Buffy waited for nightfall to come before leaving her room to see what the others had come up with in terms of research. After the embarrassment of her fight with Angel and the harsh words he had spoken that had not only hurt, but rang so true, she wished to have as little contact with the other members of Angel Investigations as possible, especially Cordelia. God, she must think I'm pathetic, she thought bitterly.

Most of all, she didn't want to see Angel until she absolutely had to. Even though she was fairly certain he would remain asleep until they had to assemble downstairs, his room was right across from hers, and exiting it would risk seeing him, even if it were an accident. How can I work with him when I can barely face him?

Curiously, Dawn did not come back up to the room all day. Buffy wanted to go downstairs and make sure her sister wasn't getting into any trouble, or bothering the others, but the urge to remain by herself and with her thoughts was too strong. Eventually however, the sun set and much as she hated it, she had a job to do that required working with everyone in the hotel.

When she descended the stairs, she felt her heart stop almost entirely. Angel was already down there and at the sound of her footsteps, his eyes met hers calmly and levelly. Even though Cordelia, Fred, Gunn and Lorne also stood near him, for one agonizingly long second all she could see was him and the message within his eyes that begged to know if she was all right. Smiling more brightly than she intended, she addressed everyone and then noticed two members of the team missing. Her smile unconsciously turned to a frown as she thought of the two of them together.

"Where are Dawn and Connor?"
"They should be back soon." Fred assured her, not wanting a repeat of the fight Buffy had had with Angel the night before over Dawn spending time with his wayward son. "She just called on her cell phone. She and Connor went out for some fun today. We told them it was OK, since all we were doing was researching."

"They should have come back before sunset." Her tone was angrier than she intended it to be. "Dawn knows how dangerous it is to..."

"I'm here." She said brightly as she and Connor entered. "Don't worry Buffy I'm here." Both Dawn and Connor were out of breath, as if they had run the entire way as well as holding ice cream cones. Buffy only felt her anger grow as she watched Connor take Dawn's hand possessively and then stare at her as if to challenge her right to tell Dawn she had been reckless. Buffy decided to hold back with the lecture for now, as she didn't care to argue with Angel's son as well. Besides, there were more important things to do right now.

"We'll talk later." She told Dawn, packing her tone with as much innuendo as possible to let Dawn know the matter would not be forgotten. Dawn nodded, accepting her words and looked towards Fred and Cordelia.

"What did you guys figure out about James Adamson's plan?"

Cordelia sighed heavily and looked at the file with such fear and trepidation as if it would bite or attack at any second.

"It's not a plan for a better future I can tell you that much." She admitted. "Basically he wants to do what the mayor did, only this guy plans on taking it a bit further."

"He wants to turn into a demon?" Buffy asked, thinking to herself that transferring himself into a demon didn't sound too terrible. Even the mayor had been defeated albeit with much destruction and the school being blown up.

"Not exactly," Fred continued. "Adamson has major political ambitions. So much so, that he's willing to dedicate his life and his soul to a certain demon God named Galendil. He's not a very well known demon God, but he does possess infinite power. Unfortunately, he is unable to take any kind of shape in the human world other than spiritual. He bestows his strength and power only on those he believes are 'true' followers, and they in turn receive unimaginable power and influence."

"How does he know who is a true follower or not?" Gunn wondered, looking slightly worried. "I mean, the people must have to do something to prove they're worthy right?"

"That's where the sacrifices come in." Fred confirmed.

"Sacrifices?" Buffy echoed, all of a sudden consumed with violent anger. "That's what those children were wasn't it? Sacrifices to Galendil for Adamson to prove his 'worth'!"

"I'm afraid so." Cordelia said with a nod. "Those who follow him must kill a certain number and a certain type of people to prove their worthiness and they only have one opportunity to do it."

"What do you mean?" Angel wondered.

"Well the reason why Galendil isn't the most popular of the worshipped demon Gods, despite his power, is because he only has enough strength to access that power and bestow it upon a mortal man every five hundred years or so." Fred smiled nervously. "For the rest of the time, he remains dormant."

"And now's the time for sleepy head to wake up I'm guessing?" Lorne spoke up. Buffy thought he looked even more green than usual.

"Yea, lucky us." Cordelia said sarcastically.

"You said a certain number and type of people have to be killed." Buffy said, her mind flying back to that previous point. "Why? And what 'type' of people?"

"Well," Fred said, putting on her glasses and staring at the research she and Cordelia had compiled, "the reasons for the volume are simple. More people means more strength. As for why certain types, well, Galendil's power needs to achieve a certain balance before he can bestow it on to a mortal man. The type of people he kills must be balanced. I don't really know what that means specifically, but it's a start. However, like we said, Adamson is on a time frame here. He has to finish his sacrifices soon or Galendil's power will disappear for five hundred more years."

