Chapter 20

The following takes place between 7 PM and 8 PM on the day of the autumnal equinox

It was pretty clear that Cordelia (Spike couldn't quite think of her as Jasmine) was reeling, not just from the grab and slam but from being face to face with him. With or without a soul Spike had always thrived on keeping his enemies off balance and he had every intention of keeping it up now.

"Nice try, moron!" The voice sounded enough like Cordelia to make him unsure for a fraction of a second. "You call yourself a good guy and you sucker punch your friends? That soul really helped you."

Fine, Spike thought, she wants to play this way, I'll humor her. "Well I'm sorry but with all the shit flying around I wasn't sure which side you were on." He lowered a hand. "Had I known it was you I'd have done this!"

He saw Cordelia start to stand but before she could regain her balance, he kicked her legs out from under her and socked her in the jaw. "Nice try, bitch! Angel pulled the same shit on me first time I came to Sunnydale. I didn't fall for it then and I'm sure as hell not falling for it now."

"Can't blame a girl for trying." Cordelia/Jasmine clearly was dazed from the series of blows but he wasn't naïve enough to think that she was anywhere near defeated.

Spike assumed a fighting posture again. "If you know what's good for you, stay down."

Cordelia/Jasmine gave a small laugh. "Look who's all grown up. You know, "she said ironically, "back when you first came to town, who could have figured which side of the fence each of us would have ended up on."

Spike saw an opening. "Well, they might have been even up as to where I'd finally come down, but you…" He gave a harsh laugh of his own. "Everybody knew where you were going to end up. Once a vicious bitch, always a vicious bitch."

He knew the second he'd said it that he had struck gold. All good humor completely disappeared from Cordelia/Jasmine's face. "I hope you enjoyed your twelve hours of sunshine, because I'm going to make sure it's all you get."

With almost no warning she sprang to her feet and swung at him. But Spike's reflexes were at top condition and he easily dodged her blow.

"Guess that's what being in a coma does to your synapses," he said moving in. For the next thirty seconds they didn't speak-- only exchanged blows and kicks. Spike wasn't sure but he thought he was getting the better of her.

"You really got the nerve to take me out of the game?" Cordelia/Jasmine spoke with a calmness that Spike doubted was genuine.

"Way I see it I'm doing Angel a favor," he said as they circled each other. "I do this, he doesn't have to kill someone he cared about." He moved in.

"And you're just so compassionate," she said throwing another punch.

"It comes with a soul," Spike responded. "Something you'd never understand." Again he knew he had just gone for the verbal jugular.

She got rid of the reaction quickly but it was there. "Yeah, well," she moved back in and swung. "there's something that you've forgotten about being one of the bad guys."

"Which is?" Suddenly he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He threw himself to the left a split second before the shots were fired but even moving at top speed one of them him in the shoulder, another in the chest. He fell to the ground, reeling from the impact

"We cheat!" Cordelia/Jasmine said triumphantly, kicking him twice in the chest.

"How long were you going to just fucking stand there?" she shouted at someone right behind her.

"I thought you evil types liked the handle your own messes." The voice was female but Spike didn't recognize it.

Cordelia/Jasmine took a deep breath, as if she was trying to control herself. "Handle the vampire. You two come with me. We're going to get what we came for."

Spike wasn't sure which of the two men he was guarding she was talking about, but he started scrambling for the walkie-talkie in his jacket. After struggling, he managed to pull it out-- and found that one of the bullets had struck it. "Oh, that's just dandy." he muttered. He then struggled to get to his feet.

"If you know what's good for you, stay down." The woman who had spoken with Cordelia/Jasmine was now coming from directly above him.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked unenthusiastically.

"My name is Lockley."

Spike managed to get a look at her. Lockley was a woman in her late twenties, with dirty blond hair cut short and an atmosphere of authority about her. She also had a shotgun trained on Spike. The barrel looked the size of a cannon from his vantage point. "You do know that by killing me and helping her you're only going to make things bad for everyone," he said matter-of-factly.

"There is that possibility." Lockley spoke coolly and collectedly. Must be some kind of cop, Spike thought to himself.

