelus and had the attitude and sound of Buffy. Which side of the fence was she on?

"Look I don't know what your problem with this vampire is, but this is more important than just revenge." Kevin kept trying to focus his gaze on the constantly moving Justine. "We are part of a great process. We will change the world."

Just then Faith heard a car. She ducked further into the shadows as a red SUV pulled up to the warehouse.

The driver got something from the seat next to him and walked out the door.

"Its about time." Justine said. The driver walked through the door-- and the light struck the object that he was carrying.

When Faith saw it, the reality of the danger they were all in finally struck home. There really was darkness coming.

There had been no illustrations of the Stone of Meligan but, nevertheless, Faith recognized it instantly . Not because of any great intuition or Slayer knowledge. The reason she recognized it was because she had seen it before.

It was the jewel Spike had been wearing when the last battle of the Hellmouth had been fought.

3:48:18 --- 3:48:19 ---3:48:20 ---3:48:21

Though Buffy realized that Santa Monica was a pretty long commute, she was still pissed that it took her back-up -- Patrice, Xander and a former Watcher named Donnelly -- nearly thirty minutes to arrive. The only reason that she wasn't more upset at the delay was because she was more worried about what was going on in the nest. Whatever was still there hadn't made any effort to leave. That meant one of two things: the monsters were smart and afraid of her, so they were lying in wait so that they had a better chance of killing her, or that there were a lot of them and they were waiting in a confined area so that they would have a better chance of killing her. Not a pleasant prospect either way, even if you are a Chosen One.

Which was why it came as something of a surprise when she kicked the back door in, entered the restaurant with three of the others to find-- nothing. No vampires, no demons, no telemarketers. The room appeared to be completely empty.

"Well," Lorne said as they walked into the office, "I'd say this was disappointing if I wasn't so glad we're not going to get slaughtered."

"Yeah I'm really glad that I hauled ass over here to attack dust bunnies," Patrice said, annoyed.

Buffy was a little nonplussed herself, but she still had an unsettled feeling in the pit of her stomach. Something was wrong.

"Do we have any idea what they were doing here or did they just come for the pie?" asked Xander.

It was a good question. Buffy looked around the place and still couldn't find any sign that there was anything more valuable than a box of Raisin Bran.

Then she looked over to the left side of the kitchen and saw the walk-in freezer. There was nothing distinguished about it; like everything else it looked like it was covered with a years worth of dust. But it was closed tightly. Why? There wasn't anything that was going to spoil. Unless…

Buffy walked towards it. She was almost at it when Patrice, who was closer, got there. Without speaking, she indicated that she would open it. Buffy got herself prepared. Patrice yanked the door open to reveal…

…an empty icebox. Patrice sighed. "This is a waste of time."

Which was when the vampires began falling from the ceiling.

3:53:51 --- 3:53:52 --- 3:53:53

In the hour and a half that she had been at the "party," Willow had reached three separate conclusions. One, these people had a very shaky grasp of what 'malefactum' meant. The general belief seemed to be that they were going to ascend to a higher plane which, even if it were accurate, was dangerous enough itself. Two, they considered the blood and markings, not sinister but "signs from a new era." Three, they made some of the most delicious appetizers she'd had in a while.

"Could you please try to munch quieter?" said Gunn's voice in her ear. A while ago, she had dialed Gunn's cell phone and left it on so that he could hear what was happening at the party. After all, it wasn't as if they were going to get a big bill this late at night. "Some of us haven't eaten in a while and you're making me hungry."

Willow didn't answer, but she stopped eating her chopped liver on Wheat Thins. She didn't worried about someone hearing him; the music was so loud that a small bomb could have exploded without anyone noticing. She turned towards the twelfth total stranger that she had talked to since she arriving and, for the tenth time, asked the same question: "Who's throwing this party?"

The young man she had been talking with shrugged.

She tried another angle. "Whose place is this?" She had asked this question six times and had only gotten shrugs. Apparently everyone here was so high on life, they didn't care whose home they were trashing.

This time, though, she got a response: "Tiffany." She was so stunned that she had gotten a response that he took her silence for not hearing him. "Tiffany Neubert," he repeated.

The name sounded familiar but Willow couldn't quite place it. "What's she do?"

The young man shrugged. "Way I hear it her parents own something like half of Van Nuys."

"Then what's she doing with a house here?"

Again all she got was another shrug. Then suddenly she heard someone shouting. "Quiet down, everybody? Could everybody please shh?"

Aside from the fact that it was a woman, Willow couldn't tell anything about the voice. But some people must have recognized it because in the space of a minute, people began to lower their voices until there was general quiet.

"Okay, Okay, I know that we're all excited about this great thing that's going to happen today but we do have to get ourselves together. After all," she paused, "some of us have to get ready for the big raising in two hours!" The crowd evidently knew something about this because there was general elation for thirty seconds. Again the woman-- twentyish, black hair, model figure-- signaled for quiet and got it. "So some of us have to get started to the Hollywood Bowl to help bring about this great change." Another thirty seconds of glee. "But before we do this I think we should all give a couple of seconds to the woman who's helping make this all possible."

"Thanks but-- "Again noise blocked out the rest of the sentence. Willow didn't notice it because she had just got a chill down her spine. She finally remembered who Tiffany Neubert was. Halfway through junior year at Sunnydale, Tiffany had transferred out of Sunnydale High which had deeply upset Cordelia. Tiffany had been one of the Cordettes, and one of them had been really upset that Tiffany left.

"So, lets all give it up for the queen of the Dark who made this all possible. My great friend, Harmony!"

3:59:57 --- 3:59:58 --- 3:59:59 --- 4:00:00