"Pity," Lorne muttered.

"He hasn't been killing anyone though." Dawn said, slightly confused. "He hired a Brillcrall demon to kill those children. Wouldn't that ruin his chances of Galendil thinking he is a true follower?"

"Not if he burned Galendil's mark into the demons, as well as himself and then killed the demons before Galendil could manifest a spiritual form to bestow his power." Cordelia replied. "That way he would assume the person with the mark did the sacrificing and with only Adamson bearing it, he would naturally assume it was him."

"And the candidate for Governor wouldn't get his hands dirty in the process." Connor spat bitterly.

"But why run for Governor?" Buffy wondered. "I mean, why do all of this to achieve unimaginable power and then put yourself in a legitimate political race? I mean, if this demon God has all this power, couldn't he just take what he wants without the formality of a formal election?"

"I think he just likes the respectability." Gunn said, his mouth twisting into a wry smile. "Sick bastard probably finds it funny to play by our rules publicly, and by his own privately."

"That fits with the personal profile we have on him." Fred confirmed.

"OK, but what kind of power does he get when all this is said and done? So far all you've given us are vague descriptions and colourful metaphors." Angel wasn't liking the sound of any of this at all.

"As far as we know he will have the ability to control the minds of the populace." Cordelia said worriedly. "He will also have almost Herculean strength, the ability to create fire at will and the ability to teleport. Not only that, but he will have the ability to also control the minds of demons, allowing him to amass mighty armies of humans and demons alike. There are some other vague hints at one or two other abilities, but nothing concrete. We will basically all be under his control if he is allowed to finish his rituals."

"Then we won't allow him to." Buffy said firmly. "We've got to find out who his next target is and keep it from being just that. Cordy, Fred, how much longer does he have before his window of opportunity closes?"

"Not long." Fred replied uncertainly, "but I would still have to do some math in order to get an exact date."

"Do it." Buffy said shortly. "In the meantime, you said his sacrifices must achieve a type balance as well as a numbered one. I guess that means he will kill the same number of people opposite somehow to the ones killed before. What does that mean?"

"Well he killed children before," Dawn reminded her. "Does that mean that this time he will target the elderly?"
"It sounds reasonable." Angel agreed. "But he won't do it himself. And after we disposed of his Brillcrall..."

"He will have hired another demon to take care of the job," Buffy finished grimly. "And my guess is that this next one won't be as easy to kill."

"So now what?" Gunn wondered.

"Now we get out there and attempt to find this thing before it kills any more people." Buffy stated, using her best resolved and confident battle tone. "Rest homes are our best bet. We should patrol in shifts, half of us actively trying to find this new demon and the other half doing serious research to find out its weaknesses or identity."

"I'll take the first patrol," Angel offered. Gunn nodded and offered his help as well.

"You two split up patrolling the city." Buffy agreed, secretly grateful that this plan would rid her of Angel's emotionally confusing and painful presence and allow her to concentrate on the job. "You guys will be the first shift and Connor and I will be the second. I'm going to give Willow a call and see if she can hack into some government files, maybe find out more on Adamson or even the extent of Wolfram and Hart's development."

"Cordelia and I can help her on the phone with that." Fred stated. Cordelia nodded.

"I'll just skedaddle out of here and see what I can dig up on the streets. You would be surprised what karaoke places can tell you." Lorne said with a wink.

"What about me?" Dawn wondered.

"You can help Cordelia and Fred with the research." Buffy suggested, looking towards Connor and not liking the fact that he was only taking the second patrol.

"It might be best Connor if you and I get a little sleep before Angel and Gunn return. We'll be taking the second patrol shift."

"That's a pretty good idea." Connor admitted. He pulled Dawn aside, whispered something to her and then headed towards the room he had been staying in. Before he was completely out of sight however, he turned to Angel and Gunn and gave them a half smile.

"Good luck."

"Now that that's settled, I should get some sleep." Buffy said, turning away from everyone and heading up to her room.

Angel watched, his brow furrowed with concern, but ignored his personal thoughts for the time being. Turning to Gunn he motioned that he would be patrolling the west side of town, and Gunn nodded. The two of them left, weapons in hand.

Dawn watched as everyone else assumed their positions. Cordelia was soon looking at her curiously.

"Are you going to help with the research Dawn?"

"Maybe in a bit." Dawn replied, staring up in the direction of her room. "First I want to talk to Buffy about something."

"You sure?" Fred said worriedly, "you're not going to jump out any windows and take off?"

"No," Dawn said with a laugh. "I'm really sorry about that. I swear I am going to go talk to my sister OK?"

"Yea, maybe you should." Cordelia said, with a frown. "Maybe she could use a friend right now."