"Which is why I'm going to keep you alive."

"But you're not going to let me get up."

"Not yet." Lockley said. "But rest assured, your moment will come."

"Helps on the way?" asked Spike. And suddenly he sensed that someone else was there.

"It's just shown up," said the voice of the cavalry.

7:09:38/7:09:39/7:09:40

Cordelia/Jasmine and the others quickly reached the door that they had been looking for. It was pretty obvious because it was guarded by a woman whose whole bearing said "Slayer."

She saw the three of them coming and got ready to fight. Cordelia/Jasmine knew what was coming and leapt into a flying kick the second that she saw her. The Slayer's reactions were fast but not fast enough. Cordelia/Jasmine hit her a couple of times for good measure and before she could stand one of the men behind her tasered the Slayer. She was out of the picture.

"Tie her up but leave her alive." Cordelia/Jasmine wasn't sure if this was the person they had on the inside but she decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. In the meantime she'd get ready to do her bit of business. "You," she said to the man not tying up the Slayer, "get over her and get ready to shoot."

He acknowledged her and walked over to her. After mentally counting to three, Cordelia/Jasmine kicked the door open.

At the last second she sensed something and hit the ground just in time see a ball of light go whizzing over her head. Her helper wasn't so lucky as she could tell from the shout of pain. Slowly she got to her feet.

"I don't remember calling for room service," Lindsey said, prepared to fight.

7:12:18/7:12:19/7:12:20/7:12:21

The situation in the lobby of the building was starting to get out of hand. It wasn't nearly as bad as, say, the chaos at Wolfram & Hart earlier, but Gunn knew it wasn't the kind of thing you could grade on a curve. Only the facts of the here and now were important:

Fact 1: The Hyperion was a smoky haze. Before things had gotten too bad someone (he hadn't been able to see who) had managed to extinguish the fire on the banister and prevent it from causing the upstairs from going up in flames. Unfortunately, they hadn't been able to put out the burning barrel-- Gunn was pretty sure that the fire itself had some magical origins that might make it impossible to put out in traditional ways. They did have someone in the building who conceivably could put out the fire but that was becoming difficult because of:

Fact 2: The shooters in the lobby. It had become very clear less than a minute after their arrival that these people (whoever they were) were heavily armed and loaded for bear. Which they had demonstrated by opening fire almost immediately. Hanlon had taken a bullet in the shoulder and one had missed Gunn's head by a matter of inches. It was only luck that both of them had managed to find cover behind the front desk. Gunn was beginning to wish he hadn't been so fast to take the Angel-Slayer party line not to use firearms since most of their enemies could shrug off a bullet in the brain. Unfortunately, their villains had no moral conflicts about them. In fact, two or three of them had formed a line of fire between the entrance and the stairs, effectively cornering Gunn's forces. The line had also been more than efficient in keeping help from arriving. Coming from upstairs Nunez had taken one in the chest and Beryl had been hit in the leg.

Which left Hanlon and himself essentially pinned and ripe for the picking unless they could pull a rabbit out of their hats fast.

"How many shots do you have left?"

Hanlon had defied orders and brought a Ruger with him. "Five in the clip." he muttered. Spotting one of the vamps making a move he fired a warning shot. "Make that four."

"That's better than me." Gunn had a crossbow and only two arrows left. "Same number out there?"

"Still two vamps and three shooters." Hanlon looked back behind him. "Explain to me why they haven't just charged the desk."

Gunn sighed. "Because they're smarter than the average henchmen. They know that this way that have our forces divided."

"They're villains. Their whole MO is kill them all and let whatever god they worship sort it out."

"They're men…demons…whatever on a mission." Gunn said. "And right now that mission is to keep us down while their compadres snap up our friend upstairs."

"And what guarantee do we have that, when these turds have what they came for, they'll walk out and let us live?"

"Not very good," admitted Gunn.

"Great. What are our options?"

Gunn had been considering the problem too and could only see one solution. "The way I see it, we've got one alternative." He swallowed. "And that's make a charge."

Hanlon considered this. "Of the Light Brigade variety?"

It took a moment for Gunn to place the reference. "It's not the metaphor I'd use but you're probably right." Gunn didn't realize until he had said that he was admitting they were dead.

"Give me a few seconds." Hanlon took several, no doubt thinking of things Gunn didn't want to consider. Finally, he swallowed, looked at Gunn and said: "Count of three."

Well, Gunn thought. It's been a good run for me. He swallowed. "One," he said quietly.

"Two," said Hanlon. They got ready to move.

"Three!"

Gunn and Hanlon looked at each other. Neither of them had said that word. Suddenly, though, the air was full of noise.

Gunn got to his feet to see pandemonium. Both the shooters and the vampires were whirling around in confusion trying to hit what appeared to be a couple of blurs. Gunn wasn't entirely sure what was happening but he did what he could to help his side. He waited for the blur to pass away from the nearest figure before firing one of his crossbow bolts at him. That figure fell to the ground, though who had hit him was anybody's guess.

In the space of a minute, it was over. The vampires had been dusted, all three humans were disarmed or unconscious.

"What the hell--" said Hanlon. "Did God just save us?"

"You know I've probably saved a thousand lives over the past seven years but no one's ever deified me before."

Gunn recognized the voice and turned to the stairs. "Buffy, where…when…how did you do this?"

"Angel, Wesley and I showed up twenty minutes ago. We were planning a strategic attack and it looked like you could use some help."

"You did this yourself?" Even though Hanlon knew who his bosses were, he was still struggling with what had happened.

"Actually, I can't take all the credit. " She pointed to the other side of the hall. There stood a tired, messy, but alive Connor.

7:20:27/7:20:28/7:20:29

"I've got to admit," said Lindsey as he ran out the hallway, "that considering everything that was done to bring you back I'm a little disappointed."

He was surprised. He hadn't had any trouble disposing of the man and the demon that Cordelia/Jasmine had brought with her. She was a bit problematic, but mainly because she was doing a good job defensively and not in attacking him. At first Lindsey had thought that Cordelia/Jasmine was sticking to the Hollywood formula that the bad guy attacks the hero only after all of his flunkies are dead. However, it had been three minutes since he had disposed of them and she still hadn't done anything.

"I mean I'm not saying that I'm unhappy about the way its going," Lindsey said as he gathered himself to throw another bolt of energy. "But if this is what the old team is doing to continue mutually assured destruction, they sure seem to have backed the wrong horse."

That got a reaction. Cordelia/Jasmine turned around and made her first direct attack-- though not one that he had expected. She pulled out a gun and fired three shots. Which might have been a problem if Lindsey hadn't thrown his ball of fire and turned them to ash.

It headed right towards Corselia/Jasmine, who did not seem alarmed. "Lacnera sumtrato," she said calmly. Which stopped the flames inches away from her head.

Oh shit, thought Lindsey.

"I was so hoping that you would do that," said Cordelia/ Jasmine. "I have a little magic in me. Not as much as Ethan or Willow but a goodly amount." She made a come hither gesture and the ball of fire glided into her hands. "However I needed a little pick-me-up to get the juices flowing, so to speak."

The ball glowed in her hands. There was a crackle of energy and then it and the ball were gone. "So thank you, Mr. McDonald for helping me get through part one of my plan. Not perfect but sometimes you have to sacrifice a pawn or two."

Lindsey figured that she was serious and got ready to throw another fireball. "I ain't scared of you, bitch." he said in his best "Ready for trial" voice.

"Brave words from the attorney. Obvious he doesn't know what's coming next." Suddenly she moved over to one side as an arrow just missed her face. She didn't seem disturbed, in fact she smiled upon seeing the shooter.

"Neither do you." said Angel.

7:25:34/7:25:35/7:25:36/7:25:37

"That was a pretty bad shot for you." said Cordelia/Jasmine calmly. "Itchy trigger-finger or are you really ready for this?"

It was a good question. For the past seven hours Angel had been trying to mentally prepare himself for just this situation, convincing himself that the woman he would be fighting was not the woman he had once loved. Now that the situation was here, he was feeling the slightest hesitation.

Which Cordelia/ Jasmine noticed. "At a loss for words?' she said smiling. "Well, let me see if I can help." She took a pose of horror and changed her voice to mock hysteria. " 'There must be some part of you deep inside that still remembers who you are.' That what you were thinking of?" She gave a harsh laugh. "I don't know how Buffy could've said that with a straight face."

That broke his paralysis. "She could because she loved me," he said calmly. "Just like I loved Cordelia."

"And I'm not her." Cordelia/Jasmine began walking towards him. "How sure are you of that, Angel? How do you know that somewhere in this body the real Cordelia Chase isn't still around, trying to break free?"

Angel, who had been considering just this scenario for a while, gave the only answer that he could. "It wouldn't matter if she was," he said as calmly as his voice would let him. "In order to keep the world safe, you have to die. I took too long doing it once and it nearly destroyed the world. It can not happen again. Co-- Cordelia would understand that." He raised the crossbow. "Now stand still."

"Such a noble sentiment from the champion." Cordelia/Jasmine adopted a mocking air that really did sound like the old Cordelia. "So you really think you can stop me. Two problems with that." She kept moving towards Angel. "One, I don't think you can. Two, I'm not going to let you."

Cordelia/Jasmine raised her hand gathering her magical energy. Angel swallowed but before he could fire, another bolt of light struck her in the small of her back.

"He may not be able to, but I have no problem with it."

Angel had been so focused on Cordelia/Jasmine that he had almost forgotten Lindsey was around.

"I never had problems with moral dilemmas." the ex-lawyer said. "Or fighting fair, for that matter."

Cordelia/Jasmine turned around. "You're going to wish you hadn't done that." She hadn't moved one step before a gunshot blast came from her right side. "Oh, not you too!" she said petulantly.

"Afraid so." Wesley had emerged from behind Angel, shotgun primed. "Give it up, Jasmine. You're outnumbered and outgunned."

"And I wouldn't count on getting any help for your loyal followers," Angel said. "We've managed to take care of whatever back-up you have."

For the first time the look of confidence on Cordelia/Jasmine's face began to fade. "Where the hell is Lockley?"

"Detective Lockley is otherwise occupied with the vampire you left her with." Wesley lied barefacedly. "If she makes it out, she might be able to help you."

"Although I really doubt that," said Angel. "Spike has a way with the ladies. Never much on subtlety, though."

In point of fact Kate was now halfway back to her car by now, setting the second part of Angel's plan into motion. Angel hoped for both their sakes that no one made any attempt to try and rescue her.

Cordelia/Jasmine considered. She looked to her left and to her right and saw no refuge. "Well I will admit that you and your gang of white hats do seem to have me in a bit of a corner." Then suddenly she smiled--and began to walk to the railing of the staircase. "But as anyone will tell you, even in a corner there are always two ways to get out."

Lindsey and Wesley fired at the same time but Cordelia/Jasmine moved fast-- leaping over the railing and falling to the stairs. It wasn't much of a drop--less then ten feet-- but she didn't even fall that far. Uttering a magic word, she stopped falling a foot away from hitting the stairway before leaping the rest of the distance

She began to run down the staircase but it soon became very clear that this too was a lost cause. For on the bottom of the stairway were Buffy, Gunn and Hanlon and they looked as pissed as the people on the stairway above.

"Well, this certainly sucks." Cordelia/Jasmine said and began running back up the stairs. Five stairs up, she stopped running and jumped. It took a few seconds for Angel to realize she wasn't there anymore. Unfortunately he ran into Gunn, Hanlon and Buffy during two of them.

The four of them fell back. It took them a few seconds to regroup.

"Yoo-hoo!" They all looked up to see Cordelia eight feet above them.

Standing on air.

"I told you that there were two ways to get out." she said cheerfully and began floating higher.

The second that she was in his sight Wesley fired his shotgun. He fired three shells-- all of which stopped inches away from her raised hand before dropping to the ground.

"You call that a gun?" she said cheerfully. She pulled out her own revolver. "This--" she fired twice at Wesley. "--is a gun."
Wesley was certain that he was dead, which is why it shocked him when he didn't feel the bullets enter either his chest or his head, but in the leg and the shoulder.

He had no time to remark on this because Cordelia/Jasmine had now reached what she had come to this hotel to get-- Lindsey McDonald.

Lindsey was ready for her and began to prepare a ball of fire. However, she chanted very quickly in a foreign tongue. Before he could fire, the ex-attorney realized that he could not move his arms or his legs. She had paralyzed him.

"You see," she said as she began floating towards him. "once I get my pump primed I can easily regained what I might have lost." Her grin was predatory. "And you, Mr. McDonald, are about to see how easy it is to lose what took years to gain."

"I'll show you what's easy, you bitch." Lindsey scowled.

"You say that like it's a bad thing. " She grabbed Lindsey's arm. "Well we have places to go and things to do. And I hate the service at this hotel, so we'll be going. Ta-ta for now, motherfuckers."

And with that she and Lindsey flew right the window-- which was still shut-- releasing a ball of energy that knocked everyone down.

7:37:14/7:37:15/7:37:16/7:37:17

Faith had no idea what was going on at the Hyperion and even if she had known, she probably wouldn't have changed her strategy. She had enough on her plate as it was.

Immediately after learning that someone in Angel-Slayer was working with Wolfram & Hart she had realized all of the potential repercussions. She had called Fred, who was already doing her best to see if she could figure out who this traitor was.

Fred called her back half an hour later to say that she had talked with Willow, Andrew and Dawn, and that they could only narrow the field to twenty possibles-- six Slayers and fourteen Watchers that had no experience with the old Watcher's Council. Of the twenty, three of the Slayers and nine of the Watchers were at the Angel-Slayer building right now, and Fred had said that she and the others would do their best to keep them as out of the loop as they could. Faith thought about mentioning something about barn doors and escaping horses but decided that yelling would do no good.

She amused herself by listening to her prisoner, Hendricks, tell almost everything he knew. Unfortunately most of it was stuff that they had already learned. Faith had considered threatening him some more but she figured -- correctly, as it would turn out-- that Hendricks was just another low level flunky and had no idea of the greater features of what was happening today.

Finally, after realizing that she done all she could, she decided to try and see what was happening at the location the mortally wounded Ethan Rayne had given her: Venice Beach. She knew that the others probably wouldn't be wild about her going alone, but she also knew there wasn't anyone else they could send to help her. Their resources were spread too thin or too far away.

But when she had gotten there and did a reconnaissance sweep, she had run into a problem she hadn't expected. She had just completed her third run around the beach-- and nobody seemed to be here. Not just villains, but no one at all. Granted it had been dark for almost an hour but it was a warm night and this was LA. She had expected to see somebody there.

This seemed familiar and then she remembered the raising that had taken place nearly eight hours ago and how the bad guys had managed to elude the rest of the world from noticing that something big was going down.

She picked up an empty soda can and threw it at the horizon. She had a good arm and the can flew nearly fifty feet. It would have gone further except that as soon as it hit what appeared to be an empty space, there was a flash of light. After Faith blinked, she saw that the can had been burned black.

"That's all I need," Faith said to herself as she pulled out her cell phone. It was then that the third possibly dangerous thing happened. The phone on the other end rang five times before it was picked up. "Christ, you think I was trying to sell Amway," she said half in jest.

"I'm sorry Faith," said Andrew on the other end, "but a lot is going on and all at once." He gathered himself. "Are you at Venice Beach?"

"Yes. And I know you've gotta be getting tired of hearing this, but we have another problem."

"Now what?" Andrew sighed.

"Remember the magic barrier they had when they raised Cordelia?"

"No. I wasn't there." Andrew sounded a little more impatient than usual.

"Well, there was one there and there's one here. And I'm pretty sure if I step through it I get hickory smoked."

Andrew sighed. "How did you get through the last one?"

"Giles worked some magic." Suddenly Faith grew sober remembering where Giles was right now. "Which I guess is out."

Andrew grew somber as well. "Yeah. Well I guess--"

Suddenly there was noise on the other end. "Hang on a second." Andrew left the line for a good twenty seconds. When he came back, he sounded even more dire. "Faith, listen carefully. Find a place to hide right now."

"Wait--what about getting in?"

"Faith, the way things are going, you may be able to get inside that hideout very soon." Andrew said swiftly. "Someone is going to be coming through the front door any minute. And if she does, you may be able to foil their plans altogether. Get it?"

Faith didn't, but she got the tone. "Got it."

"Good." Andrew hung up and Faith started looking for cover.

7:44:31/7:44:32/7:44:33

The second Andrew hung up he walked over to the main room where Willow, Fred and Dawn had gathered. He hadn't been kidding when he said that a lot was happening, and most of it had to do with the Hyperion.

Due to the complications of what first Kate and then Cordelia/Jasmine had told them about having inside people, they had severely reduced the already limited number of people working at Angel-Slayer Inc. They had been arguing over who should be monitoring the situation at the hotel. As a result Leonard, who had been working doing other things, did not look at the videotape projection until five minutes after the attack had started.

When he did, they had tried to get some of the people they had working around the perimeter of the hotel to assist the others, only to find that two of them were dead and the others couldn't get in because they were pinned down by snipers. It took nearly half an hour to get fresh men in, and by the time they got there it was all but over. The new troops had arrived just in time to see Cordelia/Jasmine and Lindsey fly off a la Mary Poppins into the night.

They sent someone to track them but this concerned them less than other issues. As Fred put it, "Even the dumbest people are going to notice people flying through the air with the greatest of ease." Finding them would not be a problem. There were other issues.

"What's the officer's name?" Fred asked as calmly as she could manage. "What precinct does he work for?" There was a pause as Fred punched the name into Wolfram & Hart's LAPD data bank and checked the screen. "All right. I'll make some phone calls. Keep them busy." She hung up as Andrew walked over. "I guess this is one of those times having deputy police commissioners on our payroll works in our favor."

"How the hell can anyone in authority smooth this over?" said Andrew. "We've got people dead over there."

Fred looked as if she was going to bite his head off-- everybody's fuse was getting shorter-- then she reconsidered. "Right now, it's only one beat cop. With Kate giving us a hand we should be able to delay dealing with this."

Andrew shook his head. "We're gonna have a shitload of stuff to get through when this day is over."

"I know, but right now all I care about is getting through this…mess." Fred said, rubbing her eyes.

Dawn walked up. "In the general feeling of spirit-killing, I bring even more bad news."

"What now?" said Fred tiredly.

"I think I know who one of the inside people is. I went through the list of people who we suspected and only one of those people was at the Hyperion when the sky fell." She shook her head.

Andrew didn't want to but he asked anyway. "Who is it?"

Dawn sighed. "Patrice."

7:50:44/7:50:45/7:50:46/7:50:47

If the chaos and the confusion in the Hyperion had dissipated since Cordelia/Jasmine and Lindsey had made their dramatic exit, it wasn't by much. About the only positive thing that had happened over the past fifteen minutes was that they had finally managed to put out the fire at the base of the stairs. Otherwise it was pretty clear that the forces of good had been hit, and hit hard.

Buffy was only beginning to get a clear assessment of the damage. Two members of the security force had died: Nunez had succumbed from a bullet to the chest and Hanlon, who had been killed when a piece of glass from the skylight had pierced his neck. Three others were pretty badly wounded: Patrice had been hit with a stun gun, Beryl had been shot in the thigh and Wesley had been shot in both the shoulder and the leg. All of them needed medical attention and Gunn had already called for their medical team which would observe the debris and carnage without asking any questions. There were also a lot of injured members of, what Buffy guessed could be called, the assault team, many of whom she herself had injured. But she and Connor had done their best to make sure that none of them had died.

A potentially far more dangerous problem had risen when it became clear that Angel-Slayer had finally done something they had managed to avoid over the day: the police were on the scene. Admittedly it was only one cop and Gunn (whose job it was to deal with these things) had gone out front to 'handle' this particular problem-- if you could convince a cop to ignore a smashed in front door, smoke coming out of the lobby, bullet holes in the staircase and desk, a shattered window on the top floor, and a rather sizable number of injured people. It was one of the things that Wolfram & Hart was supposed to help them with and Buffy hoped that it would help them now.

But all the deaths and injuries, combined with the now greatly increased possibility of the world ending, didn't bother Buffy as much as something that Cordelia/Jasmine had done before her departure. She was now talking with the man it had happened to and who understood the ramifications as well as she did.

"So she levitates back up to the floor." Buffy said to Wesley. "You fire. She takes out her gun. And…" She looked at him. "Did she hurry at all?"

Despite the fact that he had to be in pain (the kits they had in the hotel contained Percodan but she had no idea if the dosage was high enough) Wesley shook his head. "She had… plenty of time. Had me… dead in her sights. No reason that she couldn't have killed me."

Buffy rubbed her forehead. "There's something we're not seeing."

"Buffy, I realize this but we do have to consider--" He tried to raise his head but stopped after only an inch. "--how important this is."

"Important?" Buffy forgot Wesley's condition and leaned over. "This involves who's driving in her head: Jasmine or Cordelia. You don't think it's important."

"In one sense it matters a great deal. But in a cold-blooded sense, it doesn't." He managed to raise his head. "We have to stop this apocalypse. Regardless if Cordelia has some control or not, Jasmine is going to use her power to bring it forth. She has to be stopped."

Buffy considered. "I know Wesley. But--" She shook her head as if to clear the cobwebs. "I can't go on killing my friends. I just don't have it in me any more. There has to be a point where you just say…enough."

Wesley seemed puzzled by this statement but before he could say anything further, two things happened. The first thing was that one of the paramedics came over to both of them. "Mr. Wyndham-Price, I understand the severity of the situation you are involved in but you really need to get to the hospital now."

Wesley didn't put up any argument. He looked at Buffy. "Whatever you think may or may not be happening with Jasmine, its probably better that you don't tell Angel. He's got more than enough on his plate with Connor and Spike; he doesn't need this too." Then the paramedics carried him off.

Buffy might have protested as well but then Angel walked up to her. "We've got a problem," he said without preamble.

"When don't we have one?" she said wryly. "What is it now?"

"Kate was supposed to call us when she was at the rendezvous point with Spike."

Part of the thought behind Angel's plan involved Kate showing up there with the vampire-- who, according to her, had an important role in what was about to follow. Buffy had been uncomfortable about this part and this was one of the reasons. "You know its possible with all the bullets and arrows flying around her cell phone got damaged." she said as calmly as she could manage.

"Given our luck tonight I suppose that might have happened," said Angel. "But I don't know how else we're going to--"

Gunn appeared. "Have either of you seen the ambulance that took Patrice?" he said without any introduction.

Buffy and Angel looked at each other. "No. Why?"

"I just got off the phone with Willow. She says there is an excellent chance that Patrice was Wolfram & Hart's insider."

At that exact second they heard sirens start up.

"Oh shit." Buffy and Angel said at the same time.

The three of them started running. Buffy and Angel were fast but not that fast. By the time they reached the street corner, the ambulance was nearly half a block away.

"Call Willow. Tell her to do whatever it takes to track that ambulance down." Buffy whirled around to Angel. "Talk to everyone here. Find out where the hell Kate is going now." She then started running for the car, hoping she had the keys, praying that they hadn't yet squandered all her luck.

At first Faith barely noticed the tingle. Then the electricity in the air grew greater until she thought she see the glass on the beach glowing. Hoping that the car she was in provided enough cover, she gently peeked out from over the windshield.

And saw something that almost made her jaw drop. Nearly a hundred yards away, two figures, one female and one male were descending from the sky. There was a look on the woman's face-- which she barely recognized as that of Cordelia's -- of pure hatred mixed with triumph that oozed evil.

And the worst part was it looked natural on the face of a woman they had once considered a champion.

7:59:57/7:59:58/7:59:59/8:00:00